Water is one of the important ingredient of sake.

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The type of water used in brewing sake can change its final flavour. 

There are about 1,600 breweries in Japan.  About 80% of sake is water, so most of the breweries are strategically located near the mountains to source water from them. The type of water used is a cornerstone of creating sake and can alone affect the final taste.  

 For example, Nada Sake from Kobe uses very hard natural water (from wells) and is called a men sake– a masculine type of sake. Hard water contains a lot of minerals, phosphorus, and calcium in the water. The contents of hard water help to increase the rate of fermentation and produce less sugar. The hard water makes for a much drier and acidic taste in sake. 

On the other hand, sake from Kyoto uses soft water (which comes from lakes) to create a sake called “feminine sake.” Soft water makes for a more gentle, elegant, and a less acidic taste in sake. Since there are fewer minerals in soft water, the fermentation rate is much slower than that of hard water.

Evian water is from France–the water is very hard mineral water. If the water hardness level from Kyoto is 4, it would be equivalent to 17 in on the Evian water scale. *

Hard water is good to use in meat stew dishes– it actually takes away the smell of meat while making the meat tender. Soft water is good for brewing green and  black tea. Soft water tends to bring out the tannins (astringency) and clarifies the flavours.*

If you look at Australian’s water hardness list, Tasmania and Victoria have the softest water and Brisbane and Adelaide have the hardest (3 times harder than Tasmania / Victoria). Sydney’s water is soft, but has fluoride and chlorine in taps which makes it.

*Information paraphrased from  FBO Academy’s text book.