Portland’s Winter Saké event Fuyu Fest returns
A different kind of Brewers festival then the ones we typically talk about is taking place in Portland on Sunday, February 22nd. The 4th annual Fuyu Fest winter Saké festival presented by Portland’s best sake bottle shop Sunflower Sake and taking place at The Redd on Salmon events venue at 831 SE Salmon St, Portland, OR 97214.
Fuyu Fest centers on thoughtful, educational tasting, producer-led storytelling, and the cultural context around the signature fermented beverage of Japan sometimes referred to as rice wine, but actually much more like beer. Made with water, yeast, and rice instead of malt, Saké has tremendous diversity coming from not just fermentables but serving temperature, refinement, region, processing, and occasionally interesting spices and flavorings present in contemporary saké. The grassroots Fuyu festival promises an immersive afternoon focused on craft, seasonality, and cultural exchange.
At the heart of the fest is sake tasting: over 100 bottles from familiar benchmarks to limited, small-production releases. Every bottle is curated by the Sunflower team to represent a wide range of styles, price points, and regions, emphasizing quality over quantity. Purchase stations will be available for guests to order favorites for pick-up at Sunflower Sake the following week. Sake purchases under $150 total will be discounted 10%; above $150, 15%.
This year’s program highlights how sake interacts with other art forms, including live improvisational music pairings designed to evolve alongside the tasting experience. Portland musicians Patricia Wolf and Maddi Baird, along with Los Angeles musicians Nicholas Deyoe and Nicki Chen, will be led by Seattle composer and wine professional Sid Samberg. Samberg will introduce the sake for musicians and attendees to taste together, then the musicians will interpret their reactions in real time.
A dedicated hot sake bar returns with familiar Tokyo duo Okan Lover, now in their third year at Fuyu Fest. Led by Jo Takasaki of Tokyo’s Takasaki no Okan and Yamagata guide and Niida Honke brand ambassador “Akai” Kohei, the bar will present multiple expressions of warmed sake at different temperatures, including mixology techniques such as infusions and blends. Guests can explore how aroma, texture, and flavor shift with heat and technique.
Fuyu Fest 2026 also welcomes Team Fukuoka, traveling from Fukuoka Prefecture. The group includes Kyushu guide Futoshi Miyawaki (Team FAT), Librom Craft Sake, calligraphy artist Fuku Nakamura, and Ryokan Ohana, a traditional inn that also brews beer. Librom—an experimental brewery not currently exported—works with local Fukuoka fruits and spices and will bring a special spring release. Ryokan Ohana will pour its Hakushaku Mikan Ale made with local mikan. In the festival’s micro-classroom, calligraphy artist Fuku Nakamura will present live shodo (calligraphy), offering guests a hands-on cultural counterpoint to tasting.
Additional prefectural tables include our sister state Toyama, featuring exclusive Toyama sake and shiroebi (white shrimp) chips, and Kobe via the Kobe International Club, sharing hand-carried historic and eco-friendly sake from Hyogo. The Kobe table will also serve kasujiru, a traditional soup flavored with sake kasu (lees) from Kobe. With many travelers heading to Japan, these tables can offer personal recommendations for lesser-known destinations.
Food and drink offerings include yaki onigiri and kenchinjiru from Obon Shokudo, preorder-only chirashi bento from Ippai PDX, Japanese sandos from Reggie’s Manga Cafe, and coffee and matcha from Slow Bar 間 (ma). For dessert, visit Hey Day Mochi Donuts or sample Pinolo’s sake kasu gelato featuring Seattle's Tahoma Fuji sake kasu.
Since its founding, Fuyu Fest has aimed to be educational without being didactic, festive without excess, and rooted in respect for producers and their work. The 2026 edition expands the program while maintaining the inclusive community atmosphere and intimacy that have defined the festival since 2023.
The festival's artistic elements showcase Pacific Northwest talent, featuring:
Hand-crafted original neon art piece crafted by Portland artist The Tiny Spoon (Instagram) inspired by the peaceful enjoyment of sake in winter
Limited-edition commemorative glass sakazuki (sake cups) crafted by local artist Maria Enomoto (Instagram)
Portland improvisational musicians Maddi Baird (website) and Patricia Wolf (Instagram)
A festival discovery stamp rally coordinated by NE community center, Reggie's Manga Shop
Various local artists and craftspeople, with particular attention to past festivals’ artists, displaying their work
Demonstrating its commitment to community support, Fuyu Fest donates 20% of ticket revenues to Ikoi no Kai, a lunch program serving Portland's Japanese American elder community. The festival maintains a no-table-fee policy for artists, sake vendors, and food vendors, ensuring the event benefits all participants.
Fuyu Fest 2026 will feature:
Heiwa Shuzo Los Angeles beer & sake: The famed young Wakayama brewery known in PDX for their Fuji to Hood collaborations have brewed their first beer in the new LA brewery & will be launching sake in 2026-- toji (master brewer) + US operations will be present pouring their Wakayama sake + bottles of their first Los Angeles beer brews
Special Guests from Team Fukuoka: Ryokan Ohana sharing their Mikan Hakushaku ale w/ Mikan fruit from the family orchard
(2/21) Sake Brewers Association of North America Industry talk with 2 veteran members of the US sake industry discussing the lay of the land, including recent innovations and developments targeted at beer brewers interested in exploring sake brewing utilizing existing equipment
A selection of >15 domestic craft sake from LA, Lexington, Oakland, NYC, Seattle, Mpls to taste at the SBANA table + 5 domestic brewer/ies in attendance.
Hop Doburoku (farmers' chewy brew) from Puku Puku made with hanamoto: a traditional sake brewing starter culture stabilized with Japanese hops, served hot at the Okan Lovers' bar.
In general, the craft sake scene in Japan has really embraced and arisen from the beer scene-- the two walk hand in hand, and we want to bring that same energy here by sharing the overlap and facilitating collaborations with local brewers.
About Fuyu:
Fuyu Fest celebrates the quirky side of sake, its connection to art and culture, and invites guests from Japan each year to immerse themselves directly in our local industry. Up to 500 guests will find a different type of drinking festival (emphasis on the festival, lighter on the drinking) with demos and classes, live improvised music paired to sake, sake-inspired original local art pieces, guided tastings of premium pours, shodo calligraphy, Pinolo's sake kasu gelato made with small-batch PNW sake, and more.
Info:
Fuyu Fest 冬祭
Sun, Feb 22, 2026 • 1–5 PM
The Redd, 831 SE Salmon St, Portland, OR 97214
Ticket Information:
General Admission: $89
Commemorative hand-blown glass sakazuki (artist: Maria enomoto): $55 and $65 versions, limited editions of 50 each available for preorder, delivery at Fuyu Fest.
All attendees must be 21+ with valid ID
Tickets can be purchased here. The festival runs from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, with food, art and DJ from 1:00 PM and sake tasting from 1:45 to 5:00 PM.
For more information and updates about Fuyu Fest 2026, visit fuyufest.org or follow @fuyufest and @sunflowersake on Instagram.