What it is
Tanrei means light and crisp. It is a style word, not a grade. The grade here is junmai, and the rice is Masshigura, an Aomori variety, milled to 65 percent. The published yeast is the interesting part: 901 alongside Mahoroba-gin, which is an Aomori prefectural yeast. Local rice and a local yeast is about as regional as a bottle gets, and breweries rarely publish the yeast at all.
The name collision worth flagging
This is brewed by Momokawa Brewing of Aomori, which has nothing to do with the Momokawa brand that SakéOne brews in Oregon. Two unrelated companies, one name, and both of them were on the table that night. SakéOne imports this one, which makes the coincidence stranger rather than less confusing.
What the room said
Fourth, in a tight cluster with third and fifth. Elegant and dry, with melon and apple on the nose, is how the importer puts it, and that reads as a fair description of a bottle that nobody disliked and nobody fought for.
Chilled.
Specs we could not confirm against a brewery or an importer are left off this page rather than guessed at.
The ones we hear most
What is Murai Family Tanrei Junmai?
A junmai brewed by Momokawa Brewing in Oirase, Aomori, from Masshigura rice milled to 65 percent, at 15.5 percent alcohol with a sake meter value of +5.
What does tanrei mean?
Light and crisp. It is a style word rather than a grade; the grade here is junmai.
Who imports Murai Family Tanrei Junmai?
SakeOne, which is also a brewery in its own right in Forest Grove, Oregon.
What did Kasumi Club score Murai Family Tanrei Junmai?
3.6 out of 5, fourth of six, in a blind tasting in Washington, D.C. on June 12, 2026.
Send us a bottle and about twenty people will tell you the truth.
Kasumi Club pours everything blind. Breweries and importers use us to test the D.C. market, and every bottle we pour gets a page with its score, whether it wins or not.
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