For Goodness Sake

Origami Sake fruition of a dream for Ben Bell (‘00)

Travelers along U.S. 70 east of downtown Hot Springs may get a quick glimpse of a large, red origami crane gracing the side of a dark-gray building set off the road on a rising hill.

In Japan, the crane symbolizes good fortune, loyalty, longevity, and peace. For Ben Bell (’00), this particular crane represents the fruition of a long-time dream — starting his own sake brewery in Arkansas. Bell is the vice president for Origami Sake, the state’s first sake brewery.

Sake is an alcoholic drink made from rice that is brewed primarily in Japan. Bell spent two years working in a sake brewery in Japan with a plan to bring the knowledge he learned there home to Arkansas.

Upon returning to the state, he actively sought to make his dreams come true, but his attempts to find the right business partner for the venture were unsuccessful. After a while, he became burned out by the effort and took a job with Skurnik Wines & Spirits, an importer and distributor of fine wines and spirits headquartered in New York City.

While he was working in New York, he received a call from an acquaintance he had made before moving out of state. Bell met Matt Bell — no relation— through a longtime friend from when he worked in the drinks business in Little Rock. The mutual friend introduced them during a gathering of friends.

The topic of Bell’s training and desire to start a sake brewery came up during conversation at the gathering. It was not unusual for he and his friends to talk about the project’s latest progress. It was that meeting the piqued Matt Bell’s future interest.

Matt eventually reached out to Ben after he had moved to New York. The idea was something Matt couldn’t shake and wanted more information on the process of starting a brewery in Arkansas. Having a dependable job in New York, Ben told Matt that he likely wouldn’t come back for it. Matt said he still wanted to do it regardless if Ben came back.

“He was like, ‘I understand. Just tell me what needs to be done; I want to make that happen.’ That was the first time I ever heard somebody on the business and financing side say that they were so determined to do it they would do it even if I wasn’t there. I had never heard anybody talk with that level of commitment,” Bell said.

Matt had already bought the land and building where the brewery is now located. Bell connected Matt with a brewer, and the project seemed to proceed without Bell actually being involved initially.

During the covid-19 pandemic, Bell began working remotely — back in Arkansas. Matt reached out to Ben to see if he wanted to come visit the future brewery’s site. While the bones of the building were in place, there was no construction going on yet. The brewer that Bell had recommended also had not yet moved there.

That trip, however, helped Bell see that his dream had a real possibility of coming true. “It was on that trip that it just felt a lot more real to me than it really ever had. That’s when it seemed like, ‘I’m gonna come back and do it,’” Bell said.

While finding an investor and a site were important steps toward the brewery’s creation, there were still questions about two equally if not more important aspects of the business that had to be answered. Good sake requires good water and great rice, he said.

For Bell, part the initial appeal of locating the brewery in Hot Springs was the natural water source for which the area is named. They built a deep well on the property to serve as the water source for the brewing process. It’s perfect for making sake, he said, because it has the things in it that you want for brewing — but almost more importantly, it doesn’t have the things you don’t want.

In a state known for its rice production, it may seem that there would be no problem finding rice to use in the brewing process. But good sake requires a special variety of rice different from the vast majority of rice grown in the state, which is commonly called table rice. Sake rice has a higher starch content that is essential for creating the drink’s unique flavor and texture.

The solution again came through a connection Bell had made many years before. He and his best friend at that time became interested in home-brewing sake. They started looking online on how to do so. They discovered that there was an Arkansas farmer raising Japanese rice varietals.

Chris Isbell is a farmer who had been growing the sake rice varietals on his family farm since the 1980s. They reached out to him, and Isbell invited them to come visit the farm. They took him up on the offer, meeting him for lunch first where they talked about their possible plans. Isbell told them about his operation which included selling sake rice to breweries in California, New York, and Boston.

“The Isbells had already been putting in the work growing the Japanese varietals and sake rice. They were really into it before I was. They were getting sake rice to actual sake producers. I don’t think

I’d be making sake now without them,” Bell said.

It was a natural fit to use Arkansas-grown rice for Arkansas-brewed sake, Bell said. The partnership can have great benefits not only for the company and the Isbells but for the state overall as well. It has the possibility of improving the visibility of the Arkansas’ agricultural and tourism industries, he said.

Just as certain areas are known for their vineyards and wineries, Arkansas can develop that same kind of industry for sake and its rice. Origami Sake offers tours of its facilities. They also plan to distribute their product outside of Arkansas, which can raise the state’s profile in the drinks industry.

Bell’s connections to the Nanbu Bijin brewery in Hanamaki, Japan, where he spent his two years training, are also vital to the eventual success of the company.

The brewery’s current master brewer has served as a consultant during Origami Sake’s brewery setup. The master brewer spent a couple of weeks in Hot Springs recently to guide them. Nanbu Bijin’s former master brewer for whom Bell worked is also going to visit this summer as is the president of the Japanese brewery. He said their input is vital to his company.

“You can’t overstate the impact of having that level of skill here and being hands-on, being able to look at equipment, look at layout, look at the development of the batches. The instruction that we’re getting and the impact on our process is the best in the world,” he said.

“The real underlying part of that is that has not really been available outside of Japan. It was important to not only make sake but also having that Japan connection and the best practices in Japan continue here and make it a permanent connection,” he said.

Technology is also playing a key role in the brewery’s development.

Origami Sake is beta testing the English software for a piece of Japanese equipment in their lab. It helps them test the acidity, sugar, and alcohol level of their sake batches. The equipment has never been licensed to a company outside of Japan.

Origami Sake also has the goal to be net-zero on the power grid. To do so, they have installed a large array of solar panels in an area in front of the brewery. Fortunately, there is an expert on the field of solar energy in the company — Matt Bell. Before deciding to focus full-time on the brewery, he cofounded Viridian, a nationally recognized leader in sustainability and energy consulting services for architects, contractors, and building owners. That company later became Entegrity, which grew into one of the top solar contractors in the state.

Origami Sake held a grand opening in May, launching with their flagship sake — A Thousand Cranes. Bell describes it as a fruitforward kind of wine that features ripe cantaloupe, honeydew, and pear notes with a subtle umami backbone.

That seems an appropriate name and symbol for a dream almost 15 years in the making.