Anyone who has spent time behind a bar, running a restaurant, or just building out a serious home liquor cabinet knows the beverage alcohol world doesn't stay still for long. The latest move comes from the Distilled Spirits Council, known as DISCUS, which has teamed up with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, or WSET, to bring sake education into its lineup of professional courses. This is a notable shift for an organization that has built its reputation on spirits training, and it signals that sake — the traditional Japanese rice-based beverage — is earning a bigger seat at the table in the American drinks industry.
What DISCUS Just Announced
DISCUS confirmed it is now an approved program provider, often shortened to APP, for the WSET Level 1 and Level 2 Award in Sake. For anyone unfamiliar with how these programs work, an approved program provider is essentially an organization that has been given the green light by WSET to deliver its official coursework and testing. DISCUS already had this status for spirits education, offering Levels 1 through 3, so adding sake to that list is a natural extension rather than a completely new direction.
Chris Swonger, who serves as President and CEO of DISCUS, spoke directly to why this matters. He said the organization's partnership with WSET has already helped push spirits professionals forward and gotten cocktail fans more engaged through solid, respected education programs. According to Swonger, expanding into sake reflects the growing interest people have in this traditional Japanese drink, along with the organization's ongoing commitment to offering strong education that helps professionals grow across the entire beverage alcohol business.
Why Sake Deserves the Attention
For a lot of guys who grew up drinking beer, whiskey, or a standard vodka soda, sake has probably always felt like something reserved for sushi restaurants — poured warm in a small ceramic cup, maybe not thought about much beyond that. But sake is a far more complicated and interesting beverage than most casual drinkers realize. It's made through a brewing process, not distillation, using rice, water, koji mold, and yeast. The styles, flavor profiles, and quality levels vary enormously depending on how the rice is polished, what water is used, and the brewing techniques a particular producer relies on.
That complexity is exactly why structured education around sake has value. Just like whiskey or wine, sake has its own vocabulary, its own production standards, and its own way of being properly tasted and evaluated. Without some formal grounding, it's easy for even experienced drinkers to miss what separates a mediocre bottle from an exceptional one.
Breaking Down the Two Course Levels
DISCUS is rolling out two distinct courses, each aimed at a different point in someone's sake knowledge.
Level 1: Building the Foundation
The WSET Level 1 Award in Sake is built for people who are essentially starting from scratch. This course walks through the basics of how sake is made, the main styles a person is likely to encounter, and the fundamentals of proper service — meaning how it should be poured, at what temperature, and in what type of vessel. Tasting is also part of the curriculum, and students are taught using what's called the WSET Level 1 Systematic Approach to Tasting Sake, which gives them a consistent method for evaluating what's in the glass rather than just guessing at descriptors.
Level 2: Going Deeper
The WSET Level 2 Award in Sake is the next step up and is meant for someone who already has some foundational knowledge and wants to go further. This course gets into the ingredients used in brewing, the actual brewing methods themselves, how to read and understand labeling terminology, and the production decisions that ultimately shape why one sake tastes completely different from another. Students in this level also learn a more advanced tasting method, the WSET Level 2 Systematic Approach to Tasting Sake, which is designed to help them assess and describe quality with more precision and confidence.
How the Courses Work
Both courses are delivered entirely online, which is a real advantage for working professionals who don't have time to sit in a physical classroom or travel to a training center. Each course wraps up with a virtual exam, so participants can complete the entire process — learning and testing — without ever leaving their home or workplace.
This online format fits well with how a lot of industry education has shifted in recent years. Restaurant managers, bar owners, distributors, and retailers are busy people, and being able to log in on their own schedule to work through coursework makes a certification program far more realistic to actually finish.
Who These Courses Are Really For
While the courses are open to sake enthusiasts, the primary audience is clearly industry professionals — people working in restaurants, bars, retail, distribution, and hospitality who want a credential that means something. WSET has built a global reputation as the standard when it comes to wine and spirits education, and that reputation carries weight. A WSET qualification isn't just a certificate for a wall; it's recognized internationally and can genuinely strengthen a resume or a business's credibility with customers and partners.
That said, DISCUS was clear that these programs aren't only for people already working in the trade. They're also designed for those just getting started in a beverage career, as well as established professionals looking to round out their expertise. In other words, whether someone is trying to break into the industry or has been in it for twenty years and wants to fill a knowledge gap, there's an entry point that fits.
Course Dates and Pricing
For anyone ready to sign up, DISCUS has laid out a full schedule running into 2027.
WSET Level 1 Award in Sake — $325
- October 19 – November 15, 2026
- March 8 – April 4, 2027
- June 28 – July 25, 2027
WSET Level 2 Award in Sake — $575
- October 12 – November 15, 2026
- March 8 – April 11, 2027
- June 14 – July 18, 2027
Each course runs for roughly a month, giving participants enough time to work through the material at a manageable pace rather than cramming everything into a single weekend.
Part of a Bigger Education Push
This sake announcement doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's an expansion of an education portfolio that DISCUS has been building for a while now, one that already includes WSET Levels 1, 2, and 3 in spirits. Adding sake to that mix shows the organization is paying attention to where consumer and professional interest is heading, rather than sticking strictly to traditional Western spirits categories.
It also reflects something bigger happening across the beverage alcohol industry as a whole: categories that used to be niche or overlooked in the U.S. market are getting serious, structured educational attention. Sake has been produced in Japan for centuries, but formal, accessible education around it for American professionals has historically been harder to come by. This partnership helps close that gap.
The Bottom Line
For anyone in the beverage business, whether that's running a bar program, managing a restaurant's drink menu, working in distribution, or simply wanting to understand what actually separates a good sake from a great one, this new DISCUS and WSET partnership opens a real, credentialed path to that knowledge. The courses are affordable relative to other professional certifications, they're flexible enough to fit around a working schedule, and they carry the weight of an internationally recognized education provider behind them.
Those interested in registering can do so directly through the DISCUS website, and more information on the full slate of WSET qualifications and other education partners is also available there for anyone looking to build out their credentials even further.
