Sake lees (SLs), produced from brewing Japanese Sake and known to be rich in yeast, is expected to be an alternative of feed protein sources for ruminants. Previous studies showed that yeast improved the digestibility of fibers in ruminants. However, the nutrient composition and the numbers of live and dead yeast in the SLs, have large diversity because of the different brewing materials and processes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical and biological characteristics of SLs with diverse brewing processes and storing periods (0-23 weeks). Seven types of SLs (SLs 1-7) were collected from two breweries. SLs 1, 2, 5 and 6 were made from liquefied rice under high-temperature saccharification method and SLs 3, 4 and 7 were made from steamed rice under general multiple parallel fermentation method. The crude protein (CP) contents of SLs from liquefied rice were higher than those from steamed rice (59.3-69.9% vs 32.8-51.4%DM). Ethanol concentrations were in the range of 6.1 to 11.2%FM in SLs 1-5. The numbers of live yeast (×104 CFU/ FM g) were ranged from 1,462 to 6,109 before storing, which dramatically decreased to 0-145 at 4 weeks’ storing at 4℃ in SLs 1-5. The numbers of dead yeast (×109 / FM g) were ranged from 0.7 to 3.0 before storing, which were stable during 4 weeks’ storing showing 0.5-4.6 in SLs 1-5. These results suggested that SLs, especially from liquefied rice, had high CP contents and substantial amounts of ethanol. The live yeast observed drastically disappeared, on the other hand, the numbers of dead yeast were stable under refrigeration. Further study is needed to evaluate the effect of supplementary SLs on digestibility in ruminants especially in roughage feeding condition