Sake Recipe

[Rottweiler22]

My Grandma gave me this recipe from when she used to make wines. My Grandad really got a taste for the stuff when he was back in Korea

--- INGREDIENTS ---

- 1.3kg (3lb) Long Grain Rice
- 1.3kg (3lb) Granulated Sugar (Sucrose)
- 3.4l (6pts) Lukewarm Water
- 450g (1lb) Raisins
- 1/2 cup Strong Cold Tea (Without milk)
- 1 Lemon
- Campden Tablets
- General Purpose Wine Yeast & Nutrient

--- METHOD ---

1) Put the raisins in a large Pyrex bowl & cover with boiling water. Leave overnight for the raisins to absorb the water.

2) The next day press the juice out of the raisins with a potato masher. Pour the juice through a sieve into a fermenting bucket. Add a crushed campden tablet.

3) Add the rice & sugar to the fermenter, as well as the juice of the lemon. Add the cold tea.

4) Pour on the 6 pints of water & stir well. Leave it overnight.

5) The next day add the yeast & nutrient. Stir it in really well. Cover the bucket (Or add an airlock) & leave for 3 days in a warm place, stirring daily.

6) After 3 days, leave the bucket covered for another 8. Don't stir anymore.

7) After 8 days, remove the scum from the top. Strain into a demijohn, & add airlock. Leave for around 2 - 3 weeks.

8) After 3 weeks, rack & bottle as you do. It takes a while to clear, but it turns out very nice & strong

 

[Wendy1971]

Looks very nice :thumb: might have a bash at it soon :thumb:

 

[Marrsy86]

Have you made this yourself and tasted the finished product ? I have wanted to make some Sake for a while but from what I understood because its rice (starch) based and not normal sugar based then yeast wouldent be able to ferment it.

From the research I carried out it seemed due to the starch a mold infected rice had to be used for fermentation called Kome-koji or Koji-Kin. I have been looking around asian markets in the UK and the internet and even this very forum with no luck in finding it at all

Would really like to know how this turned out if you have made it yourself ? From the recipe you linked I think the fermentation would be from the added sugar only and not the rice. Forgive the expression but does it just taste like watery day old fryed rice with a bit of a kick ?

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[Moley]

First off, that isn't Sake, it's rice & raisin wine. As Marrsy says, true Sake needs a special kind of fungus.

Having said that, there ain't nothing wrong with rice & raisin wine :drunk:

Suggested amendments to method:

1: Wash the raisins first. Modern day consumers like their raisins to have an attractive shine. This is achieved by tumbling them in a glorified cement mixer with vegetable oil.

2. Throw the rice, whole raisins, sugar, zest and juice of lemon, cold tea and crushed campden tablet into fermenting bucket, add 6 pints cold water, put the lid on, leave overnight.

3. Next day, add yeast & nutrient, cover the bucket, leave in a warm place for 14 days, stirring daily.

4. Strain to DJ, RETAIN RICE, RAISINS etc., let fermentation finish if it hasn't already, leave to clear before bottling.

5. Put rice & raisins back into bucket, add another 3 lbs of sugar, zest & juice of another lemon and 6 pints of water. This time, mash any raisins which are still intact. Leave for another 14 days (stirring daily) before straining to another DJ.

 

[keith1664]

It's my understanding that with "proper" Saki the Kome-koji or Koji-Kin is used to break the rice starch down into sugars the yeast can ferment.
Is it practical to use amylase to break down the starch therefore ending up with something which could loosely be described as Saki?

 

[Moley]

Is it practical to use amylase to break down the starch therefore ending up with something which could loosely be described as Saki?

Amylase might be beneficial in preventing starch hazes when it comes to clearing, but if you read into how that Koji-Kin works and the temperatures and environment it needs, I don't think amylase is going to come close.

With this recipe, even after straining the second mash, you're still going to be throwing away something which looks like long grain rice.

 

[Marrsy86]

It's my understanding that with "proper" Saki the Kome-koji or Koji-Kin is used to break the rice starch down into sugars the yeast can ferment.
Is it practical to use amylase to break down the starch therefore ending up with something which could loosely be described as Saki?

From what I understand it ferments the rice directly with no need for yeast.

Btw I might actually try this rice and raisen wine and see how it turns out :hmm:

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[Marrsy86]

Anychance on how to keep adding sugar to get this as close to 20% ABV as possible Moley ? I understand 20% is basically as high as you can get by fermentation alone ?

I'm thinking about having a bash at this and getting the ABV as high as I can and even though I know it's just a strong rice wine I will try blag the lads that it's Sake for drinking games.

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[oldbloke]

30 seconds Googling leads me to believe that amylase might work on seed rice, but not on rice grains as supplied for food.
A proper google might make me think something else...

 

[Moley]

Any chance on how to keep adding sugar to get this as close to 20% ABV as possible Moley ? I understand 20% is basically as high as you can get by fermentation alone ?

If you're using something like the Young's super yeast compound, it can certainly cope with 19-20% abv and I think I've read that it has been pushed to about 22%.

Although yeasties turn sugar into alcohol, they don't actually like alcohol. In effect they are swimming in their own waste products and eventually it kills them. Many wine yeasts will have a lower alcohol tolerance and may roll over and die, say around 15%.

In theory, if you start with a fairly high gravity like 1.120, ferment down to 1.000 and then keep adding another 4oz / 100g of sugar (up to 1.010, down to 1.000, up to 1.010, down to 1.000, etc.) you can push the yeasties as far as they will go but should never end up with a sickly sweet wine when they say “that's enough, we quit!”

In reality, you can usually trust those Young's yeasties with an OG of 1.145 to get your 20% abv.

That's about 1.7kg of sugar + 500g of raisins made up to 5 litres before you add the rice, give them some more yeast nutrient, a couple of lemons and get some oxygen stirred into the bucket right at the start.

 

[Marrsy86]

Definatly going to give this a bash, cheers for the tips, while it's in the bucket should I have the raisins and lemons in a hop sock or just free floating ?

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[Moley]

Let the raisins go free. Zest the lemons and then squeeze them.

 

[StrangeBrew]

In genuine Sake and Korean Makali rice wines the rice is thoroughly washed, soaked for a few hours and then steamed before adding to the brew. In addition to using a normal brewing yeast the magic ingredient to convert the starch in the rice into sugars that can be fermented is 'Mill Yeast' It's an enzyme. It needs to be ground if not already done and in the proportion of 5% of the total rice volume but not steamed with the rice ! That's just the ratio. The Mill Yeast is normally hydrated along with the conventional Yeast beforehand.

There are a number of Korean supermarkets in the New Malden area in London where it can be obtained...

:

 

[Marrsy86]

There are a number of Korean supermarkets in the New Malden area in London where it can be obtained...

Got the websites for any of them by anychance ?

 

[StrangeBrew]

Got the websites for any of them by anychance ?

I'm sorry I don't I just visit that area from time to time ...

 

[Marrsy86]

Got the websites for any of them by anychance ?

I'm sorry I don't I just visit that area from time to time ...

I will dig around online on Monday night when I have more time and see what I can find.

Cheers anyway though :thumb:

 

[StrangeBrew]

I will dig around online on Monday night when I have more time and see what I can find.

Cheers anyway though :thumb:

Here is the stuff....

Tony

 

[laighleas]

Amylase might be beneficial in preventing starch hazes when it comes to clearing, but if you read into how that Koji-Kin works and the temperatures and environment it needs, I don't think amylase is going to come close.

Umm! I didn't know that nearly 40 years ago :-) so, koji being unavailable, I boiled about 3-4 pounds of rice in a gallon of water and added a whole carton of amylase plus some yeast nutrient and let it stand near a radiator for a week or two before adding the yeast. It worked - and the taste was about that of commercial sake. :-)

In later experiments I mashed the amylase/rice mixture at 50C (the optimum temperature for the enzyme according to a datasheet) for several hours. That worked as well. You have to be careful about raising the temperature though, because the rice may burn if you go too fast.

Those BTW were the sole ingredients - rice, amylase, yeast nutrient. The logic was that koji breaks down the starch to simple sugars by way of an amylase. Koji was unavailable in the UK - still is - but amylase is readily available. Chemically the end result is the same - you're just going to need larger quantities of the enzyme for this process than you're used to. You are however going to need a lead time before adding yeast in order to allow enough sugars to build up for the yeast to ferment. The sugars produced ferment very rapidly - a few days after starting it, if you smell it, you're in no doubt about the serious amount of alcohol being formed. :-)

I've currently got 3 gallons of this recipe fermenting. I may flavour some of it with plum, as the Japanese do.

Kevin

 

[Personal91]

In genuine Sake and Korean Makali rice wines the rice is thoroughly washed, soaked for a few hours and then steamed before adding to the brew. In addition to using a normal brewing yeast the magic ingredient to convert the starch in the rice into sugars that can be fermented is 'Mill Yeast' It's an enzyme. It needs to be ground if not already done and in the proportion of 5% of the total rice volume but not steamed with the rice ! That's just the ratio. The Mill Yeast is normally hydrated along with the conventional Yeast beforehand.

There are a number of Korean supermarkets in the New Malden area in London where it can be obtained...

:

now we are talking

 

[Personal91]

Got the websites for any of them by anychance ?

http://www.koreafoods.co.uk/

its the main Korean wholesaler to my knowledge as they important from korea and have many shops and supply many of the shops and restaurants around london