Sake

[Druss]

Does anyone here have a simple recipe for brewing sake (Japanese rice wine), I have found a couple of (incredibly complex) recipes on the net but I'm hoping for a bog standard, step by step version. Many thanks. : .

 

[oldbloke]

The problem is in converting the rice starch to fermentable sugars, you need that special enzyme (or is it a bacterium?)
_maybe_ the more easily obtainable amylase would work...

 

[GeorgeSalt]

Unfortunately it is a very complex process if you specifically want sake.

 

[Bogwitch]

The problem is in converting the rice starch to fermentable sugars, you need that special enzyme (or is it a bacterium?)
_maybe_ the more easily obtainable amylase would work...

It's a fungus, Koji Kin which acts on the rice to produce fermentables.

The Home Brew Shop has some Koji Kin spores for sale, not exactly cheap but Once started, I guess you could carry on culturing. They also recommend a high alcohol Gervin yeast but from what I've heard about traditional sake production, you should use a specific sake yeast which operates at considerably lower temperatures (ideal for this time of year!)

Edit: The HBS call them seeds, not spores.

 

[Druss]

Thanks for the info guys, I think I may have been a bit over ambitious on this one, I'll still give it a go but I have a feeling what I end up with won't quite be sake lol.

 

[calumscott]

I want to have a crack at this in the future too...

...hot sake and beef teriyaki... Oh yes!

 

[Wasabi]

I'm interested in the possibility of making sake too. Koji is basically rice mould (Aspergillus oryzae) + yeast and in Japan is used as a starter mix for a variety of fermented foods as well as sake production.

However there are other ways to ferment rice. Before discovering that aspergillus oryzae broke down the starch to permit fermentation, people used to chew the rice then spit it out into the fv! Enzymes in your saliva break down the starch but it's a slow process and requires a lot of chewing! Also the resultant sake apparently tastes quite sour, whereas rice mould imparts a sweeter taste to it.

I don't think I can bring myself to chew a load of rice (and I wonder who would drink the resultant sake!), but there seem to be other ways to achieve the same end, for instance a search reveals that someone on this forum once reported success in making sake after using amylase to break down the starch. Also I wonder if there's any reason why the western brewing method of germinating the grain wouldn't work? (You'd need viable rice for that of course, I don't know if the wholegrain rice sold in shops can be germinated).

 

[Egon]

I can try and find out when I go back to work tomorrow...

I work for Tilda. :)
I would imagine that mould is something that's actively avoided though!!

 

[Boatbrewer]

I guess this is the stuff you need http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Sake_Koli-kin.html

Just happened to see this the other week when looking for something else and it caught my eye.

 

[Wasabi]

I work for Tilda.
I would imagine that mould is something that's actively avoided though!!

Yes, you can get pretty nasty food poisoning from rice if the wrong organism takes hold! I suppose the same applies to all brewing processes though.

As a beginner, I think I'd like to get some more experience making regular wines first before risking sake as even with the correct koji stuff I feel working with mouldy rice is an extra dimension which could go horribly wrong if you don't do it exactly right especially re. sterilisation and so on.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I work for Tilda.
I would imagine that mould is something that's actively avoided though!!

Yes, you can get pretty nasty food poisoning from rice if the wrong organism takes hold! I suppose the same applies to all brewing processes though.

As a beginner, I think I'd like to get some more experience making regular wines first before risking sake as even with the correct koji stuff I feel working with mouldy rice is an extra dimension which could go horribly wrong if you don't do it exactly right especially re. sterilisation and so on.

The Japanese are mould experts, so I'd trust them even if I might feel a little unwell at the thought of some things, notably natto.

 

[Rukula]

Sake is brilliant, but allso one of the most difficult things to brew. Its not really a thing for the home brewers, so i would leave it to the more dedicated breweries :)

 

[Egon]

Hmm, well that certainly raised some eyebrows at work!
Most of the people here know I dabble in a little home brew and they certainly didn't recommend brewing rice!!!
Personally, from a food safety point of view I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Waaaay too many ways of hospitalising yourself...

 

[Brewtrog]

My tea wine was similar to sake, so you could go down that route. There was also a thread about a updated version of First steps in wine making that had a rice wine in it that was rice fermented in the way we know how to - I haven't tried this though so wouldn't be able to say if it was anything like Sake.

 

[kevinwigan]

I couldn't find Koji-kin when I made my batch, so, had to make do with Amylaze.
It worked out quite nice
If you know (and follow) the basic's, it's a very nice and interesting wine to do.

If you want to do a rough and ready Sake, you can
Boil your rice and use the water (use a lot of water),
Use Amylaze to convert starch.

(for 5 Ltrs)
1 Kg of Easy Cook rice,
1 Kg Sugar
Amylaze
Yeast, ect.

After clearing and filtering it looks just like WATER.
I have done other batches with differant types of rice and you can tell in the taste and colour/shade.

 

[Brewtrog]

What was the best rice you've done it with?

 

[kevinwigan]

Brown rice.
Slightly darker with a more rustic taste

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Enzymes in your saliva break down the starch but it's a slow process and requires a lot of chewing!

My biology teacher at school once brought in a loaf of bread and got us all to chew it for about 2 or 3 minutes to demonstrate that we have enzyme in our saliva, because the bread gets really sweet!

Unfortunately, a minority of people in the world don't have that enzyme, and for them the bread never gets sweet. I'm one of them!

 

[Pjam]

Wonderful drink Sake. I guessed it would be hard to make. The Japanese are so precise in their approach to most things. I went there for a holiday in 1999.

Mind you, there's the prison version :P rough :lol:

 

[iceo]

see this might help . you can see the first 10 page or so for free
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BKDUI2G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20