No, koji is always referred to as koji. Only Korean nuruk is ever labelled as "enzyme" for the English speaking market.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you didn't make sake. By using nuruk (the Korean "enzyme") to convert the rice, what you actually made was makgeolli. If by "nasty" you really mean sour, that's just how makgeolli is. In its homemade state it's generally considered a rustic farmhouse victual and is generally sweetened up with sugar to taste by the imbiber right before consumption.
Nuruk is very different from koji. The former is made mostly from cracked wheat and wheat flour under conditions that are nowhere near as controlled as those under which koji is made. While aspergillus oryzae is certainly present in nuruk, it is not the pure saturated monoculture that koji is. It's the presence of other wild yeasts and bacteria that contributes to the signature sour flavor of makgeolli. Also, sake yeast is always added to the starter step (shubo or moto) of sake brewing, whereas nuruk is the sole source of yeast for a makgeolli fermentation.
No, the recipe at the start of this thread is not sake. It's essentially a country wine flavored with raisins and rice. I'm sorry to hear that you consider your first couple attempts at making sake such failures. For what it's worth, what you made would probably be considered a darn good makgeolli by most Koreans.
If you would like to make another attempt at sake, perhaps the link in my sig may be of some help. It's probably a considerably more involved and complex process than your last couple attempts, but it's also essentially the scaled-down home version of exactly what professional sake brewers do. I do try to keep it simple and focus on the "how," but being an experienced homebrewer you will probably have questions about the "why" for many of the steps and techniques in my guide. I'm always available via e-mail and frequently MSN Messenger to answer questions, so feel free to contact me with them.
This is all a great response. Mine does taste more sour than the stuff I had at a restaurant. Maybe it is good in terms of what it should be.
PM me an address and I'll ship you some for an official opinion...
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Bummer, thought I was gonna get rid of some. I guess I hate it also.
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Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Two things complete your pirate persona: style and swagger. Maybe a little too much swagger sometimes -- but who really cares? Arr!
Sorry for being so late, for some reason the forum didn't e-mail me about a topic reply.
In this recipe, the raisins supply yeast nutrients, some flavor, color, and trace amounts of fermentable sugars.
Recipes like this one are the result of early homebrewers attempting to figure out how to make sake on their own in an environment where no information about the brewing process used by professional sake brewers was available to homebrewers. They just didn't share that information with the general public, or American homebrewers didn't know who to ask to get it. Either way, homebrewers are nothing if not resourceful, and their attempts at trying to figure it out on their own resulted in recipes like the one at the beginning of this thread. You can certainly produce something alcoholic by following those instructions, it might even taste decent, but it's not sake.
In a proper sake recipe, you will find no raisins or any other kind of fruit whatsoever. Like beer, there are only four ingredients: water, rice, koji, yeast. That's it.
Using the Taylor Made guide I've grown up my spores into a healthy bloom, onto the fermentation.
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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).
I wonder if you can answer a question for me. I am about 6 days into primary fermentation (following your recipe/instructions). I gave up on the ice packs in the water-filled rubbermade bin and cleared out my fridge and put the bucket in there. I have it on its warmest setting and it's at 40-42 degrees. Am I better at such a temperature or at mid 50s changing ice packs (and risking funky off-flavors)? I am afraid of the yeast going dormant at such a cold temp. Can you offer any words of advice?
Thanks,
Rich.
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I don't really know exactly how low the temperature can go before the yeast go dormant, but in general I recommend that you don't go below 45ºF. Fermentation usually generates enough heat to keep the moromi mass two to three degrees above the ambient temperature inside my fermentation fridge, so your fermentation might proceed okay (if a little sluggishly) in your fridge.
It's a judgment call, though. If you find that your fermentation does stop, then I'm wrong and you'll need to find some way to warm the moromi up. =) My best recommendation is to just spend the money on a thermostat for your fridge so you can keep it at a higher temperature than the internal one allows. Yes, it's kind of spendy, but that's the best way to do it.
I am hijacking but only to give props to Mr. Taylor. His site ans his assistance helped me make some pretty damned good sake. It is clearing now and cannot wait to taste it (again)
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