jeremyz

Recipes 

I love Frisky Dingo. Anyway...

http://www.atroxen.com/gallery2/main.php/view/jeremy/Sake%20Brewing/?g2_page=8

I overestimated recipe. One keg was full, not to the brim but full. I stirred and shook keg to make sure koji, rice, and yeast were mixed. Very annoying. I dumped mix fast in large pot to get as much rice I could. Then I grabbed handfulls of rice to eyeball equal amounts of water and rice in each keg. I took a hot shower before so I am not worried about contamination. Each keg was cleaned with oxyclean then soaked in oxyclean, then rinsed with boiling water. Now each keg is half full and yeast has woken up. I have now moved kegs into wine cellar to ferment for 2 weeks at 60F. After first week I plan on adding rice and koji to jumpstart second ferment.

I had to cook 2 batches of rice with a two shelf section bamboo steamer. Next time I will buy another bamboo steamer.

Keg locks are not airtight so gas can escape.

If this batch comes out better than my last I have plenty of sterilized sake bottles that I saved. Even still it would be nice to have a full keg of sake! Starting a brewery does sound nice, aside from machinery and investment.

afromaiko

Recipes 

Looking good! Please tell me.. do you still stir the mix everyday now that you are using the kegs?

I've just made another attempt, it's on the second day now. I'm wondering if I should stir it regularly every day from the very start, or leave it a couple of days to break down the rice before beginning to stir it?

My concern was whether I was likely to oxidise the 'wort' and cause it to go off like beer can do because I had previous problems with it turning VERY yellow and sour.

But, I am using the proper Wyeast Sake #9 so hopefully that will help.

Any tips much appreciated!

jeremyz

Recipes 

If you don't stir everyday the foam on top will dry into a disgusting crust. When I was in San Francisco I visited the Sho Chiku Bai free tasting room at their brewery. I learned a new term that explains why sake has more alcohol than beer: Multiple Parrallel Fermentation. Most ferments use only one fungi: yeast. Sake uses two: koji and yeast.

jeremyz

Recipes 

Heat is part of the reason why my summer sake became sour. However I believe food grade plastic is the greater cause. So many fermenters and tea brewers are made from plastic, not because it is the best, but because it is the cheapest material. My tokonome teapot made even my cheap tea taste better than tea made in my trendy looking teavana tea brewer. I have since given away my plastic brewer.

Zymurgrafi

Recipes 

yeah I agree, Plastic is no good for saké.

I split the batch between two 2.5 gallon glass crocks. Kind of a pain. This is what I want to get.




Biggest one holds 5 gallons. Ceramic and made for pickling so food safe.

__________________
sláinte!

Bristle Bros. Brewing

jeremyz

Recipes 

Esters make it stink like banana or mayflowers. Good progress but I just don't want to end the ferment too early. I don't plan on racking. I think I will let the primary ferment run for about 14-20 days.

I found a cool brewing page. Just use mac translator for a rough translation.

http://www.houraisen.co.jp/main/brew/brew.html

Here are foam stages from John Gauntner's sake-world.com

Two or three days into the ferment
suji-awa (muscle foam)

Next, a think layer of soft foam
mizu-awa (water foam)

most active stage
iwa-awa (rock foam)

highest stage of foam
usually occurs about the tenth day or so
taka-awa

fermentation begins to wane
ochi-awa (falling foam)

tama-awa (ball foam)

Ending
A totally smooth surface is known as bozu, in reference to the shaved head of a priest
Small wrinkles in the surface are referred to as chiri-men (a type of rough cloth).
If rice solids that did not ferment have risen to the surface, it may look like a lid is on the moromi, and this is referred to as futa (lid). ??Much can be told about the quality of the sake at this stage from observing this surface. For example, if the lid is thick (kogai, or thick lid), it indicates that a significant amount of wild yeast ended up in the moromi and survived.

tgriff00

Recipes 

Anyone ever used fruit as sort of a 2nd stage, ferment with Sake recipe. Plums, peaches, litchi?? I have never made Sake, but have Japanese in laws. I would like to brew up a batch and mail them a bottle, but am wanting to use some fruit. I have seen plum sake before, but not sure on how to use it. It was mentioned earlier that brewing is just like a beer. So would a 2nd stage fruit ferment work?

Islandboy85

Recipes 

I know of some people who ferment their beer in one of their kegles. They clean up their mash tun while boiling their wort, sterilize my boiling a gallon of water in it , then transfer their wort to the mash tun for fermenting. You could do the same thing for your sake probably. That would give you 15.5 gallons of room so you wouldn't need to worry about splitting the batch.