Apple Sake?

I gave my older brother a glass of Apfelwein that had been aged for about 3 months.

He, (like I, and others who are not avid hard cider drinkers) could not put a tongue around what he was tasting.

The only think he could think of to describe the taste was "apple sake". Got me thinking, is there such a thing? (not talking about apple flavored sake)

Any idea what the abv on your Apfelwein was? The taste is probably due to the ethanol.

Sake in english definition is rice wine, where the fermentable is rice. You could potentially use apples along with this fermentation process, but isn't it then apple flavored sake? I'm not entirely sure about your question between apple sake vs apple flavored sake. Are you comparing the fermentation process to one where the sake is first brewed, then apple juice is mixed in as part of the after process?

By apple-flavored sake, I mean sake, with apple juice added only when serving.

What I'm looking for a apples and rice fermenting at the same time, same vessel. I hope that isn't confusing.

edit: My apfelwein was definitely not the best batch, and had a hot smell to it. That's why most of it was bottled.

No, not too confusing. I thought you may have meant something like that where apples are in the fermenter and not as a post fermentation mix, but I didn't want to assume. I haven't heard of a sake in that manner.

I suppose I will assume that sake still tends to be a traditional sort of thing. And it's probably not often attempted. It could be worth trying to make as a homebrewer, but I haven't seen anything in my searches (in the past 30 minutes). Anyone have any apple varieties that could be used for this? Standard cider apples, or different ones?

Perhaps I'll try making this if I can figure out which apples to use. My current problem apple wise would be to locate a source of apples, since most searches will pull up eating/baking apples as opposed to cider apples.

Then, rather than grinding and pressing like cider would be done (which I don't do yet since I don't have a grinder, nor the space for it). Otherwise I could add already pressed cider.

I've only made sake once (well, one and a half, but the second time was really using sorghum, not rice), but was actually looking at making another sake batch, so it might be worth a try. I may have to put it off till November/December though, since I don't have a good fermenter that I can hold at 50 or so degrees. Not unless I want to not drink beer from my kegs for 3 weeks.

How was your 1st sake batch? Is it something people who normally don't drink sake, would try?

I don't think it was too bad. Definately not as refined as the sake makers can do. We don't have easy access to certain strains of koji-kin or easy access to the different varieties of milled rice. One place sells one kind, and I don't recall who it was.

Would try?: Drinking
I suppose it depends: On one hand, I don't think it was as good as a number of sake's I've tried, and I would encourage going out and sampling various types of sakes over drinking mine first. I would call mine rustic.
On the second hand: I was passing out free booze.

Would try: Making
As to the sake making process itself? It's hard to say. It depends on how much effort you want to put into making one single type of alcoholic beverage.
If you have easy access to a store that sells koji, or want to buy it online, it's easier.
If you grow your own koji from koji kin, it's harder and requires more equipment (some of which you may already have).
Check out http://www.taylor-madeak.org/index.php for making it.


I'll have to consider apple amounts in the next batch too. I'm thinking though, adding apples early on will only add some scant amount of flavor, since it would ferment dry.