Sake Grain

Does anyone know where I can order some high quality sake rice?

I find places online for the Koji Kin and the yeast but I can't seem to find any resource for quality rice. I want add Sake to the brewing lineup and have found plenty of resources for recipes and the like but if I can't get quality grain to make good Sake then why bother? We don't get into brewing beer to make the Beast!

Welcome to the forums!

I found an interesting read here:

http://sake-world.com/html/rice.html

In asian markets and in some grocers you can find Nishiki rice. You could most likely use something like Kokuho Rose which is California grown and very good. I think this would be your best place to start without digging to find the other types. I am going to ask a mod to move this thread to the "Wine" section.

Thanks Chairman.

OK I found a source for the high quality polished rice at http://www.fhsteinbart.com/order/products.htm they also have premade Kome Koji available there for $7.5 which is reasonable but it's over $30 to ship it (they need to send it two day air) - which just makes a batch of Sake too expensive. So I was in an Asian grocery today I saw jars of "Sweet Fermented Rice" is this Kome Koji? I'm planning to follow this recipe http://www.designerinlight.com/eckhardt-sake.pdf and was hoping that I could use this as the Kome Kuji.

I recently saw a small tub of sweet sticky sushi rice at stop & shop for 10$. The price I think is too much but it might be good if I ever make koji. The rice was processed to an almost round shape.

Well I picked up one of these jars of "sweet fermented rice" (they are $3 for a lb.) and opened it up to try. It tastes like rice soaked in sake. I wonder if it is koji or just cooked rice with sake added? I guess I could try to experiment with it a bit - throw in some rice and yeast. If anyone has any experience with this stuff let me know.