Anyone have a 1 gallon sake recipe ?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kevinstan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
158
Reaction score
4
I am looking for a simple 1 gallon sake / rice wine recipe. I can't find one online for some reason. There has to be one out there somewhere. Anyone ?
 
Sake is a difficult thing to make. I'll post a simple recipe for 1 gallon but highly suggest checking out the following site:

http://www.taylor-madeak.org/index.php

1 gallon Sake

1 2/5 cups Koji
5 3/4 cups Rice
9 1/10 cups Water (Good mineral/spring water only like Fiji water)

Reading the site listed above Taylor explains that traditional Sake is made up of the 3 above ingrediant (Plus Yeast) in the following ratio (Koji:Rice:Water) 25%:100%:160%.

I am sure there are measurements that are better to go by than cups but I just know 1 gallon of water is 16 cups so applied the above ratio to get close to 16 cups.

I have seen other people do 1 gallon Sake batches with the following though:

1 cup Koji
4 cups Rice
Water to 1 gallon

A lot of people say to add citric acid or acid blend but that should be highly avoided because the Koji will add a bit of sour to the mix to balance out any sweetness that is left over. Adding any more acid will make the drink too acidic. Especially if you go with the second recipe which will be more dry.
 
Here is a simple rice wine recipe which involves the use of red rice yeast and yeast balls, though this can be made without the red rice yeast if you desire. Not a true sake but a traditional rice wine across many provinces... http://smallsmallbaker.blogspot.com/2012/07/mums-red-glutinous-rice-wine.html?m=1

I have sourced the yeasts at http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=yeast&Search.x=0&Search.y=0

Though if you have a local oriental grocery you may find them. The white yeast come in balls, like penny gumball size or cake form, kind of like a small hockey puck.

...Sara
 
Here is a simple rice wine recipe which involves the use of red rice yeast and yeast balls, though this can be made without the red rice yeast if you desire. Not a true sake but a traditional rice wine across many provinces... http://smallsmallbaker.blogspot.com/2012/07/mums-red-glutinous-rice-wine.html?m=1

I have sourced the yeasts at http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=yeast&Search.x=0&Search.y=0

Though if you have a local oriental grocery you may find them. The white yeast come in balls, like penny gumball size or cake form, kind of like a small hockey puck.

...Sara

Wow I have been looking for a supplier that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for red yeast rice. That stuff is used to make Akaisake which is a traditional Sake of sorts. Using that stuff you can have it substitute 20 - 30% of the Koji in my original recipe and it makes a bolder, more fruity & almost vanilla like character to the sake. Once the temps even out a little and are consistently cooler I am going to have to make some Akaisake.
 
My local oriental marketplace is where I get my Koji from.
 
where can u buy koji locally ??

In the oriental market look in the isle they kep the Miso pastes. Koji is what is used to make Miso and so is sold more for that reason. The most common brand of Koji Rice is "Cold Mountain Koji". Also many LHBS carry Koji spores which can be used to make your own koji rice.
 
Hi Czar Wilhelm,
I've made a 4 gallon batch in the past and have acquired the materials to make 6 gallons. I'll probably be splitting this up into a number of smaller batches though. I'm thinking of comparing yeasts and fermentation temps when making filtered and unfiltered sake.

Any particular reason why you're asking?
 
Hi Laowai,
I am here in Thailand and have more rice than I can shake a stick at, and was looking to make a large batch to see how it goes. The issue is getting good wine yeast is expensive as I have to use Ebay, so i wanted to make as large a batch as I could to make the most of the yeast i had.

I did go with a starter of:

3 Kg rice
200 grams of Koji rice (made from sticky rice)
18.9 L (5 Gl) water
1Kg Sugar (2.2 Lbs)
2.5 Tsp Yeast energizer
2.5 tbl (12 ml too much)
3 pinches of MgSO4
Activated and pitched EC-1118 Yeast.

fermentation started strong, but by day 4 fermentation seemed to slow greatly, the rice does appear to be breaking down. I expect that I need to add some additional Koji rice, or just be more patient.

Any feedback would be GREAT!
 
Most of my experience making sake has been limited to the process outlined by Fred Eckhardt in his book Sake USA. The recipe I use makes 2 gallons and requires 2.5lbs of koji rice for every 10 lbs of polished short grain rice. The koji rice represents about 20%. Your recipe has 3kg with only 200 grams of koji rice, approximately 6.5%. It is possible that the EC-1118 has already consumed all of the converted sugar produced by the koii. If this is the case, the fermentation rates will slow down as the yeast start becoming dormant.

Adding more koji would probably help. Once the addition is made you should stir the mixture regularly. You could also look for jiuqu (酒曲 - see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiuqu) I believe that it is essentially a combination of koji and yeast. It is used to make Chinese rice wine (米酒). It will not have the same flavor as sake but it should be available in Thailand. I’m making my first batch of 米酒 now so we can compare notes if you go this route.

One other thing...
If getting good yeast is difficult you can always try to propagate it. My experience has been mostly with beer but I am starting to try to grow yeast cultures in rice syrup. I’m betting in Thailand you should be able to find rice syrup. It can be used like liquid malt extract. Add water until the SG is around 1.035 and use that to propagate your yeast. I like to pitch yeast nutrient with my rice syrup starters to ensure that they have enough supplemental nutrients.
 
Back
Top