Scaling sake recipes

So I've got my sake happily fermenting away in my closet now, but I've made a teensy mistake: I made more kome koji (malt rice) than I needed for the recipe. So I was thinking the best way to use it would be to toss it in with some more steamed rice and water, thus scaling up the recipe. But in what proportions should I add them?

On a related note, once this batch is complete and I have a nice trub layer established, after racking off the current batch can I just toss more rice and water in? I suppose it's a matter of whether you add the kome koji in to break down all of the rice, or whether the koji only effects the rice it is on. If it's to break down all the rice, then I have to imagine that just adding more rice would be fine; the koji population should be sufficiently high already...

Thanks in advance!

No love ?

this is your first batch isn't it?

In the end you will not have clear brew on top of trub like in beer. You will have a sludge of partially broken down rice and alcohol. You then place it in bags to strain either by dripping and pressure (from multiple bags pressing each other and gravity) which is traditional or you use a wine press. You will then be left with lees which I have wondered myself whether they are viable to start a new batch from. i have never tried because generally speaking by the time the batch is done I am tired of tending it and not ready to start a new one.

As to your first question. How much extra did you make? If it is not an incredible large amount just add it to this batch. It will only help and should not hurt. What yeast are you using btw? Just curious. I have tried many yeasts including wyeast sake. All of my brews end up on the sweet side so I am thinking of adding champagne to the next as I like a bit of a drier sake.

Another thing you may find is that it has a bit of an "off" taste from commercal sake no matter how exacting you are. I believe personally this is do to using regular eating sweet rice as opposed to the very highly polished rice they use in commercial breweries. The regular rice has more fattty starches left on the outer art which can get a bit "rancid". Though I still enjoy my sake thoroughly, some folks find it off-putting. Just a thought. Good luck.

oh, and if you want to still scale it up let me know the measurements you have going on now and I will try and help...

when I am a bit more sober.


Gun-Bae!

Thanks, Zero!

Yes, it is my first. I figured earlier that I was gonna need to strain; it's pretty chunky in there with no signs of that ending . And yes, I'm using the wyeast sake yeast...Here's to hoping it dries up ok.

I have around two cups extra kome koji; Fred's recipe calls for 5 cups, so it's a pretty significant amount. Otherwise I probably would have just pitched it .

Partially the reason I'm curious as to whether the lees can be used like a yeast cake is because I believe that it would significantly decrease the amount of babying that it needs; most of the work comes from needing to step it up so many times. If you can avoid that and just dump 15 lbs of rice (2 batches for me) into the fermenter, then your only work is to stir twice a day. No prob.

As for compared to commercial, I don't have too much experience with it on that side; it's hard to find and expensive when you do. A large part of the reason I wanted to make my own .

Thanks again,
Eddie

Mmm, definitely on my to do list is Sake. Which brand of rice have you cats been using, Nishiki? I'll probably use Kohuko Rose or some other form of short grain available.

hey Eddie,

sorry I did not get back to you. I would go ahead and throw the 2 cups in there, or put it in a freezer storage bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and freeze it. You can then save it for your next batch. That way next time you won't have to make as much koji. It keeps pretty well for a few months.

zoebisch01 said:

Mmm, definitely on my to do list is Sake. Which brand of rice have you cats been using, Nishiki? I'll probably use Kohuko Rose or some other form of short grain available.

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I have used nishiki and kohuko rose. They are medium grain rice. Short grain also called "sweet rice" is better. Sho-chiku-bai from Koda farms is one short grain I have used. Watch out though, there is a long grain variety of rice from southeast asian countries that is called "sweet rice", you do not want that. Any Japanese or Korean "sweet rice" you can fine will work well. It is the rice used mainly for making deserts such as duk (korean) or mochi (Japanese) little semi sweet rice confections/dumplings.

I have read about people polishing their own rice or buying it from sake breweries. Polishing your own seems pretty involved from the examples I have seen. Anything from using a small rock tumbler and doing MANY small batches to get the amount needed, to rigging up a tumbler in a clothes dryer with the heat disconnected!

I'm using Nishiki, myself. Started off with a sushi rice, though. Thanks for the info on the rice; I'll print that out when I go on a rice run again .

I'll probably just toss it in, then. I made the koji up several months ago and have been storing it in a pot in my freezer. So I'm kinda pushing the expected lifespan, and I also kinda want my freezer space back.

Still in primary ferment after a week or so. Sheesh.

How did this work out for you?