Brew sake in glass carboy?

I'm working on my first batch of sake. Many recipes seem to call for using a bucket with an airlock, I think since it makes it easier to stir in the rice/koji additions. I would prefer to use something glass or stainless, so I'm trying to figure out if sake can be effectively brewed in a glass carboy? Thanks.

I started my kome koji. It is very interesting seeing the mold grow and how much heat that produces. It said to keep it at 86F, wow after a day or so the mold is growing and it smells 'cheese like' as they say, and it's staying at 88F without any added heat right now.

 

You can ferment in a carboy as long as you leave some head space for foaming.

Typically a bucket is used because they are bigger in volume than carboys. So when you rack into secondary fermentation, your head space is minimal.

 

Alright great thank you, I have 5g and 6.5g carboys available so maybe I will use a 6.5g primary with lots of headspace and rack into a 5g for finishing.

 

I've got a bag of expensive Japanese milled rice that's been sitting for the better part of this summer waiting for me to get off my but and make sake.
Man, I LOVE hot sake in the wintertime.
I gotta get with the program.

 

It does sound good! My kome koji is finished so I sealed the container inside two trash bags and put it in the fridge. Now if Home Depot ever gets my chest freezer delivered without smashing it up first I can actually start brewing.

I'm using Hime short grain rice I got from Amazon in 5 lb bags. I'm also trying some Lundeberg short grain sushi rice. I read mixed reports about using brown rice, I think I might actually like a brown rice version so I think I may try that also, except possibly still using white to make the kome koji.

I suppose the other option here would be use a 5g carboy and then a 3g carboy, to keep the volumes down a little bit ... hm ...

 

hey guys, sorry this might be a bit random, but is there an existing thread about brewing Sake? or if you guys have a good source for a kit or anything i would love to see it, I definitely want to brew sake before too long! thanks!!

 

There are some threads, if you use the Google searxch they come up. There is an excellent site I found for it wig tons of details and photos Taylor Meadak I think was the name.

 

ok great, thank you! i just didn't want to bumble into buying a kit without knowing what equipment i'm going to need... i basically just have a really basic home-brew setup at home so i wanted to make sure i can do my research... thanks again!

-k

 

Sake you need to be able to steam rice. And you need to buy kome mojo or make it from rice innoculated with the spores. Sake you need somewhere you can keep it around 50F during much of the brewing.

 

hm i might need to wait on Sake then, i don't really have a reliable temp control situation at my apartment, thanks!

 

Sounds good, pretty much people usually use a chest freezer with a temperature controller such as the STC-1000 it seems. But with the weather cooling off if you have a basement or stairwell you might still be able to make that work. Once it's below 50F outside on a regular basis, you could just put the carboy in a cooler or wrap it with a heat mat and insulation to keep it at 50F.

 

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

 

Hm the link is messed up, but yes Bob is one sharp cookie. I'm making sake by his instructions currently and he personally responded to e-mails with questions, the mark of a true enthusiast.

I did end up going with 6.5g class carboys for this brew. It was a little tricky learning how to get the rice through a funnel and into the carboy. A large mouth vessel would have been much easier no doubt. But it is brewing. And it smells absolutely unreal, especially the part of making kome koji from the spores. I'm hoping it comes out good. It was a blast getting the brews started. I did one white rice batch, and one brown rice batch just to see how it turns out.

 

Link is fixed up top.

 

Thank you. I used the Wyeast sake #9 and it is brewing away, both carboys just barely squeezed into a 7 cu ft GE upright freezer set at 50F via a STC-1000 build. Now to add a second level uptop for the sauerkraut crocks.

 

Yah I just bottled up about 8 gallons of Sake. About four made with all white rice, and the second four made with white for the moto, and then brown the rest of the way. They taste great. I left them in the carboys for a bit over two months, a bit longer than recommended, but I just couldn't get to bottling before now.

They taste pretty good already. I actually like the brown rice sake better. It is a bit astringent, but it tastes to me very much like grappa, which I also like.

So the glass carboys work fine, it's a little tricky getting the rice additions into it. A large funnel and wetting the rice well with the water before pouring into the funnel pretty much makes it pour right in. For mixing a wine aerator works well.

On getting it out, I put a drilled stopper and my racking gear onto the carboy, and then used an aquarium air pump to push the sake into my jugs. Then when it got down to the solids, the carboys were maybe 1/3 full so I was able to lift them out. Then I lined the funnel with cheesecloth, and poured the rice into it, and then let it drain through. I was surprised to get two plus gallons out of each carboy out of the rice solids, I didn't think it would contain that much. If I had a press I could've probably gotten even more.

That was a lot of work, but now to get a few more batches started!