Anybody use amylase enzyme?

[ccostel]

I have made a few batches of traditional sake using directions from Taylor's site. I always have trouble buying koji and end up making it from spores. I was wondering if anybody has tried using amylase enzyme to do the conversion.

 

[Arpolis]

You can do that and it will technically work. But there is a huge flavor difference in the end product. Last time I tried that the sake-ish whatever was really harsh on the alcohol hot and had no depth in flavor. It was a very small batch and was not allowed to age at all so not a whole lot of experience past that.

 

[brooklynkayak]

You could do like they do in some places and chew and spit out your grain, using saliva as the amylase.
But I suspect you don't want to go the natural route

 

[Arpolis]

You could do like they do in some places and chew and spit out your grain, using saliva as the amylase.
But I suspect you don't want to go the natural route

Lol I was serious about doing a 1 gallon version of this that is supposed to have grains and banana but the wife told me I can never do that. It is too gross for her.

 

[ccostel]

Not sure I could bring myself to drink the Chi Cha beer...

 

[viking88]

I read somewhere that when using amylase enzyme some wheat dme addition as a syrup was advisable as its often what they culture the amylase in. I'm going to give it a try.

 

[ccostel]

I haven't gotten back to trying this yet, but curious how yours turns out. Been busy brewing other homebrew and Meade.

 

[CalSake]

At this point I have brewed dozens of batches of sake. Every one I did with the amylase enzyme was totally undrinkable. It was far quicker, like less than one day to convert 100% of the starch, but I couldn't stomach the flavor.

Stick with the koji culture, unless you desperately need something to drink tomorrow.

 

[ccostel]

Thanks for the input!

 

[Laowai]

If you have trouble buying koji or do not feel like making it from spores you can buy rice inoculated with koji from F H Steinbart. They sell a 40oz koji culture that you can use to make a 2 gallon batch of sake (you'll still need about 10 lbs of rice as well).