Making Traditional Sake! The difference between it and Rice wine.

[saramc]

I bet 'bubble bags', ice extraction bags would work great for filtration. You can order a nested set, or the specific micron you desire. Just a thought.

 

[aiptasia]

Ok, the moto is back in the cold drop freezer set to 50f for a few days. I had to wait until 8 pm tonight to put it back into the cold. I hope it's fine. I noted more activity in the jar and a thin layer of clear liquid (presuming alcohol) along the surface of the glucose rice mass. One good shake later and back into the 50's it went. The moto smells like soft vanilla at this point.

 

[Arpolis]

Yup sounds like it is going well for ya. That soft vanilla smell lets you know you are on track. If it smells sour or tangy you know you have been running too warm and/or your yeast is not taking off.

 

[aiptasia]

No sourness on the nose. I'm going to be squeezing the rice lees on my third batch of rice wine today and will probably run it through thick layers of wet cheesecloth in my beer funnel. I'm out of campden tablets and sorbate at the moment, so i'll just have to pasteurize it to stop any further bacterial action before using the bentonite on it and cold crashing it. Should be a good experiment to see if I can clear up the rice wine. If that clears up, the sake should be no problem down the road.

 

[aiptasia]

Well, the bentonite was a little gritty but I was able to get a quarter cup's worth stirred up and added to 32 ounces of rice wine. I poured the bentonite in just before bottling, stirred it in good, then added the wine to the bottle to be pasteurized. I heated the water to 190f in my 40 quart pot, set in the 32 ounce swing top bottle and put a lid over the pot and cut off the heat. It sat in the water for ten minutes completely submerged and then I pulled the bottle out with tongs. Right now, the bottle is cold crashing in my fridge. I'm going to let it rest for another 24 hours to see how well it clarifies.

 

[aiptasia]

Home now. I had a lumbar puncture yesterday so I wasn't allowed to be all that mobile around the house so i've had to delay the second koji-adding step until today. The sake is still in the cold but I will be removing it shortly and adding the second amount of koji rice, which by my math is 31.9 grams this addition.

I can report that the bentonite addition into the rice wine worked extremely well in the steps I posted above. The 32 ounce swing top bottle that I used for the rice wine has 2/3rds clear liquid rice wine at the top and 1/3 murky white rice wine at the bottom. I'm going to attempt to carefully rack off the clear liquid later tonight into a smaller swing top bottle and bring it to my city's friendly bottle share tomorrow for sampling and appreciation.

I wish I had a small dosing pump and some aquarium tubing to use to rack it off. I don't want to siphon by mouth but it looks like I may have to do just that unless anyone knows of some good siphoning techniques using small tubing.

 

[aiptasia]

Ok, back to the Sake.... Moromi begins!

My medical procedure yesterday left me relatively immobile the rest of the day so I had to let the moto sit in the drop freezer an extra day. I removed the moto this morning in preparation for the main fermentation. I weighed out the 31.9 grams of dry koji rice, which was also cold. I store the dry koji rice in my kitchen fridge in the tub and inner plastic bag it was packaged in from the Japanese store. I added the dry koji to the moto starter and gently stirred it in prior to the starter coming up to room temperature. No off smells to report, just more vanilla and alcohol notes on the nose. It's now resting up to room temperature in my dark kitchen cabinet again.

Tomorrow, i'll add the second rice addition which calculates out to 157.9 dry grams of dry Kokhuo Rose sushi rice (then cooked in my rice steamer) and 258.1 grams of zepherhills bottled water. At this point, i'm really appreciating the large clear plastic tray on top of my digital kitchen scale. It may not be hugely accurate that scale, but it does make weighing out the ingredients very simple.

 

[Arpolis]

I used to do this back in the day. You need the following:

1) 2 small aquarium tubing. One long like a couple feet or more and another short like 4" - 6".
2) 1 large ballon
3) Scissors

Steps:

First sterilize all equipment as always.
Then place balloon over the top of the bottle.
Next cut the top of the ballon off leaving at least 1" - 1.5" of rubber ballon above the lip of the bottle.
Now place both the tubes in the bottle. The long one all the way to the bottom and the short just in past the top. The other end of the long tube goes into your new container.
Finally take your index finger and thumb and grasp both tubes pinching the rubber balloon around the tubes. Stretch the two tubes away from each other a little and that will close the rubber close together. Use your remaining fingers to try and keep the rubber balloon shut. Now you can blow on the short tube and that creates pressure on the inside of the bottle and forces the liquid out the long tube.

Tada!

 

[aiptasia]

I actually found a small dosing pump for $16 at a local aquarium shop. It's 3.5 gph, uses aquarium tubing and will pull and push fluid. I know that aquarium tubing is small enough to fit through the grommets of bottling buckets and rubber core corks, so it looks like I can rack just about any fluid oxygen free from one container to another. They even make a separate coarse mesh filter for it that looks like it can be sanitized with star san or idophor through the pump lines. It's a

 

[aiptasia]

The dosing pump worked extremely well. I was able to rack off about 22-24 ounces (out of 32) of crystal clear rice wine today. If the Sake reacts similarly to the bentonite/pasteurization/cold crash method, it should come out very clear without any filtration steps.

Moromi step one rice addition today. I steamed up 157.9 dry grams of sushi rice and let it cool a little bit in the steamer pan. I then stirred in 258.1 grams of cold zephyrhills bottled water into it to bring the temperature down even more and stirred it up with a sanitized plastic spoon. Once it was below 100 degrees (lowest temp my candy thermometer will read), I scooped and poured it into the jar with the koji rice and moto starter. Again, I stirred it up good for about 30 seconds, then capped it off with sanitized cheese cloth and the lid on top. It's now resting back in the dark kitchen cabinet.

The smell of the Moromi is still a nice, soft, pleasant vanilla scent. The last koji rice addition has absorbed quite a bit of the liquid and each grain looked nice and swollen floating around in there. Everything looks right on track.

 

[aiptasia]

Third koji rice addition at 63.9 ounces of dried koji rice added today. The last rice addition soaked up a great deal of the liquid and the jar contents are looking like a nice rice pudding. The smell is just that, a vanilla tapioca aroma that is much softer and less fruity than rice wine at a comparable age.

 

[aiptasia]

I noted the definite slow beginnings of fermentation. Very slight rate bubbling going on in the mash. I added the 3rd rice and cold water addition. The amounts of the third addition were 315.9 dry grams of sushi rice (then steamed) and 516.2 grams of water. I allowed the rice to cool for about ten minutes in the rice steamer and then mixed in the cold water to cool the rice the rest of the way under 100 degrees f. After placing the rice in the jar, I stirred up the mash using my sanitized rice spoon for about 30 seconds. Back into the cabinet it goes. One more set of koji and rice additions to go before a nice three week sleep in the drop freezer at 50f.

 

[aiptasia]

Fermentation is going strong. Added the last addition of Koji rice today, 127.9 grams dry koji. Definite warmth coming from the jar. Still has a strong vanilla scent although alcohol smell is becoming more prevalent. I'm going to put the fermenter back in the cold as soon as I can get the last rice addition added tomorrow.

 

[aiptasia]

Ooops, slight miscalculation somewhere either in the final volume of rice or the fact that my novelty bell jar i'm using for a fermenter might not be one gallon in capacity as advertised. I was only able to put approx. 1/2 of the final volume of rice (631.9 dry grams, steamed) and water (1032.4 grams) into the jar. I got as much in there as I could and stirred the heck out of it to squeeze in as many rice grains as possible.

Half of the final volume of rice and water had to go into a batch of rice wine that i'd just started last night. I didn't have any other clean fermenting jars or I would have divided the sake up into two batches. No matter, I can't worry about it right now. Into the cold it went. I'm uploading two pictures, one of which is the pre-final addition of rice and the other is just before it went into the drop freezer at 50f.

 

[Leadgolem]

I keep hesitating to start this kind of process. I don't have the ability to really control the fermentation temp, and I'm not a fan of tangy rice wine.

 

[aiptasia]

Temperature control is key. A lot of traditional sake breweries are seasonal and only brew during the winter months for that reason. Commercial breweries strictly control temperature throughout the entire process. Two other secrets i've learned from watching brewers in Japan are:

1) Thinning. Many sakes are thinned with water from the 18-20% ABV range to the 12-14% ABV range using pure water. This does have an effect on acidity as well as other flavors and alcohol levels.

2) Conditioning. Most sakes are conditioned for three to six months to mature any "green" sake flavors and allowing any remaining suspended yeast or rice flour to settle out.

 

[Arpolis]

Yea I only make this in the winter myself in the really cold months. I get temp fluctuations from time to time and may have temps get near 30's for a night or two but I still have great results. I am sure it would be better with precise temp controls but as long as I am cold when I need to be cold and warm when I need to be warm I get a nice brew.

 

[aiptasia]

As an aside, the jar that I added the overflowing koji, yeast and sushi rice from the final rice addition into is much further along in saccrification than it's sister jar of pure sushi rice (and yeast ball). There is a huge lake of glucose water taking up 1/3 of the jar in the center. The upper 1/3 is a thick mat of rice lees riddled with CO2 gas bubbles and the bottom 1/3 is a soup of melting rice fluid, koji and yeast water. Looks like the koji is just going to town on it.

 

[Arpolis]

That is what a proper sake slurry does. The yeast count and enzyme concentration should be much higher than in rice wines.

 

[aiptasia]

It's going to be interesting sampling what the warm fermented vs. the cold fermented alcohol tastes like.

 

[aiptasia]

I ordered copy of Sake USA by Fred Eckhardt. It arrived today and is in good condition except for some highlights and liner notes from a previous reader. Pretty funny reading his liner notes and his equipment list scribbled on the last page of the book. It's obvious to me the previous owner was a novice homebrewer (ex: Six airlocks on hand scratched equipment list for one 5 gallon fermenter?!) who probably brewed one or two batches and shelved the book for good.

 

[aiptasia]

Ok, I just sampled and bottled 48 ounces of the accidental mixture I made with the overflow rice from the Sake jar and the rice wine. I yielded a little over 48 fluid ounces of straw golden Sake from the batch brewing at room temperatures for two weeks. The addition of the overflow koji starter and lalvin yeast had a dramatically increased effect on the decomposition of the rice starches and the overall taste of the final product. There was much more liquid after the final lees pressing.

I did my usual routine of 1/2 cup of hot water to 1/2 teaspoon of bentonite mixed into the liquid in a sanitized bowl, a nice slow trickle making sure it mixed in thoroughly. I then took the bowl and poured it back into the cleaned and sanitized cracker jar and pasteurized the whole batch. I then shook up the wine good to re-mix the bentonite and let it cold crash in the fridge for 48 hours. The remaining oji (lees and yeast) fell like a rock into an almost gel-like layer 1/4" all along the bottom of the cracker jar.

I used my trusty aqua-lifter aquarium pump to mechanically siphon off the clear liquid into four 12 ounce flensburger amber swing top bottles and then re-pasteurized them for good measure as one or more of them will probably wind up a gift for friends. I want to age at least one bottle a good two months in the cold to see how it matures.

The color is a very clear straw color. You might not notice the yellow color except when you place it against a white background.

The taste is very Sake-like. It is dry and floral with alcohol and mineral notes. There is only the slightest amount of acidity, especially in comparison to some of the Chinese jiu's i've produced. I'm thinking with some cold conditioning, the alcohol and acidity of the young Sake will mellow quite well.

It's interesting to note how assertive the Koji and the Lalvin yeast completely dominated the fermentation in comparison to the Chinese yeast ball that was already in the batch. I'm sure that the yeast and mold from the yeast ball just never got a good foothold and the koji and lalvin yeast just beat it to the punch. I also detected no real off flavors from room temperature fermentation. It tasted like perfectly acceptable table Sake and will probably improve with age.

I can't wait to sample the traditionally made gallon of Sake around this time next week!

 

[Arpolis]

Yea lalvin K1v-1116 I have heard described as the original killer yeast. When put in the presence of most yeast types it will out compete them. I will be interested in seeing some tasting notes between the warm fermented Rice wine/Sake and the traditional Sake.

 

[aiptasia]

The three week fermentation mark is tomorrow. I can't wait.

 

[Arpolis]

hope it is all you want it to be.

 

[Baileisdad]

Ok now I was just wondering if anyone has added honey to the rice before adding yeast balls Maybe a mead saki. I might try this unless someone has a reason not to.

 

[aiptasia]

Ok now I was just wondering if anyone has added honey to the rice before adding yeast balls Maybe a mead saki. I might try this unless someone has a reason not to.

It's not necessary. Junmai Sake, which covers all forms of traditional Sake, adheres to a strict purity law similar to the German purity law for beer. The only ingredients allowed are: Rice, Water, Koji and yeast.

Yeast balls aren't used because there's no telling what types of bacteria and fungus are inside of that ball. They're typically local yeasts and fungus in the areas of Asia where the yeast balls are made. The Japanese like things a little more pure and controllable than that these days and strictly use one of about twenty types of yeasts approved by the Japanese Sake Council and only pure kome-koji to break down the rice and feed those yeast strains.

Home brewing in Japan is illegal, and recipes for Sake are tightly controlled and can take decades for a Toji (head brewer) to develop. Sake consumption is actually in decline in Japan although it is on the rise elsewhere in the world. With home brewing being legal in the USA, and with our natural curiosity to try to brew any flavor we can think of in beer, wine or any spirits, people are welcome to experiment and do some non-traditional brewing.

IMHO, adding honey to the Sake would be difficult to do during the ferment because honey is nearly 100% fermentable. It would only dry out the Sake and lend no sweetness or honey flavor to it in the ferment. Your best option for adding honey to back sweeten and flavor your Sake would be after you've fermented it, but before you pasteurized it.

 

[Arpolis]

Another point to honey in the primary is that honey is natures natural anti bacterial and anti fungel salve. If you add honey to a rice wine using the yeast ball or traditional sake then the honey may slow or inhibit the growth of the funguses needed to sacchrafy the rice starches into ferment able sugars. If you want a honey character I agree to add it only if back sweetening.

 

[Baileisdad]

Awesome good points. Thanks I will try to back sweeten with it. Still think I will do a all batch for experimenting purpose.

 

[aiptasia]

Another point to honey in the primary is that honey is natures natural anti bacterial and anti fungel salve. If you add honey to a rice wine using the yeast ball or traditional sake then the honey may slow or inhibit the growth of the funguses needed to sacchrafy the rice starches into ferment able sugars. If you want a honey character I agree to add it only if back sweetening.

Honey is antimicrobial first because of the pH level and also for the propolis (containing various acids from plant sap). The average pH of honey is around 3.9 but it can vary a little from hive to hive. This is much more acidic than a lot of microbes can handle and the main reason why honey remains largely microbial free.

Just like star san acid sanitizer, once the pH of the honey is diluted with water above 5.0 on the pH scale, it loses it's antibiotic properties. Considering that honey is full of micro bits of antennae, bee hairs, pollen, tree and plant saps, you might consider adding the honey right after pressing the lees on your rice as a back sweetener, but then definitely pasteurizing the Sake or Rice Wine in a hot water bath to kill off any microbes accidentally introduced by the honey.