Unfiltered sake starter?

[HawleyFarms]

Ok so i'll be up front on this. I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about making sake. I have part of a bottle of Ozeki Nigori unfiltered sake. Is there viable yeast in it? And can it be used to make a starter for brewing? Or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

 

[bruhops]

Most commercial sake is pasteurized ,if it says that on the bottle you are probably out of luck.The yeast would be dead. If you want a cheap sake yeast try Lalvin EC-1118 Saccharomyces bayanus Not exactly a registered sake yeast but a great yeast for sake and able to handle the cold and high alcohol inherent in the process. Should be very easy to come by in any homebrew store. Yeast harvesting is a task worthy of large brewers not worth it for up to 5 gallon batches .

 

[HawleyFarms]

I do have some 1118. Haven't ever tried to brew rice wine before though so I thought i'd ask.

I harvest yeast all the time from my beer, wine and mead batches just wasn't sure whether or not it could be done with unfiltered sake. I figured it might be pasteurized and therefore a no-go. Neither of my lhbs's have any sake supplies and I don't really have making it in my plans for the near future but thought i'd ask anyway

 

[bruhops]

Do you culture the yeast in petri dishes, or just wash it and keep the suspended culture. How long does it last for you.

 

[HawleyFarms]

No culturing here. And to be honest, I only wash about 50% of the time. I usually don't keep it around long since I have so many carboys. I think I've only held on to it around 3 weeks and it was some US05. But there are people on here who talk about having kept washed yeast around for a year. I certainly wouldn't recommend saving it that long without washing out the trub first. The only time I don't wash is if I am bottling a batch while I am boiling the next batch.