Sake Flashcards
What does Junmai mean?
Milling the rice grain down to 70 % max (prior to 2004)
- Provided the producer prints the term seimaibuai on the label, and uses only water, rice, and koji, the milling percentage may now be higher than 70%.
What does Seimaibuai mean?
Provided the producer prints the term seimaibuai on the label, and uses only water, rice, and koji, the milling percentage may now be higher than 70%.
What does Honjozo mean?
Milling the rice grain down to a maximum of 70% remaining
- A slight amount of brewer’s alcohol (pure distillate) is added to the sake before pressing.
- Type of sake that allows a small amount of brewer’s alcohol added for texture and lighten the sake
- Originally used as a way to compensate for shortage of rice after WWII
- Today, it isn’t considered an inferior product just a different style creating a more mineral driven, cleaner sake
What does Ginjo mean?
Milling the rice grain down to a maximum of 60% remaining
- If labeled Ginjo, the sake will be honjozo in style, with brewer’s alcohol added. If no distilled alcohol is added, it will be labeled Junmai Ginjo.
What does Daiginjo mean?
Milling the rice grain down to a maximum of 50% remaining
- If labeled Daiginjo, the sake will be honjozo in style, with brewer’s alcohol added. If no distilled alcohol is added, it will be labeled Junmai Daiginjo.
What is namazake?
unpasteurized sake
What is namazake?
unpasteurized sake
What is nigorizake?
unfiltered sake
What is taruzake?
sake aged in wooden barrels
What is Jizake?
sake from a smaller kura (brewery)
What is genshu sake?
undiluted sake
What are Izakayas?
Izakayas are neighborhood pubs
What is Nihoshu?
Nihonshu translates to “Japanese alcohol”
What is Seishu?
Seishu translate to “clear alcohol”
When was the first Imperial Sake brewing department established?
The first imperial Sake brewing department was established in Nara, Japan in 689 AD
○ Used and produced in imperial court, temples and shrines, not unlike how churches in Europe managed winemaking
Describe the 1943 Japenese goverment sake class grading system
Special Class - Tokkyu
First Class - Ikkyu
Second Class - Nikyu
When and where was the first pure-Junmai created?
1968, the first pure-junmai (translates to pure rice alcohol) was being produced by Chiyonosono from Kumamoto Prefecture
When were preservatives banned from sake?
1969
When was the junmai system, which has more stringent controls on everything from polishing to additives implemented?
1991
What are the only ingredients allowed in Sake by law?
Rice
Water
Yeast
Koji mold
Brewer’s spirit (distilled alcohol)
What does Junmai translate to?
Pure rice
- no brewer’s spirit/alcohol
- Seimaibuai must be state on the label but by law there is no minimum
- Seimaibuai of 70% or less is typical
- Usually more robust, structured and umami driven
- Referred to as aji which means flavorful
- Made with only rice, water yeast and koji mold
- NO BREWER’S ALCOHOL
What is Arukouru Tenka or Aruten?
Made of all 5 ingredients
- Rice
- Water
- Yeast
- Koji mold
- Brewer’s Spirit (distilled alcohol)
Honjozo, Ginjo, Daiginjo
What is Arukouru Tenka or Aruten?
Made of all 5 ingredients
- Rice
- Water
- Yeast
- Koji mold
- Brewer’s Spirit (distilled alcohol)
Honjozo, Ginjo, Daiginjo
What is used to for Brewer’s spirit?
Jozo-alcohol
- Made from distilled rice or sugar beet
- Unaged, colorless, flavorless
- Can be produced anywhere
- Japan’s National Tax agency states that the ABV of jozo-alcohol cannot exceed 95% (usually diluted to 30%) and that its weight in the final product must not exceed 10% of the weight of the polished rice
What is Kakomai vs Sakami?
Kakomi
- table rice varieties
- allowed for sake but stickier and harder to work with
Sakami
- Sake rice type
- Over 80 are officially recognized for sake production
- Tend to be heavier and about 25% taller than table rice
- Has a unique ratio of fat and protein on the outside
**Growing sake rice is hard than table rice due to wind and top-heavy crops
Up to 3x more expensive as a result
**
What is Shinpaku?
concentrated starchy center of sake rice grain
What does sake naturally ferment to?
What is it often sold at and why?
Sake ferments naturally to about 8% to 20% alcohol
- To avoid taxes, usually diluted to around 15%
- Must be lower than 22%
What determines “Organic Sake”?
Organic sake is determined by the paddy not the methods used inside a brewery
- Certified Organic Sake must come from a rice paddy that has been free from synthetic products for a minimum of 3 years
What in “ine”
Rice grains - After flowering and self-pollination, the ine (rice grains) begin to appear from the center of the stalk
What are grades of sake rice?
After harvest, rice is stripped from the ears and separated into 5 size categories
- Santoh - Grade 3
- Nittoh - Grade 2
- Ittoh - Grade 1
- Tokuto - Special Grade
- Tokujo - Higher Special Grade
What is Tokutei meisho-shu?
Means “special designation” or “premium” sake must be made from one of the 5 size categories above
- Makes up for 26% of total Sake production
Rice cannot have any preservative, coloring agents, flavors, or fragrances added during or after production by law
What is a seimaki?
Sake rice is polished using a machine called a “seimaki”
- Operates 24 hours a day, staffed by 3 kurabito (brewery workers) on rotating shifts
- Breweries that do have their own machine will often provide milling services for other smaller breweries
What is genmai?
Seimai - Milling process
Begins with brown rice called genmai
What is seimaibuai?
- The amount of rice remaining after polishing
- 68% means that 32% of the outer layer was removed
Further polishing takes more time, increasing risk of damage
- It takes 50 hours to polish a grain of rice to 50% of it’s original size
- 50% seimaibuai
It would take an additional 50 hours to remove 15% more
- 30% seimaibuai
- Experimental levels of seimaibaui have reached as low as 6% but rare and considered not worth the effort
- Hakurankusei, a producer from Miyagi in northern Japan used a milling roller made with diamond crystals said to cost 3 million USD
- Released a 7% seimaibuai Junmai Daiginjo
- Lower seimaibuai leads to a more elegant, delicate and vibrant aromatic sake
- Lower seimaibuai leads a more rustic, savory sake
What is Futushu?
- 75% of Sake produced in Japan
- No Seimaibuai minimum
- Additive are less prohibitive
- Simpler tax legislation
- A few microbreweries, such as Ibaraki Shuzo in Hyogo Prefecture, use this category to make some unique declassified sakes but still rare
What is Tokubetsu?
Tokubetsu means special
Must either be polished to at least 60% seimaibuai or diverge from the producer’s usual method
- If diverging from usual method, this change must be specified on the label
List the steps of production for sake
What is a Kura?
Sake Producer
What is a Toji?
Brewmaster
- Toji study at toji shudan (schools) or toji ryuha (guilds)
- 26 exist today
- Echigo Toji in Niigata, Nanbu Toji in Iwate and Tanba Toji in Hyogo are considered very prestigious
- Toji guilds were created at the end of the 18th century for identity and knowledge
- Most toji study near their hometown
What is Karashi kikan?
- Cooling period where batches are separated for their intended purpose
- Kojimai - Most will be used for the day’s yeast starter, called the moto or shubo
- This rice has to be cooked a little further than the normal rice used in sake production so that the non-koji rice (kakemai) is always at the bottom of the steaming tank while the koji rice (kojimai) is at the top for a gentler steam
- Kakemai - The rest of the rice, 20-40% will be moved to the koji room, or koji muro
What is Koji Muro?
Koji Room
What is Koji?
- Koji mold is the name of the product sprinkled on the rice and the resulting product is simply called Koji
- Found in ambient environments throughout Asia
- Discovered in China but Japan has championed it as their own
- Dedicated research centers exist in Japan
- There are less than 10 koji mold producers in Japan
- They all produce an array of koji however
- Koji is chosen by Toji based on…
—– Acidity
—– Potential alcohol
—– Aromatic potential
—– Kind of Rice - To produce a single tank of sake, 100 grams of koji mold is used
- Koji is also used for fermentation in miso, soy sauce and mirin
- Koji used for sake production is yellow koji (Apergillus oryzae)
- Black and white koji are used for shochu production
- When sake is produced using non- or low-alcohol yeast it is called amazake
- Sweet, fruity, congee-textured drink consumed by kids and praised for health benefits
- Koji rests for 24 hours before being moved to a more precise temperature-control system of wooden trays and boxes for further propagation and mixing to even distribution of koji mold
- After two days, it is moved out of koji muro to stop the spread of the spores and prepare it for the yeast starter
- At this point it looks like the rice has frosting on it and has a sweet taste of frosted flakes, rofl
- Machines can do this process but most quality koji production is done by hand
What prevents unwanted bacteria after the koji process?
Lactic Acid
What prevents unwanted bacteria after the koji process?
Lactic Acid
What are the methods for cultivating lactic acid?
Kimoto Method
□ Traditional method of cultivating lactic acid bacteria
□ Worked pound the mash with large wooden poles for hours at a time
□ Natural nitrous bacteria exist in water and create a nitrous-reducing acids which kill unwanted bacteria
® Lactic acid bacteria grow in that nutrient deficient environment
□ At 10% ABV, the lactic acid bacteria cannot survive, so the moto will be transferred before that
□ Takes 1 month
Yamahai Method
□ Discovered in 1909
□ Lactic acid bacteria can still form on the top of the moto and protect the sake through fermentation
□ Takes 1 month
□ Results in more vibrant, gamier, high in acid and fruity
Sokujo Method
□ Discovered in 1911
□ Lactic acid is added to the moto
□ Shortens the process to 2 weeks
□ Most used method today
□ Most efficient
Bodaimoto Method
□ Discovered in the 8th century by Bodai monks
□ Mixed steamed rice with raw rice and water to encourage lactic acid bacteria
□ Yeast then took over
What is Sandan shikomi?
- Rice, water and a little extra koji additions are made when the yeast concentration hits a certain level
- Added in 3 stages over a 6 day period in a process called Sandan shikomi
- Sandan shikomi
—– Hatsu-Zoe
—– Naka-Zoe
—– Tome-Zoe
How long can one batch of sake take to make?
- The mash will ferment for just over 30 days
- Depending on lactic acid bacteria cultivation method, one batch of sake make take just over 60 days to make
What is Moromi
Multiple Parallel Fermentation
- Continues until it is stopped naturally or by the Toji
- Temperature, sugar content and alcohol are monitored during the fermentation
—– Heating and cooling through jackets can be used to coax yeast
—– Tested throughout process for unwanted bacteria
What are different pressing methods used for sake?
- Most common method is to use a balloon press air compressor, assakuki, most popular brand is Yabuta
- Looks like a giant accordion, it inflates and squeezes sake through a mesh surface
- The air compressor is considered by many, to not be gentle enough for Jumai Ginjo or Junmai Daiginjjo
Fune, box Press
- Contains porous cloth filter bags that are slowly filled by hand with sake and pressure is applied from above
- Bags are called Shibori fukuro
- Creates a more delicate sake but higher risk of oxidation
Shizuku, fukuro-tsuri
- Tear drop or gravity press, hanging bag (bag is called sakabukuro)
- Often only used for Junmai Daiginjo reserved for Japan’s national sake competitions
- The most delicate method
- Bag is hung inside a tank and only what drops out of the bag is bottled
- 1 bag holds about 15 liters of fermented moromi and yield about 6 liters of free run juice
- The rest of the bag is sent through a fune for other sakes
What are the categories of pressings?
Arabashiri - first run
□ Barely cloudy
□ Can be rough in texture but flavors and aromas are more delicate
Nakagumi
□ AKA Nakadori or taken from the middle
□ Considered the best of 3 stages
□ Greatest balance and structure
□ Often separated and reserved for competitions
Seme - Final Run
□ May be included in sake productions but never used on its own
What is Muroka?
Non charcoal filtered sake
Sometimes but not always appears on labels
Retains natural greenish-yellow tinge as well as the impurities that can make sake taste raw
**Charcoal filtration was created in the 1960s in the Chubu Area of Niiggata but originally done in secret to hide the unique process from competitors
**
What Hiire-sake?
Twice pasteurized sake
What is nama, hon-nama, or namazake?
Unpasteurized sake
- Must be stored at a very low temperature
What is namazume?
Sake pasteurized in tank but not bottle is called namazume
Is most sake certified?
Yes
- Deactivates heat-sensitive enzymes left over from fermentation process
- Flash pasteurizations that happen at 149 degrees F
What date is required to be on sake labels?
The bottling date, not production date
How long is most sake matured in tank?
Matured in tank for 2-6 months on average
- Often at below zero temperatures
- In 1975, Dewazakura in Yamagata became the first brewery to build a storage facility that maintained a constant low temperature
- In 1991, they developed a system for a system for maintaining optimal temperature of -5 degrees celsius
What is a masu?
Cedar is important in Japan
- 180 milliliter masu (small wooden box) traditionally used for drinking sake was often made of Japanese cedar
What is taru?
- Barrel aged sake
- Most commonly for religious purposes
- Some producers are well-known for their taruzake
—– Choryo in Nara Prefecture - Flavor is strong
- Length of time is not regulated
- Can be as short as hours or days
What is a koku?
Volumes of production are recorded for tax purposes using the measurement koku, 180 liters
What does BY mean?
Brewing Year
What does a brewery display to indicate their sake is ready to sell?
When the first sake of the year is ready for sale, the brewery will hang a ball of cedar branches called a sugidama (sugi means cedar) outside of the brewery
- The needles are green when hung but by the end of the season grow brown, a symbol of the seasons end
What does a brewery display to indicate their sake is ready to sell?
When the first sake of the year is ready for sale, the brewery will hang a ball of cedar branches called a sugidama (sugi means cedar) outside of the brewery
- The needles are green when hung but by the end of the season grow brown, a symbol of the seasons end
What is Sake Nouveau?
- Unpasteurized, undiluted, on-charcoal filtered, freshly squeezed
- AKA Muroka Nama Genshu Shiboritate
- Bright, vibrant, crisp and refreshing
—– Sometimes slightly sparkling - Very sought after by sake enthusiasts
- Often new sake is submitted to the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyoukai
—– A nationwide new sake competition held since 1910 - Victor gets bragging rights for 1 year
What is shinshu?
Any sake released in the brewing year is called shinshu
- “new sake”
What is Hiyaoroshi?
Pasteurized sake that has been resting in tank the whole year
Rounder and more mellow
What is Natsunama?
Stored in the brewery and released in the summer
Often pasteurized but not mandatory
What is Koshu?
“Aged sake”
Sake brewed in one year and bottled the next
Can be released after one year or several
Sake oxidizes and takes on a dark color over time so color can be an indicator of this style
What is Ogoshu?
“Extra aged sake”
Anything produced more than one brewing year ago
Who is famous for releasing some of the nations oldest sakes?
Kyoto’s Tsukino Katsura is a brewery established in 1675 that is famous for releasing some of the nation koshu after 50 years of aging
What percentage finished sake is water?
80%
What is Miyamizu?
“Shrine water”
Runs down Mount Rokko in Hyogo Prefecture into the historical Nada area
This water is used for 25% of all sake produced
What is considered ideal water for sake?
Low in iron to avoid oxidation and adverse reaction with amino acid
Low in manganese to avoid discoloration
High levels of potassium and magnesium
How does hard vs soft water affect sake ferment?
Harder water makes for a faster ferment
Softer water is better for slow, cooler ferments
Most Japanese water is considered soft (compared to other beer producing regions that flex on their water) but there are hard pockets
What is Genshu?
Undiluted sake
Water added alters the original alcohol level by less than 1%
Must be noted on the label
What is Nihon Jouzou Kyoukai?
Japan Brewing Society
Has sold, monitored, maintained and researched yeast for over 100 years
Yeasts can be discovered through spontaneous fermentation and take to the society for cultivation and selling to other kura
Yeast no. 7, AKA Nanago, Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nanago in 1946
What does the suffix “01” on a yeast strain mean?
Suffix “01” added to any yeast name indicates it is non-foaming
What does Ki-ippon mean?
Breweries can append Ki-ippon to any of their Junmai level sake to show the entire place of origin came from a single place of origin
Where does most rice for sake come from?
Most sake is produced with rice native to the region of production
What are Ishikawa and Yamagata?
Ishikawa and Yamagata Gis have globally recognizable AOC status
What Yamada Nishiki?
Most famous rice strain for sake
- A cross between the Yamadaho and Watari Bune rice made in 1936
- Gold standard for sake production
- Expensive and difficult to work with
- Complex sakes with subtle fruit
- Hyogo is often regarded as the best place to grow it
- Hyogo is now working on a new variety called Hyogo Nishiki with the hopes it outperforms Yamada Nishiki
What prefectures have rice standards for labeling the prefecture?
- Niigata - Sake must be made with Niigata rice
- Hokkaido - Requires 70% seimaibuai and Junmai
- Saga - annual judging but no min seimaibuai
- Hiroshima - Saijo Sake is only granted if the rice is from Hiroshima, the water is untreated, the water source is the brewery, minimum seimaibuai is 55% and traditional sake production methods employed
What is Gohyakumangoku?
Rice strain that creates leaner, cleaner styles of sake
What is Omachi?
Rice strain - Oldest rice in production dating back to 1859
What is nigorizake?
Nigorizake
- AKA Nigori sake
- Known for cloudy appearance
- Bottled with lees
- A looser mesh is used during the pressing process which allows more kasu to pass through it
—– Some brewers press as normal and add kasu back later because it’s unregulated
- It’s technically not “unfiltered” because to a sake brewer, filtering is the process of passing the fermented moromi through activate charcoal
- Some call it coarse pass or cloudy sake
- Ranges from light bodied and dry to rich, sweet and thick
What is Usunigori?
Usunigori
- A slightly cloudy sake
- Fine mesh wasn’t used until the 8th century
- Often views nigori as a traditional style
- Was made illegal by government by the end of 19th century
- Tsukino Katsura is credited with revitalizing nigorizake in 1964
- Created a modern method controlling the amount of kasu in the bottles
Describe Sparkling Sake
Sparkling Sake
- Moromi fermentation can be arrested while the sake is at just 8% ABV
- The brewer adds rice-based liqueur de tirage to induce the second fermentation in bottle
- No official production method
- Low acidity
- Many are cloyingly sweet
- Bunraku in Saitama Prefecture puts their sake through malo, and performs remuage by hand to create a balanced, expressive sparkling sake
- Force injection is common as well as Charmat
What is red sake?
Red Sake
- AKA akazake
- Can be made with unapproved rice varieties letting their pigment bleed into the moromi
- In Kumamoto, ash is added during production
- In Niigata, a red red koji is used
- Some yeast strains give a red tint
- Some sake is left to oxidize until it takes on color
- Term is unregulated so a bunch of shit is cool
What is Kijoshu?
Rare style where junmai-shu, not water is added toward the end of the sandan shikomi process bringing the abv to 9 -10%
Hiroshima’s Hanahato famously releases a sweet, mellow eight-year-aged Kijoshu
What is Zenkoji?
AKA All Koji
Using 100% koji and no steamed rice
Ages quickly
Naturally sweeter
What is Tomizu?
150 year old method
Moromi has a 1:1 water-to-rice ratio by weight
What is Nihonshu-do?
- AKA Sake Meter Value, SMV
- Measurement of specific gravity in sake
—– Density of sake compared to the density of water - It is 4x more accurate than the Baume scale used in beer and wine
- Ranges from -4 to +14
—– Higher is drier - Mentioned during brewing but not on labeling
- Very specific measurement not considering factors like acid and other perceptive factors
What does San-do?
§ Acidity
Number refers to the milliliters of liquid sodium hydroxide that would be required to neutralize 10 milliliters of sake and typically ranges from about 0.8 (Sweeter) to 2.0 (drier)
What does Amino Acid contribute to sake?
Contributes to flavor and longevity of sake
The level of amino acid may be noted as the number of milliliters of liquid sodium hydroxide plus formalin required to neutralize 10 milliliters of sake.
Between 0.8 and 1.2
- Lower means delicate, watery if very extreme
- Higher means richer, cloying if extreme
High ages faster
What does Karakuchi mean?
Dry
What does amakuchi mean?
sweet
What does kaori mean?
aromatic
What does aji mean?
textural, savory
What is required by law on a sake label?
- Liquid volume
- Product type
—– Nihonshu and seishu are acceptable - Bottling date
- Brewery name and address
- Alcohol content
- Waring about selling to minors
What are the storage guidelines for sake?
- Best to keep out of sun
- At constant temps if not in fridge
- Sake shops wrap bottles in newspaper to avoid UV exposure
- No cork, so it can be stored upright
- Hi-occhi or hine
—– Sake that has gone back due to heat or oxidation and becomes overly sweet and heady, producing a white foaming sediment - TCA is possible even without a cork but rare
What are the temperature guidelines for sake service?
- Most sake should not be served hot
- Rounder heavier sake is served warmer
- More delicate sake is served colder
- At room temperature sake shows more depth and richness
- Warmer exposes more flaws
- Too warm and many aromas are lost
- Unpasteurized, fruit forward, delicate or aromatic sake should be served colder
What is a chirori?
Sake is warmed with a small cooper vessel called a Chirori
Placed in a warming apparatus called an okanban
Okanban is also used to describe to person warming the sake
What are the bottle size of sake?
Sake is portion out in multiples of 90
- 720 ml - Yongo
-1,800 ml - issho-bin
- 360 ml - Tokkuri
- 90 ml - ichi-go
- 180 ml - ni-go
What is an ochoko?
Small white porcelain cup to drink sake
What is a sakazuki?
How many prefectures of Japan produce Sake?
a. 1
b. 47
c. 3
d. 139
47
What is the difference between Koji and Koji-Kin
Koji is steamed rice on which mold grows. Koji-Kin is the mold.
What is Yamada Nishiki?
a. Unflitered Sake
b. Japan’s Northern-most prefecture
c. The pure starch, fermentable, heart of the rice grain
d. The variety of rice best suited to quality Sake production
d. The variety of rice best suited to quality Sake production
Seimaibuai, Moto & Moromi are all
a. Sake production terms
b. High quality prefectures
c. Famous breweries
d. Serving vessels
a. Sake production terms
Tokkuri, Ochoko & Sakazuki are all
a. Sake production terms
b. High quality prefectures
c. Famous breweries
d. Serving vessels
d. Serving vessels
What does the term ‘Karakuchi’ indicate about the taste of a Sake?
Dry
What does the term ‘Amakuchi’ indicate about the taste of a Sake?
Sweet
Define the ‘Honjozo’ style
Brewers alcohol is added
What is ‘Genshu’ style sake?
a. Unpasturized
b. Undiluted
c. Barrel Aged
d. Unfiltered
b. Undiluted
What does a negative number on the Nihonshu-do indicate?
The Sake will be swee
