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