Sake Guide General/History Flashcards
How long has Sake been produced?
2000 years
What is Jizake?
microbreweries in sake production
How many sake breweries are there in Japan?
500-1500
Why is it incorrect to call sake a style of wine or beer?
Although similar alcohol by volume to wine, sake isn’t made from grapes, and the process is not a single-step fermentation from starch to sugar, so it is technically incorrect to call it rice wine.
Though brewed, sake isn’t like a beer, either. Rice doesn’t get malted the same way as barley, and sake often achieves a much higher potential alcohol by volume.
Describe multiple parallel fermentation.
Sake is entirely unique: in a single tank, starch converts to sugar and yeast consumes sugar to produce alcohol (and CO2) simultaneously
What is a kura or sakagura?
Sake brewery
What two prefectures were given GI status for sake in 2016?
the entire prefecture of Yamagata in the north (Yamagata GI) and the breweries Tengumai, Kikuhime, Tedorigawa, Manzairaku, and Takasago in the town of Hakusan in the centrally located Ishikawa Prefecture (Hakusan Kikusake GI).
What is doburoku?
the rustic, unrefined homebrew sake made in millennia past.
What does sake (酒) mean in Japan? What are more appropriate terms for sake in Japan?
In Japan, the term sake (酒) refers to all alcohol.
-nihonshu (日本酒), meaning “Japanese alcohol,” is the most appropriate word for the nation’s national alcohol, although the term seishu (清酒), or “clear alcohol,” is often used for legal and taxation purposes.
When was the first sake brewery established?
689 AD in Nara, Japan.
What system was used for sake before the Junmai System? When did it start? When did they convert?
1943 the Japanese government introduced a sake class grading system that divided sake into three categories: Special Class (tokkyu), First Class (ikkyu), and Second Class (nikyu)
-System converted to Junmai System in 1991.
What are the five key ingredients to sake production?
Rice Water Yeast Koji mold Brewer’s spirit (distilled alcohol)
What are the two overarching categories of sake?
3 styles under each?
Junmai (“pure rice”): uses only the first four ingredients (no brewers alcohol)
I.e.: Junmai, Junmai Ginjo, and Junmai Daiginjo
Arukouru Tenka/Aruten: sake with spirit added
I.e.: Honjozo, Ginjo, and Daiginjo
Why was brewer’s spirit added to sake in the past?
Why is used today?
Brewer’s spirit was once used to dilute sake while fortifying it and masking impurities
Today it is added for minerality and texture
What is brewer’s spirit called in sake production.
How is it made?
Known as jozo-alcohol, it is normally made from distilled rice or sugar beet and is unaged, colorless, and often flavorless. It can be produced anywhere.
Japan govt. states that the ABV of the jozo-alcohol itself cannot exceed 95% (usually diluted to 30%) and that its weight in the final product must not exceed 10% of the weight of polished rice.
What is the subspecies of rice preferred for sake production?
Japonica
How does sake rice (sakamai) varieties differ from table rice?
They tend to be heavier and about a quarter taller than table rice, or kakomai. With a spongier texture, sakamai has a unique ratio of fat and protein on the outside, with a particularly starchy center concentrated on the inside.
Cultivating sake rice is more challenging than growing table rice due to wind and top-heavy crops. As a result, sake rice is more expensive than table rice.
What is the heart of sake production?
Shinpaku, or the white heart, is the particularly starchy center concentrated on the inside.
What percent does sake typically ferment to? Typically, what percent is the final product?
Ferments to about 8-20% natural alcohol.
However, to avoid additional taxes, the final product is often diluted to around 15%. Legally, sake must have an alcoholic content of no more than 22% ABV.
What is the lowest category of Sake called/
Futsushu
- compromise roughly 75% of all sake
- Consumption of this category, especially outside of Japan, is falling drastically, while small craft breweries’ sales are going up exponentially each year.
What is SMV?
Sake Meter Value (or Nihonshu-do) is a measurement of the specific gravity of sake: the density of sake compared to the density of water.
-Not a legal term; important during the brewing process, but rarely used or discussed after that.
How is sake measured?
What are the benefits?
What are the drawbacks?
Sake Meter Value is measured with a hydrometer sunk into a graduated cylinder full of sake.
Pros: the measurement itself is 10 times more precise than the Baumé scale used in beer and wine production. Most often, this number ranges from -4 to +14, where higher is drier.
Cons: doesn’t consider factors like acid or chemicals that affect flavor or the perception of dryness or sweetness.
What is San-do?
Acidity, occasionally denoted on a bottle.
-ranges from .8 (sweeter) to 2.0 (drier).
What do the following terms mean in sake?
Karakuchi?
Amakuchi?
Kaori?
Aji?
Karakuchi (dry
amakuchi (sweet)
kaori (aromatic)
aji (textural, savory)
**Helpful when discussing preferred styles
What information must be stated on a sake label by Japanese law? (7)
—ingredients
—liquid volume
—product type (nihonshu “Japanese alcohol” and seishu “clear alcohol” are both acceptable terms)
—bottling date
—brewery name and address
—alcohol content
—a warning that sake cannot be sold to or consumed by minors.
What happens to sake when it goes bad due to heat or oxidation?
“Hi-ochi” or “hine”: refers to a stale, uncharacteristic, caramel-like odor.
—it becomes overly sweet and heady, with a white, foaming sediment.
What styles of sake are best served cold
What styles of sake are best served slightly warm?
—serve unpasteurized, fruit-forward, delicate, and/or aromatic sake cold
—serve savory, earthy, and/or aged sake at room temperature or warmer. Served warm, umami and sweetness come forward on the palate.
—served too warm and many volatile compounds and aromas are lost.
How is sake portioned out (bottles, serving vessel)
Remember mulitples of 90
Bottles are 720 mL (yongo; 90 x 8) or 1800 mL (issho-bin; 90 x 20).
Sometimes sake is served in a 360-mL carafe (tokkuri; 90 x 4)
One portion is usually measured into a 90-mL sake serving vessel (ichi-go) or 180 mL two portions (ni-go)
What is a kiki-choko?
standard 180-milliliter tasting vessel made from white ceramic and has two blue circles at the bottom of the cup. The circles highlight the subtle green and yellow tinge that naturally occurs in sake.
Other common drinking vessels: sakazuki (Traditional earthenware) and ochoko (small white porcelain) are common.
Order the following prefectures from north to south. (1=northernmost, 4= southernmost)
Niigata
Hokkaido
Kyoto
Kumamoto
North to South:
Hokkaido-Most northern prefecture
NIigata
Kyoto
Kumamoto- far south
What is Toso?
Special sake drank around New Year’s Celebration.
What is ginjo-ka?
What is NOT a typical aroma associated with ginjo-ka?
Melon
Pear
Lemon
Lychee
Lemon
-Ginjo-shu is rich in aromas suggestive of tree fruits, such as apple and pear, or tropical fruits like banana, melon and lychee. It is these aromas that are referred to as ginjo-ka. The element “ka” means aroma. The aroma comes from the esters produced by yeast in the fermentation process and is analogous to the secondary aroma in wine. To make sake with ginjo-ka, it is necessary to use highly polished rice and to employ painstaking care to create the right low-temperature conditions for fermentation. This brewing technique is known as ginjo-zukuri
What is the ester ethyl caproate responsible for in sake production?
Ripe apple, tropical fruit, and anise aromas.
