Sake Guide General/History

Question 1

How long has Sake been produced?

Answer 1

2000 years

Question 2

What is Jizake?

Answer 2

microbreweries in sake production

Question 3

How many sake breweries are there in Japan?

Answer 3

500-1500

Question 4

Why is it incorrect to call sake a style of wine or beer?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Describe multiple parallel fermentation.

Answer 5

Sake is entirely unique: in a single tank, starch converts to sugar and yeast consumes sugar to produce alcohol (and CO2) simultaneously

Question 6

What is a kura or sakagura?

Answer 6

Sake brewery

Question 7

What two prefectures were given GI status for sake in 2016?

Answer 7

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).

Question 8

What is doburoku?

Answer 8

the rustic, unrefined homebrew sake made in millennia past.

Question 9

What does sake (酒) mean in Japan? What are more appropriate terms for sake in Japan?

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

When was the first sake brewery established?

Answer 10

689 AD in Nara, Japan.

Question 11

What system was used for sake before the Junmai System? When did it start? When did they convert?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

What are the five key ingredients to sake production?

Answer 12

Rice
Water
Yeast
Koji mold
Brewer’s spirit (distilled alcohol)

Question 13

What are the two overarching categories of sake?

3 styles under each?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Why was brewer’s spirit added to sake in the past?

Why is used today?

Answer 14

Brewer’s spirit was once used to dilute sake while fortifying it and masking impurities

Today it is added for minerality and texture

Question 15

What is brewer’s spirit called in sake production.

How is it made?

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

What is the subspecies of rice preferred for sake production?

Answer 16

Japonica

Question 17

How does sake rice (sakamai) varieties differ from table rice?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

What is the heart of sake production?

Answer 18

Shinpaku, or the white heart, is the particularly starchy center concentrated on the inside.

Question 19

What percent does sake typically ferment to? Typically, what percent is the final product?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What is the lowest category of Sake called/

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

What is SMV?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

How is sake measured?

What are the benefits?
What are the drawbacks?

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

What is San-do?

Answer 23

Acidity, occasionally denoted on a bottle.

-ranges from .8 (sweeter) to 2.0 (drier).

Question 24

What do the following terms mean in sake?

Karakuchi?
Amakuchi?
Kaori?
Aji?

Answer 24

Karakuchi (dry
amakuchi (sweet)
kaori (aromatic)
aji (textural, savory)

**Helpful when discussing preferred styles

Question 25

What information must be stated on a sake label by Japanese law? (7)

Answer 25

—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.

Question 26

What happens to sake when it goes bad due to heat or oxidation?

Answer 26

“Hi-ochi” or “hine”: refers to a stale, uncharacteristic, caramel-like odor.

—it becomes overly sweet and heady, with a white, foaming sediment.

Question 27

What styles of sake are best served cold

What styles of sake are best served slightly warm?

Answer 27

—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.

Question 28

How is sake portioned out (bottles, serving vessel)

Answer 28

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)

Question 29

What is a kiki-choko?

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Order the following prefectures from north to south. (1=northernmost, 4= southernmost)

Niigata
Hokkaido
Kyoto
Kumamoto

Answer 30

North to South:

Hokkaido-Most northern prefecture

NIigata

Kyoto

Kumamoto- far south

Question 31

What is Toso?

Answer 31

Special sake drank around New Year’s Celebration.

Question 32

What is ginjo-ka?

What is NOT a typical aroma associated with ginjo-ka?

Melon
Pear
Lemon
Lychee

Answer 32

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

Question 33

What is the ester ethyl caproate responsible for in sake production?

Answer 33

Ripe apple, tropical fruit, and anise aromas.