Sake Guides
Articles on choosing, tasting, serving, and how sake is made. Currently available in Japanese.
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07How Sake Is Made, Step by Step
Sake is brewed from just three things: rice, rice koji, and water. The path from milling to bottling runs in a single line, but it branches at several points along the way, and those branches are what give one sake a different flavor from the next. We'll start with a table of the whole process, t...
Production #Intermediate #production #koji #shubo -
15How Rice, Yeast, Water, and Starter Shape Sake: A Lesson for the Intermediate Drinker
Two bottles can both read "junmai daiginjo" (a top-grade pure-rice sake milled to at least 50 percent) and still taste worlds apart. One is lush and aromatic; the other is as clean and light as water. That gap has nothing to do with the grade on the label. It comes from what the sake is made of a...
Production #Intermediate #rice #yeast #water #shubo -
26Kimoto, Yamahai, and Sokujo: A Deep Dive into Sake Starter Methods
If the back label reads "kimoto" or "yamahai," you may be holding a bottle that shines when warmed. That distinction traces back to how the sake starter is built. The starter, or shubo, is where yeast is cultivated, and lactic acid keeps unwanted microbes at bay. How that lactic acid gets there i...
Production #Junshu (rich) #Intermediate #shubo #production -
27Pasteurization and Namazake: Understanding Nama, Namachozo, Namazume, and Muroka Nama Genshu
"Namachozo-shu" and "namazume-shu." The names look almost identical, and plenty of drinkers can never remember which is which. In fact, the two differ in only one respect: at which of two identical pasteurization steps the brewer skips the heat.
Production #Soshu (light & crisp) #Intermediate #pasteurization #storage -
28Milling, Koji, and the Three-Stage Mash: Inside the Core Steps of Sake Brewing
What decides the flavor of a bottle before it ever reaches a glass? Much of the answer lies in three steps: rice milling, koji-making, and the three-stage mash. In The Full Sake Production Process, we traced the journey from raw rice to bottled sake as a single continuous flow. Here, we pull out ...
Production #Intermediate #koji #rice #production -
29Pressing Techniques (Jōsō): Arabashiri, Nakadori, Seme, and Fukurozuri
The words "arabashiri" and "nakadori" on a back label refer to the order in which the sake was pressed. The process of pressing the fermenting mash is called jōsō (上槽, "raising the tank"), and both the pressing method and the order in which the liquid emerges shape the character of the finished s...
Production #Intermediate #pressing #production -
34The Sake Rice Field Guide: From Yamada Nishiki to Regional Varieties, Sorted by Character
The name printed on the back label can already tell you roughly what a sake will taste like. Yamada Nishiki tends toward the rich and rounded; Gohyakumangoku, toward the light and clean. Each rice variety has its own personality.
Production #Intermediate #rice #production -
35A Guide to Sake Yeast: From Kyokai Strains to Flower and Regional Yeasts
Flip a sake bottle around, and you might spot a line on the back label reading "Kyokai No. 9" or "Shizuoka yeast." That single line is a shortcut to predicting the aroma in the glass. Yeast is what generates aroma and acidity during fermentation, and switching strains can shift the whole characte...
Production #Kunshu (fragrant) #Intermediate #yeast #aroma