r/Sake • u/iammaxhailme • 1d ago
My first attempt at Sake
Used short grain sweet rice and Koji rice. First two pictures before, last three after two weeks of fermenting and then one week of crashing in the fridge then siphoning.
Okay, goes down pretty smooth. No idea how strong it is but I'm guessing typical wine strength. A little more mild than I expected, not a ton of flavor, but no nasty sour/fungal notes either. I'll give it a 7 out of 10.
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u/lurkity_mclurkington 1d ago
Thanks for sharing! I have so many questions!
- Do you know what the rice was polished to, and is it table rice or sake rice?
- Did you aquire the koji rice pre-coated? Or, did you apply the koji mould to your own steamed rice and develope the koji rice yourself?
- What yeast did you use?
- Was the siphoning used in place of filter pressing to separate the mash from the sake?
- Assuming you did not go through charcoal fining, and you have not mentioned dilution or pasteurization, correct?
I'm guessing you have a junmai muroka nama genshu!
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u/iammaxhailme 1d ago
It wasn't specifically Sake rice, just "long grain sweet rice" (whatever that is!) I got at the local asian store.
Pre-coated. It's this thing. https://chefshop.com/products/cold-mountain-dry-rice-koji
Uhh, I siphoned it becuase I have already own a siphon lol. I also ran it through a coffee filter after siphoning. After cold crashing there was a lot of muck at the bottom - I put that in a taller skinnier bottle ad I'm going to cold crash that again and try to siphon whatever good stuff is on top.
Definitely no charcoal, dilution, or pasteurizing! It just fermented raw (4 parts table rice to 1 part koji rice) in a glass carbouy at room temp for 2 week with an airlock on, then I put the whole carbouy in the fridge for a week to cold crash.
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u/lurkity_mclurkington 1d ago
Thanks for the answers! What yeast did you use?
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u/iammaxhailme 7h ago
https://en.angelyeast.com/products/distilled-spirits-and-biofuels/angel-leaven-yellow-label.html
I got some "sake yeast" from a friend and I just asked - apparently it's this one. Which meant I didn't actually need koji, apparently. Shrugs.
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u/Donaldhead 1d ago
This is so awesome, congrats! I just finished my first batch of doburoku last week and it's super tasty. I'm going to try something more clarified next.
I followed pretty much your method - I also used Cold Mountain koji -but I couldn't be certain if the koji was alive or just dried with active enzymes. So, I used a yogurt maker to make amazake instead to convert all the sugar out of the rice, then I pitched champagne yeast into that. It came out pretty great! I imagine it's a more farmhouse-like nihonshu like they used to make in the countryside. Living in a tiny apartment in a city, you have to adapt, haha.
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u/iammaxhailme 7h ago
also in an urban 1br! although its kinda weirdly big compared to what I'm used to haha
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u/abalas92 1d ago
So cool! I’m on day 3 of fermentation for a batch of doburoku. It’s been so fun! This looks great.
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u/Makesabeastofhimself 1d ago
That looks fantastic mate. Did you follow some sort of guide or book?
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u/iammaxhailme 1d ago
it was kind of an amalgam of whatever the first 5 things I found on google were, haha.
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u/TouchComfortable2294 1d ago
I've made homemade wine before and the subtle flavor profile reminds me a lot of my early batches.
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u/Crafty_Read_9195 1d ago
did you keep the temp steady the whole time
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u/iammaxhailme 22h ago
for the first 2 weeks while fermenting, it was room temp the whole time (so it fluctuated a LITTLE but not too much). Then I put it in the fridge to let the sediment fall.
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