Preamble

I wanted to spend a month working for a sake brewery in Japan. I would have been glad to spend the day hauling bags of rice into the warehouse, taking care of the company’s cat, and/or singing mariachi songs as they massaged their koji, as long as I could have access to things, observe the different stages in the production of their sake, take note of the temperatures, quantities, resting times, amount of sake drank by the Toji after dinner, and all those little nuances that, albeit small, dramatically affect the end result.

I did my homework and sent a couple of mails. The response was mostly the same:

いいえ！

This was their (compact) way of explaining that one can’t just become a sake worker for a month, if anything, they must train you so that you won’t harm yourself or somebody else, cause a rice explosion, or disrupt their carefully choreographed routine. A year? Maybe. But not a month.

Was all lost? Certainly not! One of these breweries did respond with a very kind message, where they made the mistake of including the following phrase …but if you have some questions, we’d be happy to answer them…

I proceeded to craft a long response where I described my current recipe in great detail, along with fifty or so important questions about sake brewing that nobody had answered yet.

And then some weeks went by. Some very long, quiet weeks.

Success! An answer finally arrived, and it was as long as my very own mail! It contained in-depth answers to every single one of my questions! Needless to say, I was extremely happy and thankful.

I redesigned my sake recipe based on their feedback, and produced the very best batch I’ve brewed so far. This article describes that recipe. It produces a semi-sweet sake with balanced acidity, harmonious in the nose and easy on the mouth, even though it packs about 22% Alc. Vol (It might feel easier on the mouth if you are one of those people who like the occasional Scotch or Tequila)

The Recipe

You will need the following:

• Good quality rice. Preferably milled for Junmai ginjo.
• About 1.13 Kg of Koji.
• Water. Tap water is fine, as long as it is completely iron free.
• Lactic acid.
• Yeast nutrient.
• Epsom salts.
• Yeast. I prefer Wyeast’s #3334, which is equivalent to sake yeast strain #9.
• Disinfectant. Either Starsan or Iodophor will work
• More sake (to drink as you go. Very important).

And now, here is a breakdown of the recipe, organized by day. Each day separated in morning and evening tasks.

By now, you should have somewhere between 1.5 and 2 gallons of sake, depending on how your decanting/filtering went.

After bottling, age your sake for 2 to 3 months, and since you bottled without a pasteurization stage, make sure to keep it cooled at all times.

Brewing temperatures

Throughout the process, it is recommended to maintain a temperature between 10C and 13C. Lower temperatures will tend to produce a sweeter sake, since your yeast will be sleepy and your alpha and beta amylases will be less active, leaving more room for the gamma amylases to break down the rice starch into monosaccharides.

About Pressing

The best way to do this is to source a wine press from your wine-producing friends (you have those, don’t you?) Otherwise, you can always get your own, your local brew store must have several models available.

I recommend the following setup: use a fine metallic colander to quickly separate as much liquid as you can from the moromi, and throw the rest into your press. When you have gone through the whole most, use the press to extract as much liquid out of the remaining sake lees as possible.

As a bonus, keep the lees! They make an excellent ingredient for cooking all sorts of Japanese cuisine dishes. Cut the compressed sake lees (also called sake kasu) into four or five chunks, and throw them into the freezer. Use them as required.

About Genshu sake

You probably noticed that we didn’t water down our sake before botling. Depending on a number of conditions, you might measure between 17% to 23% Alc. Vol, and that’s just fine. Yes, it is strong, but that’s exactly how it should be: Undiluted, full-flavoured, and guaranteed to keep you in a good mood.

Just remember to drink responsibly. I had a hangover with my own sake once, and while there is a certain sense of transcendence in getting wasted with alcohol you yourself created, it is not a very nice experience. Not at all.

That’s It!

You now know my best recipe so far for brewing high-quality Junmai Gingo sake. Not only that, but your sake is nama shu, undiluted and unpasteurized, which makes it the more interesting, and probably the only one of its kind in whichever place you happen to live, unless you live in Japan, or we are in the same city (in which case, I expect you’ll invite me a bottle of your next batch!)

Oh, and remember, Throgout the process, always dissinfect everything!