Sake 1.2 Part 1 - The Moto

After a successful inoculation of Koji onto my rice (and by successful I guess I mean successful purchase), the next phase of making Sake has to do with something I finally am somewhat experienced with, yeast.

The next phase according to my recipe is building the Moto, which is essentially a starter to prepare your yeast for major fermentation. The ingredients are:

1. Koji rice
2. H2O
3. Epsom Salt
4. Yeast Nutrient
5. Steamed Rice
6. Sake Yeast

The steps are again fairly straightforward although to be perfectly honest, as a beer brewer, I was totally unaware of the smells and progression that I was about to experience. Here are the steps:

Steaming the rice

• Add Koji to cold H2O + Epsom Salts + Yeast Nutrient (all in a sanitized fermenter), put in the fridge
• Wash and soak rice for 12-18 hours
• Steam rice and quickly add to the cold Koji etc. mixture that has been chilling for 18 hours

Koji and steamed rice mixture

• Wait 3 days, stirring twice a day, at ambient temperature
• Bring mixture temperature down to 50 F and pitch Sake yeast, let rest for 12 hours

The Moto with freshly pitched yeast. The smell at this point is so intensely sour, like sour milk or pickles, very lactic! It is extremely intoxicating!

• Bring back to ambient temperature and stir twice a day for 3 days, then once a day for another 3 days.                                               

I will leave it there for now. The second part of the Moto involves some more resting. There are two goals in this process according to what I have read; 1. Build up your yeast culture for fermentation, 2. Build up natural lactic acid, which is needed in Sake to a point.

I have to say, I finally feel like I'm getting a hang of the process and getting over my beer brewing sanitation compulsiveness. Hopefully I can keep it up. 

Below are two of the products I used for making Sake. If you are interested in trying this at home and you need either a bamboo steamer or some rice, I highly recommend the two below.

Kanpai

BN


      

Sake 1.1 - Koji

So lets start with what Koji rice is supposed to look like. I found this image on the Mukune Brewery's website. This is steamed rice that is correctly inoculated with Aspergillus Oryzae or Koji, a very special fungus that converts the starches in rice into sugars. This is extremely important as there is no amylase present in the ingredients like there are in wort (for beer). The koji takes up this role and helps break the starches in the rice down into sugar. Saccharomyces, the yeast used in Beer and I think Sake brewing, can only consume simple sugars. Therefore having healthy Koji rice cultures is the first and essential step in making Sake.

The basic process is fairly straightforward:

1. Wash and soak short grain white rice overnight
2. Steam (not simmer or boil) white rice for 45 minutes to an hour
3. Cool down rice to around 80 F and sprinkle Koji Spores, mix with your hand to distribute
4. Keep the mixture in a warm insulated container (cooler works fine) at at least 85 F or so. The target is really 96 F but not to exceed 100 F.
5. Also keep the environment humid so as not to led the rice dry out
6. Let 48 hours pass until all the rice is covered in brilliant white mold and presto! Koji Rice

This is a simplified recipe and I recommend reading the blogs out there for details, but basically this is it.

Also, for us homebrewers who are used to making Beer. We have a tendency to freak out about sanitation, StarSanning the heck out of everything. For Sake, this is not needed to the same extent. Keep a clean work area and tools and youll be ok. Dont ask me why, just take my word on it!

So now that I have explained how its made and what it should look like, I will share with you my first shot at it below.

Needless to say my Koji is not brilliant white. I think the moisture in my rice evaporated and apparently when the mold runs out of moisture it tries to reproduce through sporing, which in turn changes the color to green.

So I quickly went online and ordered the Koji from F.H. Steinbart, a homebrew shop in Portland. It arrived in a few days and I was done with the first step ;)

Next onto the Moto or Yeast Starter.

Kanpai

BN

Sake 1.0

For the last several years I have become quickly interested in most things Japanese. I think it started with either a Kurosawa movie or a Murakami novel but I'm not quite sure which came first.

This happened to coincide with my obsession for homebrewing beer which has carried me along for the past few years to the point at which I decided to combine my two passions and see what the creation would turn out like.

Hence, my first (and hopefully not last) adventure in making Nihon-Shu (sake) at home.

If anyone is interested I sincerely suggest checking out two websites that give very useful instructions and help:

1. Bob Taylor's website - http://www.taylor-madeak.org

2. Will's website - http://www.homebrewsake.com

Both are very helpful and will describe the recipe's in detail as well as where to find ingredients etc. For my first Sake brew I have used Bob Taylor's recipe which uses the Yamahai Moto starter.

The next few posts will describe the seperate stages of brewing your own Sake, hopefully concluding with a succesful batch that I will plan to share with both the Houston Foam Rangers homebrew club and at the Dixie Cup homebrew competition.

Kanpai

BN