Drink Matron

Category: Booze of the Week – Sake

  • How Sake is Made

    Most people regard sake in the same category as other spirits like whiskey, vodka, etc.  It is more akin to beer though.  Even though it is similar to beer, the process is much different and far more complex.

    Historically, people have made alcohol out of whatever was readily available, and in the case of the Japanese that was rice.  The modern process for brewing sake involves getting and cooking white rice.  This process is highly monitored and controlled so that the rice is perfectly cooked at the end of the process.

    The interesting thing about rice is that it doesn’t contain amylase enzymes, which are the enzymes found in the malted grains used in other spirits around the world, so there is a mold called koji mold that is laced into the rice that performs the same task as amylase.  After the rice has cultivated an appropriate amount of the mold it is mixed in stages into a vat with water and yeast.  By adding the entire batch in a staggered manner, it allows the yeast to work more efficiently, keeping up with the increase in volume of food.

    Once all the rice is added, the mixture (known as mash, or moromi to the Japanese) is left to sit for several weeks at which time the liquid is seperated from the solids, pasteurized, and left to mature.  At the end of this process you end up with a naturally fermented 40 proof beverage that is then diluted down to around 20 to 30 proof, bottled, and sold worldwide.

    The maturation process is a fairly new addition to the process of making sake.  Maturing the sake is what mellows the flavor, moving it away from the rough, harsh flavor that was so prevalent historically.  Thanks to the invention of pasteurization, sake has a longer shelf life and brewers can afford the time to mature the sake before shipping it.

    So that’s how you brew sake.  It may not seem that complicated, but there are a lot of subtleties that go into each step that make the process more difficult.  That being said, it’s possible to homebrew sake and it isn’t terribly difficult (more difficult than homebrewing beer, but less difficult than distilling spirits at home).

  • Is Sake Supposed to be Served Hot?

    Short Answer: Not necessarily.

    Long Answer: Sake has been a staple beverage in Japan for many hundreds of years.  Prior to the 20th century, sake was generally a much rougher, grainier drink and taste “flaws” were more apparent in the beverage.  Thus, warming a tokkuri of sake was considered the only way to serve it for the common man.  There were some sakagura that made a superior sake but it was reserved for the more affluent members of society.  As the fermentation process has evolved and been refined, on aggregate sake has become a cleaner, more delicate product.  Think about wine made from grapes.  They generally tell you to chill white wines prior to serving, but do you think that was the case prior to refrigeration?

    Throughout its existence, sake has been served at temperatures ranging from just above freezing (referred to as reishu) all the way to steaming hot (referred to as kanzake).  The warmer the sake is served, the more flavorful and drier the flavor will become, while chilling it will open up the bouquet of the sake as well as give it a crisper flavor.

    There are two major factors in deciding whether to heat, chill, or serve your sake at room temperature.  The first is food pairing.  Simple flavored foods like sushi or sashimi are paired well with kanzake as well as fatty and oily dishes (like hot pot dishes).  Particularly sharp flavored food, like sweet and sour dishes, are best paired with reishu.  If you aren’t drinking with food you can drink it either way!

    The second factor in deciding on a temperature is quality of the sake.  Higher quality sake have multi-leveled, very nuanced flavors that can be overpowered and lost when heated.  Heating these quality sakes would be like drowning filet mignon in ketchup.  Lower quality sake isn’t necessarily going to be bad, but I can attest that warming these sakes definitely improves the flavor (and makes your cheeks very red).