Beer Forum

Hello,

I'm thinking about making a batch of Sake (rice wine). Not sure if anyone has tried and if there are any tips I need to know.

I didn't see any BN shows which have covered this topic, so I'm not sure if I accidentlly overlooked anything.

Thanks,
Brad

It hasn't been covered on the BN. White Labs does make a Sake yeast, your LHBS should be able to special order it for you, it's likely not something they carry on a regular basis. As far as sourcing true sake rice, I have no clue where you would be able to get that from. Sake is made from the inner part of high quality rice kernels. If you imagine taking a kernel of barley and sanding off the hull and the outer most part, that is essentially what is done with the rice. The higher quality sakes are made with rice that has been milled further, containing JUST the starch center. This means that it takes more rice to make, and is thus costs more to produce. Lower end sake uses more of the kernel, which will contain more proteins and lipids. You will also need koji mold, which functions in breaking down starches (since rice doesn't have it's own diastatic power). You'd have to source this separately, potentially places selling koji may also have a line on sake rice for you too. The White Labs page for their Sake yeast has an example recipe, it looks like they are just using regular rice though... http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp705.html

I have never made it but here is a guy that has try checking his site out http://www.taylor-madeak.org/index.php

i would love to do some as well but heard good spores are hard to come by and when i look into it its usually out of stock doc has spoke of making it before and justin had a few bottles he drank try emailing him for info

http://www.visionbrewing.com/

I made Sake many times using the recipes and spores from Vision.
In my experience the success of making good Sake is in the high difficulty low success range.
Rice is cheap and learning hands on was a great experience as a home brewer.

Bob

BN sponsor Morebeer has a kit as well which has all you need to make a small batch for about 20 bucks. Worth a shot just to get a feel for it then move into sourcing your own rice Koji ect. If you havn't seen it already but good luck and let us know how it turns out!