Sake & Shochu
Sake
Sake is one of the great pleasures of Japan, and despite some waning popularity in recent years is still regarded as the hallmark national drink
Sake is also called Nihonshu, which just means Japanese alcohol. The earliest written reference to sake comes from the third century AD, and the basic methods used in its manufacture have gone unchanged for five hundred years.
Though often referred to as a “rice wine” outside Japan, sake is a brewed beverage, more closely related to beer than to wine. In the purest sakes, only four ingredients matter: water, rice, yeast, and the koji.
The rice used for sake is different from rice meant to be eaten. The first step in preparing the rice is to mill away the surface of the grain. The starches which are fermented are concentrated in the center of the grain, and the amount of milling greatly influences the flavor of the finished sake. In the highest grades of sake, at least 50% of the grain must be polished away before the rice can be used.
Dozens of strains of yeast are used in sake production, throughout Japan, though three or four are considered most important. Yeast converts sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide (though finished sake is not carbonated), and also creates other chemical compounds, differing from strain to strain. These play a vital role in the development of a finished sake’s characteristic flavor and aroma.
The koji is the last ingredient, and without it there is no sake. Koji is steamed rice on which koji-kin, a mold, has been cultivated. This mold converts the starches in the rice into sugars, which can then be fermented by the yeast. Koji production is an extremely important component of the sake brewing process, and most breweries keep a separate room, called the koji muro, devoted entirely to this process. Over the years a number of machines have been developed to aid in making the koji, but for their best sakes nearly all breweries still make koji by hand.
During wartime rice shortages, sake producers began to add alcohol to the finished product to increase their yield. After the war, this continued, particularly for the lower grades of sake. However, some premium sakes also have small amounts of alcohol added. Brewers say that this teases out elements of flavor and aroma in finer sakes that might otherwise be lost. Many premium sakes are still made without added alcohol, however. Any sake with the word junmai in its name is one of these, made in the original way from the four basic ingredients.
Sakes are divided into different grades, the lowest being futsuu-shu or ‘normal’ sake and the highest being either Daiginjo-shu or Junmai Daiginjo-shu. There is a lot of overlap between grades, however, and sake connoisseurs will tell you that the highest grades often have less ‘personality’ than those a rung or two down the ladder.
A final word about serving sakes. Drinking warmed sake is traditional, and especially pleasant in winter. However, this practice may have developed in response to flawed sakes, whose flavor improved with warming. Quality standards have improved immeasurably since the war, and sake is increasingly drunk slightly chilled. Sake cocktails, which have acquired some popularity outside Japan, are regarded as an abomination by purists. You owe it to yourself to try the very best sakes on their own, rather than using them as mixers.
Shochu
Shochu is the other great alcoholic drink of Japan. In fact, while in recent years sake consumption in Japan has decreased, shochu has enjoyed a steep rise in popularity. Shochu is a distilled beverage, like whisky. It is stronger than sake, and can be made from any of a number of raw ingredients, including sweet potatoes, rice, buckwheat and barley. Less common varieties are distilled from ingredients ranging from brown sugar or chestnuts to carrots.
Shochu probably originated outside of Japan, but in Japan it became very popular in Kyushu before spreading to the rest of the country. Kagoshima, in Kyushu, is considered by many to be the Japanese ‘home’ of shochu, and people from Kagoshima are justly proud of their complex, earthy sweet potato shochu.
Shochu serves better as a mixer than sake, and the ubiquitous chu-hi, shochu with various fruit flavors, is one of the most popular cocktails in Japan. However, purists tend to drink it straight, with ice or a little added water. In winter, especially, many drinkers enjoy their shochu oyu-wari, which simply means mixed with a little hot water. Very, very pleasant.
More Info.:
Saijo Sake Festival
Saijo
Takehara
Sake is one of the great pleasures of Japan, and despite some waning popularity in recent years is still regarded as the hallmark national drinkSake is also called Nihonshu, which just means Japanese alcohol. The earliest written reference to sake comes from the third century AD, and the basic methods used in its manufacture have gone unchanged for five hundred years.
Though often referred to as a “rice wine” outside Japan, sake is a brewed beverage, more closely related to beer than to wine. In the purest sakes, only four ingredients matter: water, rice, yeast, and the koji.
The rice used for sake is different from rice meant to be eaten. The first step in preparing the rice is to mill away the surface of the grain. The starches which are fermented are concentrated in the center of the grain, and the amount of milling greatly influences the flavor of the finished sake. In the highest grades of sake, at least 50% of the grain must be polished away before the rice can be used.
Dozens of strains of yeast are used in sake production, throughout Japan, though three or four are considered most important. Yeast converts sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide (though finished sake is not carbonated), and also creates other chemical compounds, differing from strain to strain. These play a vital role in the development of a finished sake’s characteristic flavor and aroma.
The koji is the last ingredient, and without it there is no sake. Koji is steamed rice on which koji-kin, a mold, has been cultivated. This mold converts the starches in the rice into sugars, which can then be fermented by the yeast. Koji production is an extremely important component of the sake brewing process, and most breweries keep a separate room, called the koji muro, devoted entirely to this process. Over the years a number of machines have been developed to aid in making the koji, but for their best sakes nearly all breweries still make koji by hand.
During wartime rice shortages, sake producers began to add alcohol to the finished product to increase their yield. After the war, this continued, particularly for the lower grades of sake. However, some premium sakes also have small amounts of alcohol added. Brewers say that this teases out elements of flavor and aroma in finer sakes that might otherwise be lost. Many premium sakes are still made without added alcohol, however. Any sake with the word junmai in its name is one of these, made in the original way from the four basic ingredients.
Sakes are divided into different grades, the lowest being futsuu-shu or ‘normal’ sake and the highest being either Daiginjo-shu or Junmai Daiginjo-shu. There is a lot of overlap between grades, however, and sake connoisseurs will tell you that the highest grades often have less ‘personality’ than those a rung or two down the ladder.
A final word about serving sakes. Drinking warmed sake is traditional, and especially pleasant in winter. However, this practice may have developed in response to flawed sakes, whose flavor improved with warming. Quality standards have improved immeasurably since the war, and sake is increasingly drunk slightly chilled. Sake cocktails, which have acquired some popularity outside Japan, are regarded as an abomination by purists. You owe it to yourself to try the very best sakes on their own, rather than using them as mixers.
Shochu
Shochu is the other great alcoholic drink of Japan. In fact, while in recent years sake consumption in Japan has decreased, shochu has enjoyed a steep rise in popularity. Shochu is a distilled beverage, like whisky. It is stronger than sake, and can be made from any of a number of raw ingredients, including sweet potatoes, rice, buckwheat and barley. Less common varieties are distilled from ingredients ranging from brown sugar or chestnuts to carrots.
Shochu probably originated outside of Japan, but in Japan it became very popular in Kyushu before spreading to the rest of the country. Kagoshima, in Kyushu, is considered by many to be the Japanese ‘home’ of shochu, and people from Kagoshima are justly proud of their complex, earthy sweet potato shochu.
Shochu serves better as a mixer than sake, and the ubiquitous chu-hi, shochu with various fruit flavors, is one of the most popular cocktails in Japan. However, purists tend to drink it straight, with ice or a little added water. In winter, especially, many drinkers enjoy their shochu oyu-wari, which simply means mixed with a little hot water. Very, very pleasant.
More Info.:
Saijo Sake Festival
Saijo
Takehara
