Sake

Where it started

The Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association dates the first record of sake brewing with koji to 715, and a brewing division at the Imperial Court to 689.⁴ Religious institutions refined the methods by the 13th century, and a 1425 record lists 342 sake-related businesses in Kyoto.⁴ Pasteurization appears in the record in 1569.⁴ Sake was first bottled in 1878, sake yeast was identified in 1895, and the National Research Institute of Brewing was founded in 1904.⁴ A government grading system ran from 1943 to 1992; the current system of categorizing sake by production method took effect in 1990.⁴

Where and how it's made

Rice is milled, washed, soaked and steamed. Part of it becomes koji: steamed rice dusted with Aspergillus oryzae, whose enzymes break starch into sugar.¹ A small starter, the shubo, grows a strong yeast population; the traditional kimoto and yamahai starters build acidity with wild lactic bacteria over about four weeks, while the modern sokujo method adds lactic acid and takes about two.⁷ The main mash is built in three additions, sandan-jikomi, to keep the yeast ahead of contamination.³ Saccharification and fermentation run at the same time, which is why sake can reach about 20 percent alcohol before water brings it to around 15.³

Brewing needs roughly ten times as much water as rice, and Nada's famous water, miyamizu, is named for Nishinomiya.⁸ Of roughly 900 rice strains in Japan in 2020, 126 were sake rice; the best known include Yamada-nishiki, Omachi and Gohyakumangoku.¹⁸ "Japanese sake" (Nihonshu) has been a geographical indication since December 25, 2015; Hakusan was the first regional sake GI, in 2005.⁹

How to taste it

Chilled at 8 to 15°C, sake shows a fruity aroma; at room temperature it is subtle and smooth; warmed to 40 to 50°C it turns fuller and more cereal-like.⁶ Ginjo and namazake are best chilled.⁵ On the label, a Sake Meter Value below zero suggests sweeter, above zero drier.² Pairings: sashimi, yakitori, aged cheese with a koshu.

Styles and what the label means

The milling rate is the percentage of the grain left after polishing.² - Junmai — rice and koji only, no added alcohol; no minimum milling rate.² - Honjozo — milled to 70 percent or less, with distilled alcohol under 10 percent of the rice weight.² - Ginjo / Junmai Ginjo — 60 percent or less, cold-fermented for a fruity aroma.² - Daiginjo / Junmai Daiginjo — 50 percent or less.² - Namazake — unpasteurized; most sake is pasteurized twice.² - Genshu — undiluted, usually over 17 percent.³ - Nigori — cloudy, pressed through a coarse mesh.² - Koshu — sake aged on purpose, usually over a year.² - Futsu-shu — table sake outside the special designations.³