The fermenting tank contains rice material, yeast, liquid and the products of weeks of brewing. The bottle on a restaurant table contains a carefu
Continue ReadingSake Fermentation Explained: Yeast, Fermentation Starters, and Temperature
A tank can be busy making sugar and using it up at the same time. That is the central trick of sake fermentation. Kōji enzymes release fermentabl
Continue ReadingKōji Explained: How Mould Turns Rice Starch into Sugar
Rice is full of potential alcohol, but yeast cannot collect it directly. The starch is packaged in molecules that ordinary brewing yeast cannot fe
Continue ReadingSake Rice Explained: Rice Polishing, Washing, Soaking, and Steaming
The number that looks most like a score on a sake bottle is not a score. If sake rice has a polishing ratio of 60%, that does not mean 60% was rem
Continue ReadingHow to Understand and Describe Sake: A WSET Level 1 Beginner’s Guide
A grape arrives with sugar ready for yeast. A rice grain arrives with a problem: its energy is mostly locked in starch. To understand and describe
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