The difference between rice koji amazake and Japanese sake

Hello. This is Ren MURO , a store specializing in rice koji amazake.

Derived from "What is sake brewing rice?" that I wrote in the previous blog, this time I would like to talk about "the difference between rice koji amazake and sake".

 

The common point between rice koji amazake and sake is that they both use rice and rice koji . And the big difference is " whether or not there is alcohol ".

Why are there such differences even though the same materials are used?

 

To begin with,

The big difference between the two is " whether yeast is added or not ".

Yeast is a type of fungus that breaks down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This is called " alcoholic fermentation ". In sake brewing, alcohol is produced by adding this yeast.

Yeast is also essential for making homemade bread, which has become popular recently.

In other words, even at home, the prototype of sake can be made simply by adding yeast to amazake, which is made by mixing cooked rice and rice koji and keeping it warm. This is called "doburoku", and it becomes sake before filtering the moromi and turbidity.

However, making alcohol at home is against the Liquor Tax Law, so let's not do it.

 

Now, I would like to take this opportunity to give you a general overview of sake production.

 

Sake is made by performing two chemical reactions simultaneously in the same tank: "saccharification," in which the starch in the rice is broken down into glucose by rice malt, and "alcoholic fermentation," in which the glucose is broken down into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast. made by fermentation .

Normally, fermentation is performed in a single process. For example, beer is made by "single multiple fermentation" in which saccharification and alcoholic fermentation are performed in separate tanks, and wine is made by "single fermentation" in which only alcoholic fermentation is performed. increase. The multiple parallel fermentation used in sake is an advanced brewing method that is unique in the world.

 

There are about 8 processes in the sake manufacturing process.

① Rice polishing (Ginjo and Daiginjo are determined by the rice polishing ratio here)

⇒②Rice washing and soaking

⇒③Steaming (to facilitate the action of koji mold)

⇒ ④ Koji making

⇒⑤ Shubo-zukuri (making a shubo to grow yeast)

⇒⑥ Moromi-zukuri (Put shubo in a tank, add steamed rice, koji, and water in several batches, and perform alcoholic fermentation.)

⇒⑦ Squeezing (separating the mash into sake and sake lees)

⇒⑧Storage (Sake is stored after making adjustments such as slag removal, filtering, hydration, and pasteurization)

Roles are further divided in this process, and each one is a delicate work. The ingredients are simple, but you can tell that it takes a lot of time and effort.

 

Rice koji amazake and Japanese sake. It's amazing how just one different ingredient can make such a difference in time and effort.

Many of the breweries that make the Amazake we sell also make sake, so if you can drink sake, it might be interesting to compare them.

Amazake made at sake brewery

Niigata Prefecture	Fukuoka Prefecture	Ishikawa Prefecture
Imayo Tsukasa Sake Brewery	Wakatakeya	Fukumitsuya
1,296 yen (tax included) ~	617 yen (tax included) ~	248 yen (tax included) ~

Thank you very much for reading to the end today.

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Noren MURO Kagurazaka

Address: 1-12-6 Kagurazaka , Shinjuku -ku, Tokyo 162-0825

Phone number: 03-5579-2910

Website URL : http://noren-japan.jp/store/murokagurazaka/

EC site URL : https://koujiamasake.jp/

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/noren_muro/