This is is part seven of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. I’ve been married to Mr. Small Batch for almost ten years now, and in that time I’ve picked up some instincts about Japanese food. For example, if your leftovers […]
This is is part six of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. As we came to day 20 (conveniently, a Saturday), the sake fermentation had slowed down significantly. There were still small signs of fermentation but we decided to stop and […]
This is part five of a series on making sake at home, part one is here.
After ten days of gently stirring and peering at our moto for ten days, it was time to build the main fermentation, or moromi. During the moromi, you add more rice, water and koji rice in stages as the alcohol level of the sake rises.
I lowered the temperature of our brew fridge to 15C, santised a 10L brewing bucket, and started steaming rice in bigger batches than before.
The method we followed was, again, from Advanced Brewing, the same site from which our koji kin came. I’ve simplified their instructions below.
Total ingredients for the moromi:
Method:
Day 1: Steam 375g rice. Cool it and combine with 450ml of water, all of the moto and 150g koji rice in a sanitised 10 litre brewing bucket.
Stir thoroughly, then set aside to ferment at 10-15C. After about 15 hours stir gently* and stir again every few hours.
Day 2: Stir
Day 3: Steam 750g rice. Cool it and add it to the moromi with 225g grams koji rice and 1200ml of water. Mix well. After about ten hours stir,* then stir every few hours.
Day 4: Steam 1125g of rice. Cool it and add it to the moromi with 335g koji rice and 2250ml water, mix well. After about ten hours stir,* then stir every few hours.
Day 5-7: The fermentation will seem very active and frothy. Keep stirring. At around this time I started to notice a very pleasant, fruity-floral sake smell. Hopes rose!
Day 8: The fermentation will slow down, and the sake will smell increasingly alcoholic. The taste of ours was now less rice-sweet, more bitter and complex.
Days 9-20: Keep stirring, the alcohol levels will be rising and the yeast activity slowing.
By day 20 you will have something like 19% alcohol (though it’s impossible to know how much without fancy equipment), and the sake is ready to be strained.
*Vision Brewing and others are very deep into stirring schedules as combinations of delays, then regular stirring apparently “helps the yeast and alcohol production” in ways I don’t yet understand. I stirred the rice whenever I thought about it; more early on, when the rice formed a cap, then less in later days, as the rice degraded into a kind of soup. Never overnight or when I was off at work; I decided that was a bridge too far.
So far so good. It was time to press, pasteurise and bottle.
This is part four of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. Once our moto was in the fridge, we had ten whole days in our sake-making adventure to twiddle our thumbs, wonder if it was all going to work, and put […]
This is part three of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. The next step in sake homebrew is ten days with very little to do. High time, because I was done babying that koji: we had that picnic cooler in our […]
Some years ago I was lucky enough to find a copy of Italian Liqueurs: History and Art of a Creation. If you have an interest in making liqueurs that are a bit out of the ordinary, this book is well worth finding. It’s not only full of delightfully weird, complex and interesting recipes for Italian liqueurs, it’s spectacularly well illustrated with prints that show how plants and the liqueurs made from them have figured in Italian art.
At the time I bought it, Italian Liqueurs was a very rare book, and I got mine from a second-hand bookseller in Florence. We had a long and somewhat torturous email conversation, hobbling along on scraps of shared French and some Google Translate. I’ve since seen the book on sale for much less money and trouble: perhaps there was a reprint.
The recipe below for ‘Cumquat Elixir’ is presented as-is from Italian Liqueurs, save for a few small details. One, the author calls for 190 proof (90% abv) alcohol, whereas I have used a milder vodka (40%). Two, the author doesn’t specify to prick the kumquats; I did so because I love the full range of sweet, aromatic and acid flavours that the whole fruit gives when slowly macerated whole.
I have just set mine on, and so far it is developing well. The white vermouth, lemon zest and clove seem to marry beautifully, giving a spicy complexity.
Read on after the recipe for a gorgeous video about Italian Liqueurs.
Cumquat Elixir
Method
“Add all ingredients to a jar and let macerate for three months, delicately shaking the jar occasionally. After the three months, filter and bottle. Keep the bottles for another three months before tasting.
With the filtered remains you can prepare another aperitif by adding one bottle of Chinato wine or vermouth, then letting stand for another three months before filtering the new drink. Chinato wine or vermouth is made with red wine added with many spices, of which china (quinine) is one, especially in the Piedmont region of Italy, following well guarded secret recipes.”
Booze News
Did you enjoy this post? The Booze News is a curated collection of new ideas, recipes and research on home boozemaking from around the web. Some are from this site, some are from other good places. Add yourself here for irregular deliveries of deliciousness.
This is part two of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. The first step in sake making is building a koji starter. Um, what is koji? Koji rice means rice grains cultured with a specific kind of mould, which breaks […]
There’s a truth universally acknowledged among boozemakers, that once in a while you need to make something that the people who share your home will like. This hobby can involve weird explosions and permanent stains; if you’re going to keep doing it, you need to […]
This lemon pound cake is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, but simplified a great deal because Cook’s never misses a chance to put in extra steps or add stuff to the washing up. Extra steps better be there for a reason, because they stand between me and cake.
The glaze is simple as can be (sugar + booze), so why not experiment with your favourite cake recipe and the booze on your shelf? This lemony cake would be just as good with a Cointreau glaze. Chocolate cake with whiskey or rum would be delicious, as would any sponge cake and a real fruit schnapps.
Optional syrup:
For the glaze:
Method:
Heat your oven to 180C, and grease a 20x12cm loaf pan. Melt the butter and set it aside; sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a stand mixer or a large bowl, mix the sugar, zest, juice and eggs together. Then add the melted butter in a thin stream until everything is combined. Slowly mix in the flour; and stop when all is combined and pour into your loaf pan.
Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 160C and bake for another 30, or until the top is brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let your cake cool in the pan for ten minutes, then lift it out onto a cooling rack.
Optional, but delicious: heat the sugar with the lemon juice in a small saucepan. While the cake is still in the pan, poke the top with a toothpick and brush or slowly pour the syrup over.
When your cake is completely cool, sift the sugar and stir in the limoncello, a little at a time, until the mixture is spreadable. Cover the cake and enjoy.
Booze News
Did you enjoy this post? The Booze News is a curated collection of new ideas, recipes and research on home boozemaking from around the web. Some are from this site, some are from other good places. Add yourself here for irregular deliveries of deliciousness.
I have a weird obsession with making liqueurs. They’re old fashioned, but that’s something I love about them. Just like a champagne cocktail, they are unexpected and delightful. My three-year-old particularly likes scouring op shops with me for pretty little liqueur glasses, and ceremonially choosing […]