The Japanese Sake Bible. Brian Ashcraft
are genres unto themselves, amounting to just 10 percent of all sake produced—yamahai accounts for 9 percent and kimoto only 1 percent. Both starters require about three to four weeks.
Dating from the late 17th century and appearing to originate in Kobe’s Nada brewing district, kimoto is a style of yeast starter in which the brewers mash rice and koji in small tubs of water into a creamy puree with oars and poles. The technique, called yama-oroshi, arose when it wasn’t possible to polish the rice to today’s superfine ratios, and brewers thought mashing the rice and koji together was necessary to make the starter. Finely polished rice has eased this labor somewhat; however, it’s still physically demanding work. Kimoto-style sake can have deeper and more complex flavors, due to the thoroughgoing way it is made. It can also be smooth, dry and acidic.
The yamahai method omits the yama-oroshi mashing step. Kinichiro Kagi, a researcher at the National Research Institute of Brewing, pointed out in 1909 that mashing the rice and koji together was superfluous, since the koji enzymes naturally dissolve the rice. He was correct, but as rice saccharification isn’t helped by mashing, the rice might not dissolve as uniformly as in the kimoto style, affecting the final flavor. Yamahai-style sake has a flavor profile similar to kimoto, but often with gamy nuances. The name yamahai came from the Japanese love of making long words shorter: thus yama-oroshi haishi (haishi means “ceasing,”) became “yamahai.”
Brewers at Kiku Masamune make kimoto starter.
Clumps of rice are mixed with a paddle to help speed along saccharification.
Sokujo-moto 速醸酛: The vast majority of sake is made with sokujo-moto, or “quick fermentation starter,” which was codified in 1909 by brewing researcher Kamajiro Eda. This technique, used in making 90 percent of all Japanese sake, adds lactic acid to the mixture of steamed rice and koji instead of propagating it naturally, as the kimoto and yamahai methods do. Sokujo takes around two weeks; while the yeast microbes it produces are not as robust and active as those produced with the kimoto and yamahai methods, they can create crisp sakes with low acidity.
Bodaimoto 菩提酛 (aka mizumoto 水酛): Bodaimoto yeast starter produces some of the most acidic sakes available, which among wine drinkers might even elicit comparisons to German Riesling. Mizumoto, which literally means “water starter,” refers to the method of leaving rice to soak uncovered in containers of water that become highly populated with ambient lactic acid. The rice is removed and then steamed, after which the lactic acid–rich water, known as soyashimizu, is then mixed with the cooked rice, protecting it from harmful bacteria. Like sokujo, the bodaimoto (mizumoto) technique creates a starter with natural lactic acid, though it isn’t nearly as stable.
This is one of the oldest styles of starters, dating from the Muromachi period (1333–1573). It is believed to have originated at the Buddhist temple Shoryakuji, located on Bodaisen mountain in Nara, home of the Bodaisen Shingon sect. Sake making was big business for Buddhist temples, which were cradles of learning and innovation in those days, akin to modern universities or research centers. Since bodaimoto was originally a summer brewing process, the practice fell out of use after the Tokugawa government restricted brewing to the winter months in the late 17th century. Although bodaimoto didn’t die out completely—Shinto shrines continued to use the technique to make their sacred unrefined sake called dakushu—it declined even further with the wide acceptance of sokujo in the 20th century. However, on March 3, 1984, Okayama’s Sanyo Shimbun newspaper reported that local brewery Tsuji Honten was reviving bodaimoto to make a nigorizake.
“Mizumoto” and “bodaimoto” refer to the same process, but because bodaimoto has the kanji characters 菩提 (bodai, meaning “enlightenment”), the term carries strong Buddhist associations. There is (as yet) no bodaimoto association comparable to the International Trappist Association, which has certain stipulations for Trappist beer, such as that the beer must be brewed by monks in a monastery (or at least under their supervision). However, there is an annual bodaimoto brewing event every January at Shoryakuji, the Buddhist temple where the technique was perfected.
Every year, breweries gather at Shoryakuji Temple, famous for bodaimoto, to make a modern version of this traditional yeast starter. The breweries use that starter to create a variety of bodaimoto brews, such as this one, reviewed on page 218.
ADDING BREWER’S ALCOHOL
Brewer’s alcohol can be made from cereal grains or sugarcane molasses. However, the law forbids the use of chemically produced synthetic alcohol. Some breweries do insist on using brewer’s alcohol made from rice, which is more expensive. The raw sugarcane is distilled into a crude spirit—often done in Brazil—and then imported to Japan, where one of the major distillers runs it through their high-tech multistory-tall column stills repeatedly until they produce a pure, clean alcoholic spirit. Even though the brewer’s alcohol might technically hail from another country, it would not be in any condition to put into honjozo-shu or futsu-shu without the expertise of Japanese distillers.
There is also a tradition of adding distilled spirit to sake to fortify the drink, just as there is a long history of adding alcohol to fortified wines like port and sherry. According to Domo shuzoki (loosely "Brewing for dummies), a brewing guide from 1685, adding the distilled spirit shochu will help bring out flavors and fend off bacteria that could cause spoilage. Another brewing text, dating from 1771, states that adding shochu does improve the sake, but also makes it drier. Contemporary breweries like Abekan Shuzoten in Miyagi Prefecture and Konotomo Shuzo in Hyogo Prefecture add their in-house distilled shochu to make a sake style known as hashira jikomi. What makes this practice even more remarkable is that only a handful of breweries have the necessary equipment to distill their own spirit, and shochu fetches good money on its own. Tamanohikari, a pioneer of the junmai-shu revival, has its own still with a worm-tub condenser that could produce excellent spirits, but since it doesn’t add alcohol to any of its sake, the brewery doesn’t make the hashira style. Cost and ability aside, most brewers now prefer to use the light, high-proof brewer’s alcohol because it doesn’t have a strong character like shochu does and it won’t affect flavor. Brewer’s alcohol is added for its effect on the sake, not because of its inherent flavor or properties.
During the 20th century, inexpensive brewer’s alcohol was added to sake for different reasons. During the late 1930s, rice shortages poised a threat to sake production, which in turn hurt alcohol taxes. To retain a high level of production, cheap brewer’s alcohol was pumped into sake. In the 1940s breweries were required to add alcohol, so junmai-shu vanished until the 1960s. The practice of “tripling” the sake with added alcohol continued even after shortages ended, ensuring high profit margins. This gave the practice a bad reputation.
Today, the vast majority of all sake made in Japan contains added brewer’s alcohol, the vast majority of which is inexpensive, flavorless distillate. Even the brews that win at the country’s National Sake Competition typically have added brewer’s alcohol, though, so if you dismiss the practice, you might miss out on some excellent sakes.
Maru from Hakutsuru and Tsuki from Gekkeikan are two popular futsu-shu brands. Table sake is often sold in cartons. The first paper-packed sake in Japan was Hakosake Ichidai, which launched in 1967 from Hiroshima’s Chugoku Jozo brewery.
Raw and Unprocessed Sakes
Nama sake varieties constitute a category