Without getting into too much technical details here’s the crash
course in sake. Sake (or Nihon-shu as the Japanese call it) is a
fermented alcoholic beverage made from rice, water, yeast and
koji mould. It is not rice wine and it is not a distilled
spirit. Sake is sake. On average, it sits around 15% -16%
alcohol. Not much more than wine and significantly less than
spirits and most liquers. Sake has anywhere from 1/10 to 1/3 the
acidity of wine, depending on the wine and the sake. Sake
contains no preservatives and can be sweet or dry or anywhere in
between. Firstly, rice is polished, washed, soaked and then
steamed. Unlike wine grapes which naturally contain the sugars
required for fermentation into alcohol, sake rice contains no
fermentable sugars. This is where the koji mould comes in. The
koji mould is propagated onto the rice creating the enzymes that
will convert starch into fermentable sugars. This is then added
to a starter mix with water, yeast and more rice. What makes
this process interesting is t