Polishing is key to be the best sake!
- Published 2010.7.13
Polishing is key to be the best sake! Polish for pure starch on the center.
Why polishing is so important to produce good sake?
By polishing outside skirt of the rice, what leave behind is pure starch without proteins and minerals which cause rough taste at the end product. Starch is good nutrition for koji mold while fermentation. And proteins and minerals are too rich nutrition for koubo yeast. The ideal circumstance to produce sake is like a hell for koubo yeast. Once yeast has its life, she need protein to live, but there are no proteins from rice. It's gone from polishing. Also, for ginjoshu which treat as most high quality sake, it is fermented in cold temperature. So, are yeasts going die? No, they will produce an organic acid by themselves to live. And this acid has fruit like fragrance called Ginjo-ka. Good sake has scent of banana or apple. Not only fragrance, it delivers you mellow sweetness with depth, and it finishes light.
Contrast of Sake rice and normal rice
Rice for sake is bigger and softer than the rice we usually eat. Also it has more elasticity when steamed. It was special rice in back days, but for nowadays, sake rice has been grown in 44 prefectures and many different kinds of sake rice to reply huge and diversified demands of sake.
