Sake

Sake (Japanese: 酒) is a Japanese word meaning "alcoholic beverage", which in English has come to refer to a specific alcoholic beverage brewed mainly from rice, and known in Japan as either nihonshu (日本酒 "Japanese alcohol") or sake. This article uses the word "sake" as it is used in English.

Sake is widely referred to in English as "rice wine". However, this designation is not accurate. The production of alcoholic beverages by multiple fermentation is more characteristic of beer than wine. Also, there are other beverages known as "rice wine" that are significantly different from nihonshu.

Brewing

Sake is produced by the multiple parallel fermentation of polished rice. Multiple fermentation means that there are multiple steps in the fermentation process — the starch is converted to sugar by enzyme action, and then the sugar is converted to alcohol by yeast.

After fermentation, the product is heavily clouded with grain solids and is generally filtered, except in the case of nigori sake. Generally, the product is not aged because consumers prefer the flavor of the fresh product, which degrades quickly in the presence of light, air, and heat. A few varieties of aged sake serve a niche market, however.

Varieties

There are two basic types of sake; futsū-shu (普通酒) which are the "normal sake" and tokutei meishōshu (特定名称酒) "special designation sake". Futsū-shu does not qualify for any levels of special designation sake. It is the equivalent of table wine and is over 75% of all sake produced. On the other hand the tokutei meishōshu or "special designation sake" is distinguished by the degree to which the rice is polished and the added percentage of jōzō alcohol or absence of such additives.

There are four types of tokutei meishōshu (actually six, due to mixing and matching the junmai and ginjō varieties).

  • honjōzō-shu (本醸造), with a slight amount of distilled alcohol added. The distilled alcohol helps pull some extra flavors out of the mash. This term was created in the late 1960s to describe the difference between it (a premium, flavorful sake) from cheaply made liquors to which large amounts of alcohol were added simply to increase volume and/or give it a high alcohol content.
  • junmai-shu (純米酒, literally "pure rice wine"), made from rice only. Prior to 2004, the Japanese government mandated that at least 30% of the rice be polished away, no alcohol added, if the sake was to be considered junmai. Today, it can represent any sake milled to any degree, that contains no additives or distilled alcohol.
  • ginjō-shu (吟醸酒), rice weight polished to 50-60%.
  • daiginjō-shu (大吟醸酒), rice weight polished to 50% or less.

    • The term junmai can be added in front of either ginjō or daiginjō if no alcohol is added to result in either junmai ginjō or junmai daiginjō.

    Serving Sake

    Sake can be served in a wide variety of cups; here is sakazuki (flat saucer-like cup), ochoko (small cylindrical cup), and masu (wooden box-like cup).
    Sake can be served in a wide variety of cups; here is sakazuki (flat saucer-like cup), ochoko (small cylindrical cup), and masu (wooden box-like cup).

    In Japan sake is served cold, warm or hot, depending on the preference of the drinker, the quality of the sake and the season. Sake is one of the few alcoholic beverages that is regularly consumed hot. Typically, hot sake is consumed in winter and cold sake is consumed in summer.

    The most common way to serve sake in the United States is to heat it to body temperature (37°C/98.6°F), but professional sake tasters prefer room temperature (20°C/68°F), and chilled sake (10°C/50°F) is growing in popularity.

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

    It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sake.