Sake
I (I meaning “Makiko and I”) received a Sake Brewing Kit for Christmas from Jason and Lisa. It is really easy to start with the kit. All you do is add the Yamatodamashii (rice, koji, yeast, and citric acid) with water and keep it at around 100 degrees aerating it occasionally for 6 hours. Then after 3 weeks you need filter the Doburoku (Sake with Rice) to just leave the Sake. I have completed that process and I just need to wait another week or two for the sake to fully mature.
This is a 1/2 gallon batch. If this batch comes out good I would like to try some more, but the shipping is out of control. It comes from a Japanese company, then gets shipped from the mainland. Maybe next time I am in Japan I can stock up on it and bring a case back to Hawaii. I was curious about creating my own Yamatodamashii in the future, and thankfully I found Mutsuo Hoshido’s step-by-step guide to making Sake. He has even gone through the trouble of converting the measurements into our inferior measurement system.
 Update: So, the results are in… Too Weak. Well I tasted this batch prematurely and it just didn’t taste right, it had a slightly sour taste to it. I waited another two or three weeks and tasted it again. It has definetly smoothed out from the first tasting, but it is quite weak in alcohol content. I do not have the tools to find out the alcohol content, but I would say it is about 20% weaker than any other Sake I have tasted. I filtered it one last time today from a suggestion of a friend, and went ahead and bottled it. Anyone want some weak sake?
