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Who Here REALLY Knows Their Sake ?

G

gibu

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Joined
May 29, 2001
Messages
1,096
So I've only ever had sake once and that was at a mid-west sushi restaurant. I really liked it but I'm sure it was just some basic tourist version. I found a great web site a while back that taught a person all about sake including a scale rating for each they sold on sweet to dry and what food or occasions its best for and a bunch of other info thats pretty handy for a newbie like me.

Does anyone know this site or have a good site of their own to pass along?

I wasn't even sure where to post this topic even. Most people call it rice wine, but the wine forum mentioned it was for anything with grapes. LOL The web site I'm looking for mentioned also that wine really isn't correct anyway. It was pretty clear that the brewing methods used would more accurately make Sake more of a rice beer. I didn't really think the beer forum sounded quite right either though. :)

Any help from anyone with more knowledge on the subject then I would be greatly appreciated. I'm particularly interested in what Sake people like and why? What does it taste like and what occasions or circumstances do you like pairing this Sake with.
 
Hi, my name is Sheila, and I love sake. :)

You're right that sake is brewed more like a beer, but because of the alcohol content, it's usually classified as a wine. Here is a good overview of the different sake types:

http://www.allbusiness.com/consumer-products/food-beverage-products-alcoholics-wine/11408120-1.html

Generally (although I'm a huge proponent of doing what *you* like), serve dry sake warm and sweeter sake cold. Around my parts, you can get both Gekkeikan and Hakutsuru pretty much in any LCBO (Ontario). I have heard tell of one of the most delicious types made by Rihaku called Wandering Poet. I've never had it, but it's supposed to be pretty good stuff. I'm a huge fan of nigori style, or course filtered sake which is a bit cloudy and (I think) on the smoother side.

Here is a good article on pairing sake with food:

http://www.esake.com/Sake-Food/sake-food.html

Here's a sake secret too: before the cute little cups, people drank sake out of a small cedar box called a masu (mah-SOO). It was the measurement for rice for one person for one day, and is made from cedar. The cedar takes some of the hotness/booziness out of the sake and makes it smoother, particularly with sake served warm. You wouldn't think this would make a difference, but it does. ;) Any way, the tradition morphed from overflowing the masu (a sign of prosperity), to putting one of the ceramic sake cups into the masu and overflowing that to just using the ceramic cup.

You can find various sake serving options, including masu here: http://www.buy4asianlife.com/eshop/ids_cate_fisrt.asp/Serving/Sake_Sets/subcate/SC70/cate/C30

Or check out your local Japantown/Asian area and see if they have a Japanese pottery store. Good luck and Kampai!

**edited to dump more brain content into post**
 
Wow.... Thanks for all the great info Sheila! :thumbs:

While reading about how the different types of sake are made I kept wondering what difference the amount of rice milling made. Heres a link to a page I found that explains this part of things. It makes sense now. lol

http://www.sake-world.com/html/rice.html
 
So I'm pretty familiar with sake; the best place to buy sake online is IMHO:

http://www.truesake.com/

As for what you're going to like, part of it is of course personal taste, but there is an incredible variety of sake out there (or as it is known in Japan, Nihonshu). If you have specific questions, feel free to ask.

The wikipedia entry for sake gives a good rundown on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake

Contrary to popular belief here in the USA, sake is not often served warm. It's served chilled the way a white wine would be... the only time you'll have warm sake in Japan is when it's cold outside, as a seasonal thing (sort of like mulled apple cider or eggnog here).

Most of the sake served at Japanese restaurants in the USA is crap; they serve it warm to make it seem exotic, I guess. There are some really fantastic sakes that range from light and refreshing to very sweet desert sakes, to aged cognac-esque sakes.
 
I've found a rather entertaining and informative is The Thirsty Traveler. In season 1 he travels to Japan, visits a Sake brewery to find out about the rice used, brewing process, sampling, and cooking with it.

You might be able to find the episode on YouTube.
 
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