Mark Kosmowski
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Mark I guess it would depend on the time of year
FYI "Warm" sake is usually the absolute "Plonk" or crap........ Take a little trip with me
Good sake is just Rice, Water and yeast, really, that is it, the type of rice, water and yeast will all change and there are better versions of everything, so the taste of the sake will be very different, depending on what is used.
Now that is "Good" sake, like a "Real" beer, for example (sake and beer are both "Brewed").
Now the crap national brand stuff, is different, they brew it from low cost materials, and then they cut it with water, significantly, and add "brewers alcohol" to it to bring the alcohol content back up to the 16% to 18% range. This alcohol that is added is grain alcohol, as in distilled, not brewed. If you drink sake and get a splitting headache from it, this is why, this stuff is again, cheap grog.
Now this is where the "warming up" thing comes into play. When you warm up "Good Sake" you often destroy the taste of the sake, as a lot of good sake is "Nama" meaning "unpasteurized" and heating it up will boil off the alcohol content and the best tasting and smelling ingredients, thus, good sake is almost NEVER warmed up, you would not heat up your favorite pint of real ale would you? The saving grace of the cheap sake is that, well, it is cheap, but also that it is good for warming up, as the grog, distilled alcohol, the stuff that gives you a headache, is the first stuff to float away as you heat it, so heating cheap sake actually improves the taste...........most likely a LOT more than you wanted to know......
This was very interesting. I've always been averse to the boiling method for mead making for fear of losing any aromatics that might be in my honey. I'll either sanitize my must with low level of sulfites or, lately, not sanitize my must at all and just rely on the antimicrobial nature of honey and the aggressive growth of champagne yeast to control any undesirables. Now that you mention it, I do prefer my mead slightly chilled at maybe 40 - 50 F (is this around 18 C?). I'll typically refigerate the mead and then let it warm outside the 'fridge for about 30 - 60 minutes before enjoying it.
Unfortunately, I have to admit to not being a fan of the hop so the ale reference is lost. If anyone knows of a good unhopped ale or barleywine I'd sure like to know!
Back to sake, I was under the impression that the rice needed a fungus pre-ferment to access the rice sugars similar to how barley needs to be enzymatically treated (malted) to release the sugars. Am I misunderstanding the process?
When you mention the distilled "brewers alcohol" and headaches, are you referring to the fuesil alcohols (various phenols) that need to be "aged out" of good wines and meads?
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