Shochu

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Shochu

Post by Guest »

Since it's winter here in the great far north and the cellar is well stocked, production of spirit has taken a back seat to experimentation. Last summer I made some Sake and to be honest it tasted like spiked rice milk. After a little more research I discovered that distilling that same milk produces shochu. Sounded good so I used 10 lbs rice, 3 lbs sugar 2 tbs amalyse, a little yeast nutrient and EC-118 yeast. I let it ferment down and siphoned the clear liquid off the top.

Instead of running it through a pot still, I put it in my amazing still. You would really be surprised at the flavor that carries over to the spirit. So far I've accumulated about 750ml and the taste is awesome. Heat it up very slightly as you would a Sake and sip away. It is by far the best tasting drink that I've made with absolutely no polishing so if you like normal Sake, you have definitely got to try this.

AkCoyote
Pieterpost
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Post by Pieterpost »

sounds great :) Do you do anything to the rice? I know rice-grians are packed with sugars but don't know how readily available they are to the yeast. I have seen packets of ground rice over here, pehaps one would need less rice if you would use that and perhaps boil it with citric acid to break down the starch?

Anyhow I will be trying this when I get a smaller still. My still is now 80 liters and this is fine for bigger washes but not for small experiments. I would wan't to be stuck with several gallons of sake....... I think !
LeftLaneCruiser
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Post by LeftLaneCruiser »

Coyote,

does the amylase convert the rice?
I thought a culture of Koji was needed. But if the amylase can / will do the trick i might be experimenting soon :lol:

KJH
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Post by AkCoyote »

What I really like about this hobby is that there is no need to re-invent the wheel but at the same time there's always new ways of doing things.

The first recipe that I found was SUPER specific. Soak rice 24 hrs. Rince till water was perfectly clear. Steam for exactly 1 hr etc etc etc. The next recipe said....to 10 lbs rice add 5 tsp amalyse, 5 lbs sugar, yeast and nutrient and let ferment til done. Distil in pot still.

This was my first batch that I intended to distill so I went the soaking rout and used both amalyse and koji. I had the koji pre-made in the freezer and through it in for the hell of it. My opinion (and thats all it is) is that for true Sake, be traditional and use the koji for flavor and to convert the sugars. For Shochu to distill, rice, water, amalyse, (maybe a little sugar)nutrient and yeast is sufficient. This seems to be a very 'forgiving' recipe.

AkCoyote
Guest

Post by Guest »

In the stores here I found a bag of extra fine rice powder, this should circumvent the soaking part.

I will be trying this next week I think.

The koji, where did you get that if I may ask?
AkCoyote
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Post by AkCoyote »

I made mine using Koji spores. Buy it if you can as its a lot easier. If distilling, just use amalyse.

AkCoyote
Pieterpost
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Post by Pieterpost »

AkCoyote wrote:I made mine using Koji spores. Buy it if you can as its a lot easier. If distilling, just use amalyse.

AkCoyote
yep, i was planning to use that. Already bought it together with the ground rice :)
AkCoyote
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Post by AkCoyote »

Let me know how the ground rice works. If possible use some type of straining bag as the rice really sticks together.

AkCoyote
Pieterpost
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Post by Pieterpost »

sure will do ! First I will have to find the kamma-koji
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Post by Professor Duck »

AkCoyote wrote:The next recipe said....to 10 lbs rice add 5 tsp amalyse, 5 lbs sugar, yeast and nutrient and let ferment til done. Distil in pot still.
What size wash is this for? What % does it ferment to? Does the rice provide any nutrients? Could the 5 lbs of sugar be substituted with more rice?
Pieterpost wrote:I have seen packets of ground rice over here, pehaps one would need less rice if you would use that and perhaps boil it with citric acid to break down the starch
Boil it with citric acid to break down the starch?? Does this work?
Image If Leonardo da Vinci had a video camera.
fun-gi

Post by fun-gi »

Pieterpost wrote:sure will do ! First I will have to find the kamma-koji
Research says:
aspergillus oryzae
http://www.aspergillus.man.ac.uk/indexh ... .html~main" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Uses:
It is also used in food fermentations, in the production of saki, shoyu, miso, and soy sauce

Key - one can buy 'live miso' in stores, like one can buy 'live yogurt'.
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Post by Pieterpost »

ah that's better Fungi thanks. I hadn't put too much effort into researching this but I had already tried some chinese shops. I don't have any Japanese shops in my neighbourhood otherwise i would have tried them.
Btw, miso is japanese bean paste ......

PD, I don't know if starch will break down with citric acid, I know sucrose does though ............. or just add amylase. I don't think that rice contains much nutrients, there are more nutrients and vitamins in brown rice.
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Post by AkCoyote »

I'm still learning but from what I've seen and understand, the koji will break down the starches by itself. Rice ferments very slow so I think that the process of converting the starches also helps provide nutrients. This is just a guess on my part.

AkCoyote
AkCoyote
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Post by AkCoyote »

I've been working on this Shochu project for a couple of months now and today I finally got the results. I made a total of 15 gallons of rice wine and stripped it down with my keg pot still. Today I did the finish run with my 6 QT pot still. The stripping gave me not quite 3 Gal and the final run was 3.5 750 ml bottles at about 60%. As a test I made a 200 ml batch at 30% and all I can say is WoW! Put some in a Sake container in warm water to about 90F and the flavor is excellent. Much much better than any Sake that you can buy in the store. Also added just a bit of glucose for smoothness. I figure when cut I will end up with 6-7 750 ml bottles. It was a lot of work but the Mrs and I really like suschi and this will go very well with it. Time to start another batch :D

AkCoyote
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