For quite some time now, Ive been down the shochu rabbit hole. I exclusively make Shochu, Soju and baijiu spirits ... It's been a hell of a journey, and one that at times made me sit back and go "this is impossible", but I guess they're the spirits I love the most and never gave up.
I give huge kudos to all the people in this forum that have experimented with this style, or rice and aspergillosis based stuff, when I first started out I crawled through here and tried everything I saw. .mostly angel Yellow based stuff, and although they tasted pretty great and I enjoyed them a buttload they just weren't ... "Shochu". So I delved. And delved. And translated. And failed. And failed ...ohh, and failed (hello ninjin/carrot shochu ..ugh). I also had a lot of help along the way, and really want to thank a guy called FissionC in the last year for bouncing a heap of ideas and knowledge around.
I've now made in excess of about 50 batches or shochu, probably two a week, usually 5 fermenters on the go ... and I can safely say that I enjoy drinking my stuff now just as much as that out if the collection of bottles I own, sometimes even more. I've tried so many different styles, and keep honing the ones I love.
So, I wrote a document about it, and it turned into a bit of a monster, but hey, I really wish I had all this info when I first started, so here you go mates
I'm a bit shy? Wary? in posting this here, because so many here are so much better and have so much more distilling experience than me, but I did it for everyone that loves this drink, is curious and who really want.to get an authentic shochu flavour. This document is a beta, so if you spot stuff that's wrong or just feels not right, let me know. If you have questions, just ask. I want feedback, and grilling, and ideas and to add anything that's missing or confusing.
Mainly this was done for the Koji wiki and a version will always love there, but the source of truth document is here - I'm always updated it and correcting it, it's a living document.
Anyways, here's the link to the always most recent version, and ice also attached a PDF that I'll update sometimes -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ggy ... p=drivesdk
I'm currently working on Soju, baijiu and Vietnamese corn whiskey documents too ... So if this is interesting to you, keep an eye out in the future for those
Excited and nervous to hear your thoughts, kanpai, yo!