Sake Hot/Cold - Page 3

Originally Posted by indesertum

im not sure where this idea of not drinking sake with sushi comes from. japanese people totally drink sake with sushi. if you're a sake snob, however, you would limit your choices to lighter fruity crispy ginjos, honjozos, nigorizakes, and leave the daiginjos to sip by itself.


there's really no wrong way to drink sake. like wine or whiskey people like different things.

the best thing you could do is either chill the sake and then slowly taste it and see how the flavors change as it oxidizes slightly and warms up. or super heat the sake (but reserve for cheaper ones) and then slowly taste it to see how the flavors change as it cools down.


IN GENERAL drink slightly chilled (wait 10 minutes out of refrigerator)

however (also like wine and whiskey), there is a more customary way of drinking sake that's a little more complicated (although again boundaries can be iffy and generalizations while useful are not absolute)


i'll break it down from according to temperature

white wine temperature (45 +- a few)
daiginjos - 35% or less polishing ratio)
junmai daiginjo - daiginjos that are made with only rice (and water, koji, yeast). regular daiginjos may have a little alcohol added at the end
namazake - unpasteurized
nigorizake - unpasteurized and unfiltered (cloudy). this is kind of like the dessert wine of sake as it can be sweet. the ones i've had were not as sweet and had some fizz.
shinshu - new, young sake

generally flavors and aromas are lighter and can be overpowered by acidity and alcohol at higher temperatures. eg daiginjos are expensive because of the subtle flavors, that get lost at higher temperatures.

room temperature
ginjo - 50% or less rice polishing ratio. alcohol at the end.
junmai ginjo - "only rice" ginjo". no alcohol at the end.
junmai - "only rice". no alcohol at the end. generally around 70% rice polishing ratio
tokubetsu junmai - special junmai. around 60%. not a controlled term. it can refer to method of production like kimoto and yamahai or lower rpr
honjozo - true brew or authentically brewed. technically not very different from ginjos as they also have alcohol at the end, but generally they're made with a different purpose of bouquet in mind, whereas ginjos emphasize flavor. personally, well i guess i havent had enough yet.
tokubetsu honjozo - special honjozo
kimoto, yamahai - traditional production methods. its a little complicated to explain to difference between the two, but they're both labor and time intensive. short summary: modern methods add lactic acid in the beginning to limit wild yeast and bacteria growth. kimoto, yamahai methods control the temperatures to change the influence of koji (bacteria that breaks down the starches into glucose. operates at. works at low temps. not a lot of things can grow) and yeast (converts glucose to alcohol. works at high temps. at higher temps a lot of other things can grow.).

generally hardier than the above category. more full bodied, rounded flavors and can stand up to alcohol and acidity at higher temperatures.

body temperatureish
koshu - sake aged in bottles and tanks
genshu - cask strength or undiluted sake
taruzake - wood aged sake

hot (kan) to piping hot (atsukan)
regyura-shu - aka regular sake. cheap stuff, not a lot of flavor. made to be drunk warm or hot.


most imported sake bottles have a gamut of stats in teh back. some things that can help you when buying sake

sake meter value or nihonshudo - refers to the sweet/dry scale. runs from about -4 to +13. + = dry end, - = sweet end. about a +3 is neutral.

rice polishing ratio or seimei buai - lower means more polished, more polished means more "pure" subtle aromas. it also generally means more expensive.

region - like impolyt mentioned niigata is pretty famous (a lot of prize winners and top notch toji (master brewers). two other big ones nada and yamagata.

rice - it's complicated but yamada nishiki is generally considered the best overall.

yeast - look for the yk35 strain. topnotch strain. the national competition in hiroshima has two categories. one for yk35. one for everything else which has about 10% of all the sakes entered.

Originally Posted by ama

Excellent post!

Originally Posted by bdeuce22

moving on to sake now? balla sake?

Originally Posted by ama

Excellent post!

Originally Posted by indesertum

im not sure where this idea of not drinking sake with sushi comes from.
japanese people totally drink sake with sushi. if you're a sake snob, however, you would limit your choices to lighter fruity crispy ginjos, honjozos, nigorizakes, and leave the daiginjos to sip by itself.

Originally Posted by indesertum

white wine temperature (45 +- a few)
daiginjos - 35% or less polishing ratio)
junmai daiginjo - daiginjos that are made with only rice (and water, koji, yeast). regular daiginjos may have a little alcohol added at the end
namazake - unpasteurized
nigorizake - unpasteurized and unfiltered (cloudy). this is kind of like the dessert wine of sake as it can be sweet. the ones i've had were not as sweet and had some fizz.
shinshu - new, young sake

room temperature
ginjo - 50% or less rice polishing ratio. alcohol at the end.
junmai ginjo - "only rice" ginjo". no alcohol at the end.
junmai - "only rice". no alcohol at the end. generally around 70% rice polishing ratio
tokubetsu junmai - special junmai. around 60%. not a controlled term. it can refer to method of

Originally Posted by indesertum

i would imagine sushi with raw fish didnt get popular until refrigeration got popular

Originally Posted by indesertum

im not sure where this idea of not drinking sake with sushi comes from. japanese people totally drink sake with sushi. if you're a sake snob, however, you would limit your choices to lighter fruity crispy ginjos, honjozos, nigorizakes, and leave the daiginjos to sip by itself.


there's really no wrong way to drink sake. like wine or whiskey people like different things.

the best thing you could do is either chill the sake and then slowly taste it and see how the flavors change as it oxidizes slightly and warms up. or super heat the sake (but reserve for cheaper ones) and then slowly taste it to see how the flavors change as it cools down.


IN GENERAL drink slightly chilled (wait 10 minutes out of refrigerator)

however (also like wine and whiskey), there is a more customary way of drinking sake that's a little more complicated (although again boundaries can be iffy and generalizations while useful are not absolute)


i'll break it down from according to temperature

white wine temperature (45 +- a few)
daiginjos - 35% or less polishing ratio)
junmai daiginjo - daiginjos that are made with only rice (and water, koji, yeast). regular daiginjos may have a little alcohol added at the end
namazake - unpasteurized
nigorizake - unpasteurized and unfiltered (cloudy). this is kind of like the dessert wine of sake as it can be sweet. the ones i've had were not as sweet and had some fizz.
shinshu - new, young sake

generally flavors and aromas are lighter and can be overpowered by acidity and alcohol at higher temperatures. eg daiginjos are expensive because of the subtle flavors, that get lost at higher temperatures.

room temperature
ginjo - 50% or less rice polishing ratio. alcohol at the end.
junmai ginjo - "only rice" ginjo". no alcohol at the end.
junmai - "only rice". no alcohol at the end. generally around 70% rice polishing ratio
tokubetsu junmai - special junmai. around 60%. not a controlled term. it can refer to method of production like kimoto and yamahai or lower rpr
honjozo - true brew or authentically brewed. technically not very different from ginjos as they also have alcohol at the end, but generally they're made with a different purpose of bouquet in mind, whereas ginjos emphasize flavor. personally, well i guess i havent had enough yet.
tokubetsu honjozo - special honjozo
kimoto, yamahai - traditional production methods. its a little complicated to explain to difference between the two, but they're both labor and time intensive. short summary: modern methods add lactic acid in the beginning to limit wild yeast and bacteria growth. kimoto, yamahai methods control the temperatures to change the influence of koji (bacteria that breaks down the starches into glucose. operates at. works at low temps. not a lot of things can grow) and yeast (converts glucose to alcohol. works at high temps. at higher temps a lot of other things can grow.).

generally hardier than the above category. more full bodied, rounded flavors and can stand up to alcohol and acidity at higher temperatures.

body temperatureish
koshu - sake aged in bottles and tanks
genshu - cask strength or undiluted sake
taruzake - wood aged sake

hot (kan) to piping hot (atsukan)
regyura-shu - aka regular sake. cheap stuff, not a lot of flavor. made to be drunk warm or hot.


most imported sake bottles have a gamut of stats in teh back. some things that can help you when buying sake

sake meter value or nihonshudo - refers to the sweet/dry scale. runs from about -4 to +13. + = dry end, - = sweet end. about a +3 is neutral.

rice polishing ratio or seimei buai - lower means more polished, more polished means more "pure" subtle aromas. it also generally means more expensive.

region - like impolyt mentioned niigata is pretty famous (a lot of prize winners and top notch toji (master brewers). two other big ones nada and yamagata.

rice - it's complicated but yamada nishiki is generally considered the best overall.

yeast - look for the yk35 strain. topnotch strain. the national competition in hiroshima has two categories. one for yk35. one for everything else which has about 10% of all the sakes entered.