Just keeping track of the initial sake experiments:

Day 0 (2021-02-01)

Preparing the rice. After a false start, I am planning to do things right. This time the rice will be soaked and steamed in preparation of day 1.

• 8pm – 2.5lbs of sweet, short-grain rice was rinsed and set up to soak overnight. It was then held at 60F overnight.

Day 1

Koji

• 8am – Rice is gently rinsed and left to drain for a few hours.
• 11:30am – Rice steamed for 30min until tender, but still firm. Let it cool for 1 hour.
• 1pm – Transferred to steamer tray. Rice flower (blended, raw rice) and 1tsp koji kin are massaged in. Temperature control set to 90F. Tray is covered with a towel.
• 9pm – Massaged rice. Texture is good if perhaps a bit dry.

Day 2

Koji

• 8am – Massaged rice. Still seems too dry. Added a small amount of water.
• 2pm – Decided to check on things… Starting to heat up, but sill quite dry. Massaged and added 1/4 cup water. Increased temp to 95F.
• 8pm – Massaged rice.

Day 3

Moto:

• 8am – Temperature is 100F and climbing slowly. This is a great sign that the koji is taking off. Will be monitoring the temp today to make sure it doesn’t exceed 105F. Much of the rice is covered with fine white coating. Smells great – sweet and slightly mushroomish. Massaged the rice and piled up. Still quite dry, but decided to let it run.
• 9:30am – 102F
• 10:30am – 104F. Massaged rice and spread into a 1″ layer to keep the heat down.
• 12:00pm – Temp slowly raises back up and maintains at 99F.
• 8pm – cooked .5lb of rice, and cooled. Added rice, koji, water, and yeast. For ease, this rice was just cooked in the rice cooker.

Day 7

Hatsuzoe 

• 1lb rice (again in rice cooker) + koji + water
• When adding, it was apparent that there is lots of fermentation going on. Lots of CO2 is being relased.

Day 9

Nakazoe

• 2lbs rice (2 batches in rice cooker) + koji + water
• Fermentation still going strong. Lots of CO2.
• About 2.5gal of liquid at this point.

Day 10

Tomezoe

• 4lbs rice (Soaked and steamed fot 1 hour) + koji + water
• Fermentation going strong. Lots of CO2.
• About 4gal of liquid.

Day +14

Yodan

02-17, a few days later than expected (due to snow), but shouldn’t be an issue. Fermentation has slowed, but everything still smell great.

Liquid and rice was poured through 2 kitchen sieves to strain out the rice. The rice was then placed in a mesh bag to press out the remaining liquid.

02-19, the liquid has already settled quite a bit. There is about an inch of opaque sediment on the bottom and the rest is a translucent yellow. Small bubbles show that there is some continuing fermentation.

Day +21

Clarify TBD

03-15, let the sake sit for a long while to completely ferment. Mixed up bentonite for clarifying and racked sake into a new carboy.