OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2020 | 19 Tanuki sake - coming soon to a fridge near you N ecessity, the old adage goes, is the mother of invention, and while it might be a stretch to say that Brock Kuhlman needed sake, he certainly really wanted some. “I started the journey because we couldn’t find good sake in South Africa at the time,” says American-born Brock, who had previously lived in Japan for six years, working for a while as executive chef at the US embassy in Tokyo. He was well placed to start experimenting. I mean, if you’re going to dabble in the art of ancient fermentation, being a biochemistry PhD candidate with a history in food science and the culinary arts can only be a good thing. And if there’s one person that could make the process of producing sake even easier, it would be an engineer. Enter Ulrich Terblanche, who Brock had met at a lift club taking staff and students from Cape Town to the University of Stellenbosch. “I didn’t know much, or really anything about sake,” admits Ulrich. “I had tasted some, but that’s about as far as it went. Then one day, Brock and I were chatting about Japan and the lack of good sake available in South Africa. He said to me, ‘although it’s hard to find in South Africa, it’s not that difficult to make…’” Brock now acknowledges that the second part of that proclamation was not entirely accurate. What followed is a story that will be familiar to many a craft brewer. It began with a series of small-batch experiments – and a steep learning curve. “We’ve lost a few batches along the way,” says Brock, adding something that a lot of homebrewers have learnt the hard way. “Cleanliness is super important.” And much like in beer brewing, temperature control is also crucial, meaning that a few batches were dumped during the warm summer months. RARE INGREDIENTS Although sake is often referred to as rice wine, the process actually has more in common with beer-making than viniculture. It begins, as most beers do, with four ingredients although the recipe differs from the average ale. The best known of the four, and the base for sake, is of course rice. Just as with malted barley, there are specific strains of rice that are used in sake production – more than 60 varieties in fact. One of the biggest difficulties for Brock and Ulrich at the beginning was obtaining suitable rice. “We tried to import from Japan,” says Brock, “but it’s virtually impossible because they generally want to keep the good stuff themselves!” In the end, the team settled on a strain of Japonica rice grown in Australia, although they are open to changing that in the future. “We would love to find someone to grow rice for us here at some stage,” Ulrich says. Acquiring yeast presented a similar problem, with no sake yeast easily available here at the time. According to Brock, there are 13 recognised sake SOUTH AFRICA'S FIRST SAKE SOMMELIER In another indication that sake could be the next big drink in South Africa, the country now has its first sake sommelier. Award-winning sommelier Xolani Mancotywa has officially become the first in South Africa to obtain his certification in sake. Xolani travelled to Austria in 2019 to take the exam with the Sake Sommelier Academy. Photo by: Botha Kruger