OnTap Magazine

20 | Summer 2020 | ontapmag.co.za FEATURE yeasts, each offering a different flavour or aroma profile. Historically, as with other fermented beverages, sake would have undergone wild fermentation and in the absence of an appropriate yeast, that’s exactly how Brock and Ulrich started out. Next they tried a Chardonnay yeast, which while not traditional did prove to be a hit with their tasters. “People found it familiar,” says Brock. “There were flavours that they could relate to and so it made the introduction to sake a lot easier.” In the end though, Brock’s biochemistry background came to the rescue and he managed to isolate a yeast strain from an imported bottle of sake. Water was a little easier in that there was of course never a question of importing appropriate H2O from Japan. In fact, using locally sourced water was one of the things that Brock and Ulrich hoped would give their sake a South African edge. “We never wanted to make a Japanese sake,” says Ulrich. “We are in South Africa and we have always wanted to make the first South African sake.” To that end, they are looking at certain springs and experimenting with fynbos river water, that is water that has filtered through some of South Africa’s unique vegetation. The final ingredient is koji ( Aspergillus oryzae ), a fungus crucial to the sake- making process. For this, the team turned to Botha Kruger, owner of WAZA, a Cape Town based store offering imported Japanese goods and hosting occasional events celebrating Japanese culture. AN AGE OLD PROCESS With the four ingredients finally in place, it was time to brew. “We started small,” says Ulrich, referring to the 20-litre batches the duo brewed at the beginning. “We started in my garage and later moved to Ulrich’s stoep,” Brock recalls fondly. “We found recipes online and had to McGyver the situation.” In another story that will be familiar to many a homebrewer, the early system involved the use of a fish tank temperature controller and a deep freeze. “This is why it’s good getting into a project with an engineer,” says Brock, smiling. Before it reaches the brewer, the rice is polished. Sake in Japan is classified by the amount of material removed from the rice grains, with the more polished rice considered to make a more refined sake. The first step of the sake process is to soak the rice, usually overnight. Next, it needs to be steamed, a procedure which makes the rice starch more accessible to koji enzymes. The rice is then split into two batches. Half of this steamed rice will be inoculated with koji spores, which break down the starches and convert them to glucose. The remainder of the steamed rice is mixed with water, inoculated with yeast starter and the koji rice to create a seed mash known as shubo . On day two, the shubo is transferred to a fermenter to create the main mash, called moromi . Rice, koji and water are then added in consecutive steps. The enzymes from koji convert starch to sugar, which the yeast then turns into alcohol in a simultaneous mashing/ fermentation process that lasts around nine days. The sake is then pressed to separate the liquid from the solids. Different beverages can be made from here. If the sake is served unfiltered and unpasteurised it is known as nigori sake. Filtered sake is known as namazake , while the more commonly available bottled sakes are both filtered and pasteurised. No preservatives are permitted in the production of Japanese sake and so Brock and Ulrich have opted not to use any in their version either. The end product, once bottled, has a shelf life of around two years. TASTING TANUKI It is a fiercely traditional and complicated procedure that surely confirms that Brock misspoke all those years ago when he suggested that sake would be easy to make. Still, dozens of batches later, Brock and Ulrich have perfected the process to a level where they are happy to share their South African sake with interested drinkers. “It started as a curiosity, turned into an experiment and now it’s something bigger,” says Brock, his excitement for the project easy for all to see. I was lucky enough to secure a couple of tickets to a tasting of the sake one windy Thursday in October. To kick off the tasting, we were first poured a glass of commercial sake. Packaged in something akin to an outsized milk carton, the sake was thick without being syrupy, warming without leaving any alcohol burn and offered flavour notes of red apple. I’ve never really thought of myself as a fan of sake, and while I The rice must be steamed to make the starches more accessible Sake samples with varying levels of filtration A homemade batch of koji TO HEAT OR NOT TO HEAT? Some serve it hot, some serve it cold, but what is the correct temperature for a cup of sake to be sipped at? Well, it all depends on the sake. “There is definitely a place for warm sake,” says Brock. “On a cold evening it can be a really nice experience to be served a cup of warm sake, but you wouldn’t want to use just any sake for this. If you’re going to heat it up, choose a simpler, less expensive version as you’re not going to get all of the flavour notes if it’s served hot.” It can be served as warm as 50°C, although for a premium sake you should keep it chilled and serve at around 5°C.