Malted Rice

Unrefined sake in the tanks is being bubbled up.

 

Before one of the busiest times at sake breweries come, we visited “Funaki sake brewery” in Fukui prefecture to tour making sake.

 

Luckily, we got to see one of the most important steps of making sake, “Moyashi zukuri” (making “Moyashi”).  “Moyashi” is malted rice and it became well known and a jargon from after the word was used in Manga.

 

The role of the malted rice in making sake is to change rice starch to sugar as the base material for alcoholic fermentation.

 

This original way of making Japanese sake in which saccharification and alcoholic fermentaion are allowed to proceed at the same time.  This multiple parallel fermentation that is a complicated process is the difference from making wine.

 

The room in which it is being kept hot and humid, they spread the sake rice there and the chief brewer at the sake brewery sprinkles malted rice powder (spores of Aspergillus oryzae)over the sake rice.

 

In addition, Bacillus subtilis natto causes major damages for this process, therefore, if anyone ate natto for one’s breakfast, one must not enter the room.

 

If you are thinking about taking a tour in sake brewery, please remember this.  

 

T.S