Good morning, everyone.
Happy Easter Monday!
Finally, this workshop has started!
I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend.
This pandemic changes us so dynamically.
We’ve been staying home for about a month now and feeling that this may continue forever.
I believe this will end, not so far in the future, but we have to be aware that this won’t let you go back to the same life we had, before the pandemic.
Are we just going to sit and wait until its over?
There are still a lot of things that are waiting for you to make you get excited!
I hope this workshop will move something that’s in you.
Generally, this workshop is for beginners who are not familiar with the sake making.
As you may know, the works at a sake brewery in Japan is like an art …the taste of Doburoku we’re going to make is going to be far from the taste you may expect from the one in LCBO.
However, there is a huge meaning for making ‘alive drink’ by yourself.
Instead of a clear, sensitive taste of Sake from a store, you can feel the full body of nutrient powerful taste.
Also, keep this amazing drink all the time in a fridge for cooking! Add this to any of your dishes to create an additional umami-rich nutrient dish!
I recommend you to start keeping an empty plastic bottle (especially, the pop bottles) to store Doburoku.
Starting from today, I’m going to give you instructions and helpful tips like this every day to teach you what you need to prepare and how to make Doburoku.
In general, at the in-person workshop, I will prepare everything that you need for the workshop to make Doburoku.
However, here is an online class! It is going to be a little bit different from what you may be used to, but I believe this will be a great chance for you to know that things are not so difficult to try!
First of all, I will give you all of the information that you will need to prepare before Friday. You will have 4 days more to prepare everything. If you don’t know what to do, please let me know! I will support you as much as I can.
Just one more thing…DON’T GIVE UP!!
Here is an ingredient for making sake
Believe it or not, Sake is made from Rice only!
ONLY RICE!!
I will explain a little more.
Yes we need water to make sake.
Also we need koji, rice koji.
Rice koji is rice that are fermented by Koji mold…so basically, it’s just rice!
We also need some help from bacteria.
Lactose bacteria and yeast.
we’re going to use ‘Probiotic Rice Water’ or ‘Whey from yogurt’ for lactic bacteria, and ‘Dry Yeast for baking’ for yeast.
Japanese people started making sake about 2000 years ago, but this was only from home brewery. The oldest style of making sake called ‘Bodaimoto'(菩提酛), which was created about 500 years ago and it became the foundation of the method of making Sake.
Making Bodaimoto, use only rice and water.
(let’s count rice koji as rice)
They use lactose bacteria and yeast from the air!
Knowing how to make sake is the same as knowing the circulation and the relationship between this world and the bacteria. It’s nothing difficult. Very simple.
If you’re interested in learning more about the history of natural brewed sake, I recommend you to give it try!
For this time, I just want you to enjoy the first experiment of alcoholic fermentation. It’s not a difficult process, and you don’t need to wait for a long time.
It’s a bit against what I want to tell when I teach Bodaimoto(advanced sake) class, but I believe this experiment will give you a big impact if you’ve never tried alcoholic fermentation.
Here are tools you need to prepare Doburoku
-A bowel to sink the rice in a water
-Rice cooker( or any tool to steam the rice)
-A container to store Doburoku (about 3L)
-thin 100% cotton cloth to filer the Doburoku (white is preferred, disinfect in boiling water)
It’s simple, isn’t it?
Summary of making Doburoku
Ingredients
– Rice – 3cups
– Water – 800ml to 1L
– Rice Koji – 250g
– Lactic Bacteria – ‘Probiotic Rice Water’ or ‘whey’ from yogurt – about 1 tbsp
– Yeast – dry yeast for bread
Tools you need
-A bowel to sink the rice in a water
-Rice cooker( or any tool to steam the rice)
-A container to store Doburoku (about 3L)
-thin 100% cotton cloth to filer the Doburoku (white is preferred, disinfect in boiling water)
Can you think of where to get Rice koji?
I will give you a list on a Facebook page.
Questions? Comments? Please ask me on the Facebook group page.
I am looking forward to chatting with you on the group page.
Have a nice day!
Shiori