Sake Brewing in the 19th Century

I have been reading a little about brewing in the 19th century and find it to be quite similar to current brewing methods. The current brewing method consists of the following steps:

• Rice milling
• Koji production
• Moto – yeast mash (Any of kimoto, yamahai moto or sokujo moto)
• Hatsuzoe – first addition
• Nakazoe – second addition
• Tomezoe – third addition
• Moromi – main mash
• Yodon – stabilization
• Joso – pressing
• Hi-ire – pasteurization & bottling

In the 1800s the steps were as follows:

• Rice milling
• Koji production
• Moto – yeast mash (This would be kimoto)
• Soye – first addition
• Naka – second addition
• Shimai – third addition
• Moromi – main mash
• Pressing
• Hi-ire – repeatedly as needed no bottling

While current method produce sake with an alcohol level of from 18%-22% before adjustments (genshu), the 19^th century method produced only around 14%.

The production of the moto consisted of combining koji, rice and water in a single container and then split it into 6 equal portions that are place in a low sided container where the workers can get in and mix it by hand to remove all the lumps and such. After 1 day the moto has thinned enough to work it with paddles with the temperature held between 0C and 10C. The moto is then recombined into a single container. Sometime after the moto has been recombined to as late as the sixth day the moto is heated to raise the temperature to around 25C.

The ferment beings with the heating of the moto. Up until this point there have been no signed of fermentation and no yeast has been added.

At this point the moto is again split out into the six low sided containers where it spends the remainder of the moto’s 14 day period.

The most common current method for producing the moto is to combine rice, koji, water as we have just seen, but adds yeast and lactic acid (sokujo moto). The moto is mixed well and stirred regularly but never moved from container to container. This type of moto can be completed in 7 days or extended to 14 days.

From here on to the end of the moromi the methods used are virtually the same.

Once the moromi has completed both methods press the leas to extract the sake and pasteurize it. However, in the 1800s the sake was stored in large tanks that were not sanitized. So the sake needed to be watched closely for signs of new infections so that it could be re-pasteurized as needed before it goes beyond drinkability. A single batch of sake may be pasteurized many times before it is used.

The same container was generally used to store a batch of sake before and after pasteurization with no cleaning of the vessel between fillings. While pasteurization was being used there seems not to have been an understanding of how the sake was getting infected or that it was an infestation causing sake to go bad.