Sake Sama

Sho Chiku Bai Sake in Small 6 oz Bottles

Little Bottle of Sake!

On a recent trip to the grocery store, I found myself in the liquor section checking out the sake (again). This time, I spotted something different- little bottles of sake! These were Sho Chiku Bai brand sake which is a classic Junmai sake. The bottle size was 6.1 oz (180 ml) with an alcohol content of 15%.

Fun little 6 oz bottle of sake!

I thought this could go one of two ways. A small bottle of sake could be really good, sort of like a good single serving bottle of craft beer. Or it could be really bad, like those cheap little plastic bottles of wine.

At least the bottles were glass, not plastic. I decided to get a couple little bottles of sake and find out for myself if they were good or not.

A few days later I was checking my beverage refrigerator for something to enjoy on a hot summer evening after dark. Beer seemed a bit heavy, especially the selection of double IPA's I had on hand. I decided to give one of the little bottles of sake a chance. It was on the top shelf of my beverage refrigerator, right next to the ice maker, so I knew it would be really cold. I decided to drink it right from the bottle like a bottle of beer.

As I covered in my last post, you can enjoy drinking sake at a range of temperatures. I prefer cold right now.

I was surprised how good this was! It was light and refreshing- just right. Drinking sake from the bottle was new for me, but quite enjoyable.

Next time I need to take an adult beverage to a summer gathering, I plan to pick up more of these. I will put them in a cooler on ice and serve them as cold as possible. The twist-off top will minimize the wait time- and warming up- between serving and drinking. This seems like a great way to introduce people to sake. I will make a point of letting people know that this has about 3x the alcohol of beer (15% for sake vs. about 5% for beer). But the bottle is sized proportionally, so a little 6.1 oz bottle of sake has about the same amount of alcohol as a 12 oz bottle of strong beer (like my double IPA's).

Pick up some of these little bottles of sake if you see them for a convenient and refreshing way to enjoy some sake or share it with people who have never tried sake.

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Oliver J. Kingsley. All Rights Reserved.

Should You Drink Sake Hot or Cold?

Should you drink sake hot or cold?

Your first instinct may be to drink sake cold because that is how other alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine are served.

But in Germany beer is served at room temperature, not ice cold.

And most people drink wine straight out of the refrigerator when it is too cold and the flavor is dulled.

So serving all beverages ice cold is not automatically the right answer.

Temperature is an important factor in the flavor and mouth feel of most foods and beverages. Sake is no different.

Why is there so much written about hot sake? There are a couple reasons for this. First is that serving sake hot is a traditional way of serving sake in Japan. Adding on to this, many people first experience sake served hot in small glasses at a bar. Sometimes sake is even added to beer. Oh, the horror!

How do you heat sake? Let me quickly stop you from trying to put it in the microwave to heat it up. That is too harsh and would likely impact the taste. Put hot water in a bowl, and place your glass of sake (or ceramic serving vessel) in the hot water so it can warm up.

A popular serving temperature for hot sake is around 120 degrees F.

Another popular way to go is cold. You can pour cold sake right out of the refrigerator. You can even pour it over ice to really cool it down.

So which is better? As you might expect, sake is complex and the answer is not as simple as you might desire. Some sake is better hot. Some is better cold. And some people tend to like hot sake better than cold and vice versa.

A good clue about the ideal serving temperature for the sake you are drinking is probably right on the bottle. Many kinds of sake have temperature suggestions. But get this- they often recommend both hot and cold serving temperatures!

I decided to get to the bottom if this issue by taking sake from the same bottle and trying it both hot and cold. The hot sake was heated up in a bowl of hot water as described above. The cold sake was served right out of the refrigerator over ice.

The conclusion: After trying this with several kinds of sake, I found that I prefer.... cold sake! The Japanese name for this sake serving temperature around 41 degrees F is Yuki Hie.

For me, the flavor and subtlety really come through with cold sake. It is so smooth and easy to drink cold. I find that heating sake tends to bring out the alcohol flavor and makes it less pleasant.

Here are some popular serving temperatures for sake to try, along with their Japanese names, from my friends at sake-talk:

But enough about me, how do you like your sake- hot or cold? There's only one way to find out... try it and see!

Is Sake a Beer, Wine, Hard Liquor, or Something Else?

Is Sake a Beer, Wine, or Hard Liquor?

I have heard sake described as a Japanese rice beer.

I have also heard sake described as rice wine.

Some people think sake is a distilled spirit like whiskey or vodka.

But sake is not a beer nor a wine nor hard liquor. Sake is its own thing entirely!

Sake Is Not Beer!

Beer is made using malted grain, yeast, hops, and water. Malted grain simply means grain that has been kept wet and allowed to start sprouting. The reason malted grain (such as malted barley) is used to make beer is the the malted grain has an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar that the yeast can ferment. Since yeast cannot ferment starch, there would be no alcohol in beer without the malted grain.

Like beer, sake is made using a grain — rice. But malted rice is not used. A special mold called Koji Kin (Aspergillus oryzae) is added to the rice. This mold produces an enzyme that breaks down the starch in rice into sugars that yeast can ferment into alcohol.

So sake is not beer because it is not made with malted grain. Plus it does not use hops or any other bittering agent. If you have tasted sake, you will know it tastes nothing like beer!

Sake Is Not Wine!

So if sake is not a beer, it must be a wine. You can make wine from all sorts of things. Grapes, of course, but also raspberries, blackberries, and other fruit. Fruit contains sugars that yeast can turn into alcohol. But rice is not a fruit and contains starch — not sugar. If you tried to make wine with rice instead of fruit, it wouldn't work... There wouldn't be any sugar for the yeast to ferment.

So sake is not wine either, since wine needs fruit with sugar as an ingredient.

Sake is Not A Distilled Spirit / Hard Liquor!

Since sake is sometimes served in small glasses, and since it has a higher alcohol content than beer, some people think it is a distilled spirit like whiskey or vodka. But sake is not distilled. Its alcohol comes only from the natural fermentation process and it is not distilled to increase its alcohol content.

So sake is not a distilled spirit or hard liquor either.

What is Sake?

As I said in the introduction, sake is its own thing. It has some attributes of wine such as similar alcohol content (around 15%) and complex flavors. Since sake is made from grain, it is more similar to beer than wine in terms of ingredients. But sake is not a beer and sake is not a wine and sake is not a distilled liquor. Sake is sake.

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