Fermentation is in progress

Started brewing this winter!

　As I posted before, I started brewing Japanese SAKE this winter.  The point for this brewing is using up to 60% milled rice for SAKE, which is "Ginjo" quality,  instead of a regular rice we typically eat.   I bought it from an online store.  I also get a "raw Koji" instead of dry version.

   The brewing started on Jan 16 and additions were done on Jan 20th, 22nd and 23rd.   It is work in progress now.   Due to my calculation error, the recipe was not what I originally planed.  However, it is probably not a big problem and fermentation is on going now.

Different rice for SAKE
   The special rice which is milled up to 60% for SAKE brewing looks a similar as what we typically eat.  There is much difference just looking at each pieces.  However, if you fill into a cup or grab some, I feel difference.  It seems space between each pieces is probably smaller. 
   The condition after cooking is also different.  The way I used to use is using a rice cooker to cook rice instead of steaming rice as a traditional way to cook rice for SAKE.  This method is from many information from the internet to make "DOBROK", which is non-filter version of SAKE for personal brewing.   Based on the method, we might be able to get a similar result as steaming rice.  It is not exactly the same result with steaming rice, however, it is probably acceptable for personal brewing.  However, when I cook the special rice this time is not very good result.  Rice where near surface of cooker is too soft and the middle is under-cooking.   The result is not uniform.  It is probably due to the space between each piece of rice and distribution of the water with rice.  The dimension of each piece might be very small difference between the special rice and the regular rice, however, it is probably one of key factor of the result.   Based on the first result, I increased amount of the water for cooking a little bit, then the middle portion got better.  But rice where is near surface for the cooker is very soft.  It might be different kind of rice, but the different milled rate is probably primary factor in my opinion and this is a big reason the traditional method uses "steam" instead of boiling.

   We may improve to longer time to put in the water.  However, the complete improvement, we might need to steam rice instead of using a rice cooker.  Based on the past result, as long as we use a typical rice for eating, it is probably fine to use a rice cooker.  But this is just a easy method for personal brewing.   This time, except the first one, I use a scale for sticky (sweet) rice water level on the cooker instead of regular "white rice" with more than 2 hours rice in the water.

Different KOJI
   This time I also use "raw" or non-dried KOJI instead of dried-KOJI.   The required water amount is different.  However, I did miscalculation for the amount of water.  It is much less than what I originally thought.   However, I use more water for cooking and it is a sort of balanced and it does not seems to be a big problem.

Problem this brewing and future improvements

   The error in the recipe and how to cook rice is the area where I need to improve in the next brewing.   However, the current brewing will take more than a mount and it might be hard to have another one this winter.   Therefore, the next brewing will be the next winter.

   The next time, I will re-calculate the distribution of the amount for each adding for rice and water, and how to cook rice.   Let's see how it goes this winter!