Batch #4 is an experiment. Instead of 60% polished Sake grade rice used for the previous batches, we are trying regular rice – one that you can find at any Asian grocery store.

It is said there are two problems of Sake brewing with this type of cooking rice. First, the rice varieties suited for Sake brewing are different from the ones for cooking. Second, for good Sake, rice needs to be more polished than it is for eating, which is around 90%. Most of Japanese Sake breweries are competing each other to use large-sized rice grain with a good amount of white starch in the center, then polished to the point that all the outer layers are trimmed out. All of these efforts are for pure flavor of Sake. So, basically, what we are trying is to go a wrong way. That’s why it’s an experiment.