Hot summer came to Japan in this year as well.
For breweries, Summer used to be the most severe season in terms of sales. People tend to drink lighter alcohol, like beer.
To turn this situation around, the new product has been produced, that is Summer limited sake. The characteristic is normally fresh, fruity and dry. Unpasteurized “nama” sake is easily to express its freshness, but the unpasteurized “nama” sake was only available cold winter season in old time, because hot temperature makes the quality of sake degrade easily.
Recently, the technology of brewing and logistics has been improved, therefore this improvement enable us to enjoy the Summer limited edition without any taste degradation.
This aricle introduces several types of Summer limited sake and special technics to enjoy sake in very hot summer season.
1. Type
・Cloudy sake
You might think the cloudy sake is normally for winter limited edition, but some of breweries produce very unique sparkling cloudy sake.
This type contains quite a lot gas, which generated in the natural process of fermentation, so that we need to super carefully open it. It’s necessary to chill it well in the refrigerator and slowly open and close the cap to remove the gas inside the bottle, otherwise sake will spout out.
Very strong gas and white appearance suits Summer well.
Hatomasamune Hanabi・Sour type
The taste of sake tends to be sweet. To make the balance of taste, the sourness plays very important role. The acidity of this type is relatively higher then the normal ones. It’s not just sweet but the finish is very crispy. Some breweries express the sourness with using the yeast for wine or yeast for shochu.
Senkin Kabutomushi・Super dry
SMV is higher than usual labels. To express the clearness and dryness, some of summer sake has very high SMV. Taste of sake tends to be sweeter, but you will never feel the sweetness with this type.
Tengumai Chokara
2. Technic
・On the rock
Is it wrong course? No, don’t be conservertive. Let’s try to enjoy sake in various way. Usually, water is added in sake to control the alcohol content in the proper production process. Why don’t we adjust the taste by ourselves?（Genshu 原酒 is non-water-added sake）
Normally, richer and sweeter sake tend to be suitable with ice.
*Please use mineral water to make ice
・Mizore sake, Sherbet
Japanese call this type of frozen sake as “Mizore sake”. Please check the following procedure and try it in your house. No worries, it’s very easy and fun.
1. Freeze sake in the -10〜15℃ freezer for about 10 hours
2. Pour sake from higher position to the carafe
* Sake stays in liquid until 15℃ by slowly and stably freezing
3. Sake is suddenly frozen by the impact
* This is called “supercooling phenomenon”
4. Please add a little lemon juice as you like
Even though you forgot to take sake our from the freezer, no worries. Please just put it in the refrigerator and wait for 90 mins, then you can enjoy frozen sake.
・With vanilla ice cream
If you have aged sake, let’s just pour little bit on ice. The smokey and condensed rich flavor changes the normal ice cream to be a sophisticated dessert.
Daruma Masamune KoshuAll techniques introduced here might make your body temperature down. Moreover, it’ very easy to catch a cold due to the huge gap of temperature between indoor and outdoor. If you feel not good, please try little hot sake, which might cure you from inside of body.