#9 Chamomile Sake
Jan 26th 2025
(Day 1) Jan 26th: Combined 600mL cold water with 4g of yeast nutrient and 115g of (~1.2kg total) previously prepared koji. Leaving that in the fridge. Separately, also washed and placed to soak 340g of Jasmine rice into the fridge overnight.
(Day 2) Jan 27th: Prewarmed the steamer. Steamed the 340g of rice for 50 min. Sterilized 5 gal plastic bucket with peroxide-based brewing sanitizer. Combined with the 600mL water+koji+nutrient solution. Mixed in bucket by hand and affixed airlock. Placed bucket at room temp.
(Day 3) Jan 28th: Stirred a couple of times by shaking closed bucket.
(Day 4) Jan 29th: Sprinkled 1 packet of Lalvin EC-1118. Did not stir in. Left at cooler temperature (14 to 17C) for 24 hours.
(Day 5) Jan 30th: Stirred the mixture.
(Day 9) Feb 3rd: Stirred the mixture. The moto is now progressing. The enzymes have almost completely liquified the rice. There is a floating layer that that has formed on the surface (~2mm thick, partially broken up like dried clay, white). It smells like lactic acid, but not as strong as a moto that was raised back to 20C after Day 5. There is yeast bubbling action.
(Day 12) Feb 6th: The floating layer has gotten thicker, about 3mm thick. Less broken up. The smell is a bit more lactic acid as well. Still a tiny bit of bubbling under the layer generally.
(Day 16) Feb 10th: Boiled 650mL of water. To boiled water, added 5 Chamomile tea bags. The amount of water added so far is 1250mL (not including water added when we cook the rice). This gives us a ratio of 1 tea bag per ~250mL of water. Put this in the fridge.
Added 225g of koji to the moto (starter must). This was done after letting the koji warm up to room temperature after being stored in the freezer.
Washed and soaked 570g of rice in cold water.
(Day 17) Feb 11th: Drained rice of water for 1hr. Steamed rice for 50 min. Added rice to 650mL of Chamomile tea. Cooled down in the fridge until 29C. Added to rice+tea to must by stirring in with spoon. Raised temperature of must to 21C.
Made 2.1L of Chamomile tea with 10 bags (8 needed, but 2 to make up for water content of rice). Steeping time was 5 min. Placed tea in the fridge.
Added 340g of koji to the must and stirred in.
Washed 1.36kg of rice. Placed in the fridge.
(Day 18) Feb 12th: