AWA YUKI SPARKLING SAKE HOW TO

It’s a complete contrast to the awa sake, which Pearce describes as “very savory,” with “silky and fine bubbles.” Another brewery he imports, Dewazakura, makes a sparkling sake that splits the difference, more bubbly but also cloudy. The result is a gently sweet, fruitier, and slightly cloudy sake with just a small amount of effervescence, similar in character to a petillant-naturel wine. They then filter the sake coarsely as it goes into the bottle. Masumi, for example, makes one of their bubbly sakes by fermenting at very low temperatures the cold limits how much CO2 can escape into the air. There are brewers using the “awa” method who haven’t joined the association, and some members also play with producing bubbles in other ways. Today, 25 sake breweries have joined the association, making 30 different Awa sakes.” Sakes certified by the association are marked by a holographic seal on the neck of the bottle. “We should show the customer which method is more valuable, so we needed to establish the Awasake Association to certify Awa sake. “We have several kinds of sparkling sake, which are made from artificial gas or natural gas in the Japanese market,” notes Kitahara, who is one of the founding members. (“Awa” means “foam.”) The breweries cooperate in refining the process, maintaining quality standards, and promoting the sakes. In 2016, nine breweries came together to form the Japan Awasake Association. The Japanese government has not placed any official definitions on sparkling sake production, but the industry itself has taken efforts to delineate and promote these methods. Fortunately, sparkling sake can be disgorged just as sparkling wine can, by freezing the solids in the neck and then quickly popping them out and resealing the bottle. In either case, a step remains to make the Champagne analogy that much more complete: the leftover yeast cells and rice particles need to be removed so the sake can be entirely clear. When it reaches the point at which the right amount of sugars remains, they chill the future sake to stop fermentation, pump it into bottles, and let fermentation recommence. So it still has active yeast and glucose.” The two lots are blended and bottled, with carefully determined proportions so the second lot’s sugars and yeast will yield the right amount of bubbles. The second lot is fermented the same way but not pasteurized it just goes through a coarse filter. “One is fermented and then pasteurized, the traditional way. “They make two separate batches,” says Chris Pearce, president of World Sake Imports, who sells their sakes. Masumi began making sparkling sake ten years ago. Adding sugar is not allowed in sake brewing, so brewers have developed a few work-arounds. Champagne simplifies this process by making a dry sake and then adding more sugar and yeast as the wine goes into the bottle, where the bubbles will be trapped. Sakes are also typically more alcoholic, with 15% or 16% alcohol compared to 12.5% for sparkling wines.Īnother hurdle is getting the amount of gas pressure correct. Often, brewers make their sparkling sakes drier to compensate for the lower acidity. Sake, however, has a much lower acidity than any wine a pH level of 6.5 is normal compared to 3.5 for a red wine-and even less for Champagne. Sparkling wines have a higher acidity than still wines, which keeps them from tasting heavy.

AWA YUKI SPARKLING SAKE HOW TO

Kitahara says the most difficult aspect was figuring out how to keep the gas pressure, alcohol level, and sweetness stable and balanced. “We saw how they produce CO2 with a second fermentation in the bottle,” he explains, and then went to work adapting it to sake brewing. The brewery is within the prefecture as well.

“We went to wine institute in Yamanashi and researched how sparkling wine is made,” says Tsushima Kitahara at Shichiken, one of sparkling sake’s pioneers.

The Yamanashi Prefecture, approximately an hour drive from Tokyo, is the center of Japan’s wine industry. Bubbles are a natural by-product of fermentation in both sake and Champagne, so it’s just a matter of capturing them in the bottle instead of letting them disperse into the air.įortunately brewers didn’t have to go all the way to France for advice. Those sakes have more in common with Coca Cola than Champagne, but since the turn of the millennium, the latter has become a source of inspiration. The earliest bubbly sakes were simple and usually sweet brewers simply pumped in the needed carbon dioxide, which creates big bubbles and go flat quickly.

Awa yuki sparkling sake