4 replies to this topic

[JanetPlanet]

Doburoku is unfiltered farmhouse rice hooch, the wild ancestor of much more refined sake. It has a thin rice gruel consistency and a pleasant flavor. Once made it needs to stay refrigerated and has a short shelf life, so it's rarely found outside of Japan. It's delicious, with a lower alcohol content than sake.

I read it's fairly easy to brew, so here goes! 

All you need is Japanese style rice, koji, and yeast. 

I'll keep you posted. 

[Juthro]

Very cool JP, I look forward to following along.  I had not heard of Doburoku before.   

So it ends up with an ABV similar to strong beer or wine ?

[JanetPlanet]

Very cool JP, I look forward to following along.  I had not heard of Doburoku before.   

So it ends up with an ABV similar to strong beer or wine ?

ABV about 6%. But after 48 hours of fermentation it was unpleasantly sour, so I cut it with 25% amazake (non- or extremely low alcohol content) so now it has a nice balance of sweetness and acid, and an estimated ABV of around 4.5%. It's delicious and drinkable. Perhaps an acquired taste, but easily acquired -- maybe half a small glass :)

[mushit]

So how long from yeast addition to finishing?

I brew beer and make fruit wines and I am very interested in this.

[JanetPlanet]

So how long from yeast addition to finishing?

I brew beer and make fruit wines and I am very interested in this.

 

Hi Mushit!

Just a couple of days in the warmth of summer, although you can let it go as long as you like the taste (taste daily!). It does continue to ferment in the fridge.

 

Sake and doburoku are a unique-on-earth brewing process, different from beer: they have two simultaneous fermentation processes going on. One is starch-to-sugar fermentation from koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae; I used Cold Mountain's koji from the Asian grocery) and at the same time, sugar-to-alcohol fermentation from the yeast (I just used Fleishmans bread yeast).

 

Koji is becoming more and more popular, teetering on trendy. Most people are using it to dry age meat (two or three days in the fridge instead of weeks). It has a lot of uses in Japan, not the least of which is as the starter for miso.

 

 have two local Asian grocery stores; the big one used to carry only Cold Mountain koji, the small one had no koji at all. Now the big one has three brands/kinds of koji and the lottle one has Cold Mountain. I take that as a sign that they are seeing a lot of new demand. 

If your local Asian grocery doesn't have koji, ask them to carry it. You can also buy it online, but because it's alive and needs to be refrigerated, it would be good to wait for cold weather. 

Edited by JanetPlanet, 16 September 2019 - 01:50 PM.