History

The history of sake is not well documented and there are many theories on how it was developed. One theory suggests that the brewing of rice began in China along the Yangtze River and was then exported to Japan. Another theory traces the sake brewing back to the 3-century, Japan, with the advent of wet rice cultivation. [Change] The combination of water and rice lying together, gave rise to mold and fermentation.

Nevertheless, the first concern has been called kuchikami not worry, (Japanese for "chewing mouth good" or mouth chewed sake) and was made by people chewing rice, chestnuts, millet, tassel and spitting the mixture in a bathtub. The saliva enzymes allowed the starches saccharify (convert sugar). This sweet mixture was combined with freshly cooked cereals and let ferment naturally. This form of the first concern was probably low in alcohol and consumption as porridge. This method has been used by the Americans, see cauim, and pulque. Chinese millet wine, xiǎo mǐ jǐu (小米酒), made the same way, is mentioned in the inscriptions of the 14th century before Jesus Christ as offered to the gods in religious rituals. Later, around the 8th century BC, rice wine, mǐ jǐu (米酒) with a formula almost exactly like the Japanese side sake, became popular in China.

Centuries later, chewing was rendered useless by the discovery of kōji parents (麹菌Aspergillus oryzae), a mold enzymes which convert the starch to sugar, rice, which is also used to amazake, miso and soy sauce. Inoculés with rice kōji-parent is called "kome-kōji" (米麹), or malt rice. A mashed yeast, or Shubo (酒母), is then added to convert sugar into ethanol. This trend may well increase the alcohol content (18% -25% per flight.), The starch is turned into sugar by kōji, sugars are converted to alcohol by yeast in a process snapshot.

Koji-parent was most probably discovered by accident. Koji spores and yeast that floats in the air lands in a soup of rice mixture of water left outside. The fermentation would create a concern porridge not unlike the kuchikami not worry, but not need a whole village to chew rice. This porridge is probably not the best taste, but poisoning is enough to keep people interested in doing. Part of this puree will be held as a starter for the next batch.

Experimentation techniques and China during the 7th century AD led to the interests of better quality. Love eventually became quite popular for a mixing of the organization to implement the Kyoto Imperial Palace, then capital of Japan. This led to full-time sake brewers, these artisans and paved the way for many other developments in technology. During the Heian era (794-1185) that the development of three more step in the brewing process was developed (a technique to increase the alcohol content and reduce the chances of souring).

For the next 500 years, quality and techniques used in a brewing concern continued to improve. The practice of using a starter mash or "moto" was adopted with the aim of cultivating the greatest possible amount of yeast cells before brewing. Brewers were also able to isolate kōji for the first time and, therefore, have been able to control with some consistency, saccharification (convert the starch to sugar) of rice.

Through observation and trial and error, a form of pasteurization was also developed. Lots of sake that began to sour because of bacteria during the summer months have been poured barrels in their tanks and heated. However, the concern is pasteurized then returned to the bacteria infected barrels. Hence the interest will be even more bitter and, when autumn has come around, the concern would be unpleasant. The principles underlying the pasteurization (and better methods of storage sake) would not be understood until Louis Pasteur discovered some 500 years later.

During the Meiji Restoration, laws were drafted that allowed anyone with money and know-how to build and operate their own sake breweries. Approximately 30000 breweries were born around the country within a year. However, as the years passed, the government collected more taxes on the property industry and slowly the number of breweries declined in 8000.

Most breweries that grew and survived this period have been set up by wealthy landowners. Landowners have increased rice yields would have left more than rice at the end of the season and, rather than letting the reserve of rice from the waste stream to ship their breweries. The greatest success of these breweries family still operate today.

In the 20th century, a concern brewing technology grew by leaps and bounds. The government has opened a sake-brewing research institute in 1904 and in 1907 the first government-run sake tasting / competition was held. Strains of yeast specifically selected for their brewing properties were isolated and enamel-coated steel tanks arrived. The government began acknowledging the use of enamel tanks also easy to clean, which lasts forever, and is devoid of bacteria. (The government wooden barrels regarded as "unhygienic" because of potential bacteria living in the woods.) Although these things are true, the government also wanted more money from breweries such as wood in the barrels wood suck up to an amount of sake (about 3%), which could have been imposed. This was the end of the wood-age barrel of sake and use of wooden barrels brewing has been completely eliminated.

In Japan, a concern has long been taxed by the federal government. In 1898, this tax has about 55 million yen out of a total of about 120 million yen for approximately 46% of government's total direct tax income [1]

During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, the government banned home brewing sake. At the time, though composed an astonishing 30% of Japan tax revenue. Since home brewed concern is tax-free sake, the logic was that the ban on home brewing of sake, sales would climb, and more money would be collected. This was the end of "doburoku" (homebrewed) concern, and the law remains in force today, even though sales now account for only 2% of government revenue.

When World War II broke out, the name-brewing industry has dealt a blow than the government has stalled on the use of rice for brewing. Most of the rice grown during this period was used for the war effort, and this, together with many other problems, was the end for thousands of breweries throughout Japan.

Previously, it was discovered that small amounts of alcohol could be added to an effort to improve the aroma and texture. But by government decree, pure alcohol and glucose were added to small quantities of rice mash, increasing the yield by almost four times. 95% of the name is made using this technique, left over from the war years. There were even a few breweries that have been able to produce "good" that the rice does not at all. Naturally, the quality of care during this period suffered greatly.

After the war, breweries has slowly begun to recover, and concern for quality has increased gradually. However, new actors on the scene - beer, wine and spirits - has become very popular in Japan, and in the 1960 beer consumption has exceeded concern for the first time. Sake consumption continued to decline while the other hand, the quality of sake steadily improve.

Today, a concern has become a world of beverages with a little push breweries in China, Southeast Asia, South America, North America and Australia. More breweries are also older turn to methods of production.

While the rest of the world May be much drinking and quality of care has been increasingly, it is not clear sailing for the property industry. In Japan, sales of sake is still in decline and it is uncertain whether the export of concern to other countries may put Japanese breweries. There are approximately 1500 breweries in Japan now, while there were approximately 2500 to 1988.