Brewing Sake: Release the Toji Within

If you want to brew sake at home, buy this book! Currently there aren't any other alternatives available in English unfortunately. The only other work that has been published was Fred Eckhardt's  Sake (USA): The complete guide to American sake, sake breweries and homebrewed sake  (which Fred himself readily admits is woefully out of date). Most of the books readily available in Japanese are for the making of doboroku since making alcohol at home in Japan with an ABV above 1% is illegal and many of the necessary tools/ingredients are not available to the public in Japan as a result (although this law is rarely enforced and there have been a few homebrew shops popping despite the legality).The primary problem with this work is that it has been self published; so that means there wasn't a publisher, proofreader, editor, technical editor nor layout editor to work on the book prior to its publication.Generally each page has several mistakes--no commas after introductory phrases, typos, etc. Fortunately these problems rarely affect the quality of the material presented. Items where a word is consistently wrong is more frustrating (e.g. using "cast" instead of "cask" and using "strait" instead of "straight").The layout does NOT contribute to the readability/understandability of the book. Usually it looks like a typical Word document that was dumped straight into to Amazon's CreateSpace self-publishing engine. The bullets used in the instructions are just full and empty circles and the text has been fully justified--a bit out for an item where most of the lines do not wrap onto a 2nd line. There are many more examples.The pictures that are in the book are fine, but they are of limited usefulness. What would have been more helpful is pictures that actually show the making of sake at home.The usage native Japanese orthography, the transliteration of Japanese and the description of Japanese terminology is very inconsistent.As another reviewer correctly pointed out, much of the core information about brewing (and most of the glossary) can be found on the author's website.I felt that a lot more information about sourcing the tools and supplies need in the making of sake at home could have been provided. This is one of the primary roadblocks to people making sake at home.While a very detailed description of how to make sake is given, there is virtually no information presented about why steps are performed, the timing of the steps and how to vary the process to make other styles and sake that lines up with your particular palette.In a lot of the writing in this book, there are jumps in the assumption of the knowledge of the reader and many requisite (in my opinion) descriptions are missing. This also lends in a somewhat awkward flow between different ideas.Much of the technical information provided is not necessary if the brewer doesn't understand the basics and why they would want or need to use the more technical information provided.Most of the tables, charts and graphs look like they were added at too low of a resolution so most of the tables and charts have fuzzy characters and lines. Also, I don't think that most of the graphs don't aren't easy to decipher and don't add anything to the text provided.That being said, buy this book! I applaud Mr. Auld for getting this information out to us! And I can't wait for a revised or 2nd edition. Or perhaps he will pick up a publisher and this book will get the proper treatment it deserves.If you read Japanese, check out http://www.amazon.co.jp/'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''-'''/dp/4540073001. Others are available as well.

Unfortunately, there is a paucity of Sake books and I am always pleased to find a new one being published. Brewing Sake is a more technical guide, not really for the casual reader, with the intent of providing detailed instructions and explanations for how to brew Sake at home. It begins with a list and description of the equipment you will need for brewing, and then moves to a detailed, step by step procedure for brewing. If you follow these directions, you should be able to make a good Sake, even without fully understanding all of the reasons for each step.The subsequent chapters then go into much greater details on the ingredients, procedures, chemistry and science behind Sake brewing. For example, you will find a brief history of rice growing, not only in Japan but also in the U.S. and Australia. There is a large section on moto, yeast starter, production with information and procedures for five different systems. You will find multiple comparisons between commercial brewing and home brewing, indicating changes that the home brewer likely may have to make. Chemistry lessons play a part, and some of the information can get very technical.Despite its technical sections, the writing seems very clear and following the instructions seems easy enough. There are also numerous photos and charts to help to help you better comprehend the material. You will also find an informative glossary at the end of the book. The Sake information appears very accurate, and includes some information that you might not find in many other Sake books.The key audience for this manual is anyone who is interested in brewing their own Sake. For such individuals, this will be an invaluable reference book. I would also recommend picking up a more general book about the basics of Sake, to better understand this intriguing and delicious beverage. A home wine maker or beer brewer who wants to expand their repertoire should definitely consider buying this book too. A Sake lover would also be interested in this book, even if they don't want to brew their own, as they would acquire a deeper understanding of the brewing process.This may be a niche book but it is one which was needed and I am also glad to see another book which further love and understanding for Sake.

You May call me ToJi from now on (The master brewer at a sake brewing facility), you will note the subtitle is "Release the Toji within"Brewing sake is really fun if you have done other brews. It is easy but tricky, lots to know. The book is great and has all you need to know. Some times you need to look for it but once you know where making sake is coming from you know why it is there. I am still in the beginners section that is written like "Sake brewing for the challenged" and Lo therefore I have my first batch coming off thanks to that guidance.

It needs some serious editing, but if you can see past that, there is some interesting information that I've never seen in print. Like most homebrew sake instructions you'll find on the web, the book's "recipe" is really just a morphed version of Fred Eckhardt's. You'll be a far cry from a toji after reading this book; however, there are some bits you can't easily find elsewhere, like some details on the different moto styles. The book needs references. There are sporadic footnotes, but they rarely include proper sources. Tisk tisk. I was hoping, as a long time sake brewer, that I could glean a few more juicy details about this ancient art. That being said, I gladly paid the $20 (and would again) for a book on sake. An inexperienced sake brewer could pick up this book and make some good sake without straying too far from the pages. In the future, maybe we'll see a revised/edited printing with a little more coherence. Keep it up.

The book is interesting, provides a good deal of detail and options for methodology and the insights to the history and equipment are useful and helpful but if you like clear, concise methodologies (like I do), it's a little frustrating (p.s. I'm a scientist so this is all tried/ trusted stuff, really).The author clearly knows his stuff but a lot of this is repetition of techniques and methods (eg. washing/steaming rice, so I don't need to see that every time but it's repeated ad-infinitum. There are other instances where he'll tell you how much steamed rice you need (eg. 4.5 cups); why use "cups", as well? Anything wrong with ml/ kg?. Wouldn't it also be easier to state how much dry rice I'll need so I don't have to back- calculate this?). There are also different options re. yeast types used. Rather than give one method and then give another, he has chosen to have the two options with all the repeated variables repeated as indicated above which is, in my opinion, just confusing and takes a lot of time to get your head around for no good reason.In summary, I'm currently re-writing my methodologies into a clear, concise form that I can use as the methods indicated in the book could be written far more concisely, in my opinion.I'm still glad I bought it but the same information would be better presented in a shorter, chrolological manner in my humble opinion.

No es sencillo encontrar libros de homebrewing de sake que no sean en japonés.Este cumple las espectativas. Muestra de forma clara los pasos a seguir para hacer sake de forma casera, mucho más allá de lo que suelen traer los "kits" que se venden por ahí. Lleva algo de química, pero muy ligerito y fácil de seguir.La pega, al menos para mí, es que hay poca información y bastante anticuada sobre el pulido del arroz, que es, IMHO, lo más importante del proceso de producción de sake, y lo más complicado de replicar a nivel casero.Con todo y con eso, es muy recomendable.Una cosa más: la edición es todo lo cutre que puede ser :P

Just what you're looking for if you want to attempt to make sake. I suggest you also purchase The Noma Guide to Fermentation for their in-depth procedures on making koji, which isn't covered as well as it could be in this otherwise excellent guide.

Good