Daiginjo Koji?

I will soon be making a batch of daiginjo sake. Does any know if it would be better to make the koji with the daiginjo rice or would the koji from Sake One be better?

Thanks!

I’d use the seimaibuai <50% for making the koji yourself. You have a source for daiginjo grade rice? Really? Please elaborate, I’m interested in knowing more about it.

Thanks,

MPFbrewer

I have purchased a rice polisher from China. DHL says it will be on my door step tomorrow. It will take some trial and error to find the ideal final polish level. The plan is to take the rice from Sake One (60% polish) and pass it through the rice polisher to achieve a final level of less than 50%. According to the sales people, the polish level should get down to about 35-40%. We will have to see about that. After months of looking for anything in the USA, I finally found a company in China willing to sell me a single machine.

As a follow up question, does anyone have a favorite source of Koji spores?

I will try to keep things posted as I experiment with the rice polisher (assuming I actual get what I paid for).

Wow! You imported a polisher from China. Could you post a link to the model so that we cold take a look at it? I’m interested in hearing how it works out for you. I may decide to get one too if it can do what they claim.

As far as Koji spores, I would try to, by all means possible, obtain Akita Konno spores from Japan. They have different types depending on what grade of sake you are trying to make etc…

Good luck and keep us posted on the rice polishing endeavor.

Here is the link: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/91270 … chine.html

My contact was Vivian Zhang. It took several weeks to get the correct model and determine the best way to pay for the unit. They usually ship 2 models at a time, but I was able to get one unit at a slightly higher price.

The model does not have the ability to set a custom polish level. Each pass will polish about 30-40% (so they say). It will be a matter of experimenting with varying polish times or hopefully using rice that is already at a 60% polish, then 1 more pass should may leave me at a 36% to 42% final polish rate. It can handle 20-30kg/hr so it should be perfect for my needs.

Unfortunately DHL disappointed me today and there was no rice polisher on my doorstep after I came home from work today so it may be Monday before I can start to read a manual and figure out how it works. I will keep you posted when I can!

Wow! I am sure I am not alone in being very interested in how the unit works out for you.

I also am very interested in this. Looks like it can handle quite a bit of rice. Don’t want to ask outright but how much are we talking about something like this?

I was under the impression sake rice has a core of starches where as regular rice its spread out… Or is sake rice just a little more concentrated in the center? I was thinking not much would be gained unless one was actually polishing rice bred for this more dense starch core. Is this right?

Thanks,
Dray

Well the unit arrived yesterday and it looks nice. I can’t use it yet because I have to order a voltage converter since it runs on 220v. Hopefully that will arrive in a week or so and then I can start experimenting with well it actually polishes rice. I feel a little bit like Don Quixote because this quest doesn’t seem to have an end. As soon as I tally up all the figures I will try to give you a total of everything involved. I will tell you right now it ain’t gonna be pretty!

As far as the rice goes I did not think that sake rice had that much of a different structure (and I could very well be wrong), but I was planning on using Sake One’s rice which I can source locally at FH Steinbarts.

I will try to update everyone as the saga continues.

Quixote, so cool. Sort of speaks of sake brewing in general. For me especially I think. How goes the milling? Take your time, but I’m very excited to hear about it. Make sure your converter also converts the 50hz to 60hz or the motor will spin a little fast.

Well I have to admit failure on this one. I have tried several varieties of rice and the listed polish rate is now where close to the actual rate I get when running rice through the machine. I tried running 2 lbs of rice (full hopper) through the machine and even with brown rice it took 12 passes to get a 20% polish rate. This was the best polish rate I could get. This is not even near the 30-40% polish rate that was listed for the unit.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with this whole situation. Now I have to convince the seller to take the unit back and HOPEFULLY refund my money. I have emailed them tonight, but I have a feeling that I am just royally screwed on this one. This was a huge investment in time and money and I think I am going to lose big time. Hopefully my wife will be somewhat understanding.

I think the next option will be to some how find out how some of the industrial polishers work and try to build a smaller version. If anyone has any leads I would appreciate it. I am totally bummed at the moment, but I have not given up hope for producing Daiginjo sake!

Alas! I had hoped it would work for you. Thanks for taking the chance and thanks for telling us about it. Please let us know what you do eventually make work!