Sugar addition

Sugar addition

I am currently making a 35L (10 gallon) batch of sake.
Pressing will start in a week or so.
Since I like to experiment a bit, (and don’t want to end up with 10 Gallons over overly dry sake) I want to split the batch into 3 different portions:

  • 2 Gallons of Junmai Nigorizake
  • 4 Gallons of Junmai Seihu
  • 4 Gallons of Seishu with experimental sugar additions

The nigorizake, I will bottle and pasteurize right after pressing. I intend to use 2 nylon paintstrainer filters of different meshsize.

The Junmai Seishu will be pressed, going through secondary at 50 degrees for a week or 2 and fined with bentonite before pasteurization and bottling.

Now I have some questions about the third “batch” which I intend to sweeten with sugar and/or chemical sweetener.

  • Would you reckomend adding the sugar during bottling, just before pasteurizing the bottles?
  • How much sugar do you think would be appropriate? (I was thinking of varying the dose to just see what happens, but maybe you have some rough indication as to the quantities?
  • Do you have any experience with artificial sweetener as a means of sweetening sake?

Thanks for your time again,
J.J

I’m something of a sake purist, so I don’t add sugar or any artificial sweeteners to my sake. I generally let it ferment out completely because I prefer a dry sake, but when I want a sweeter sake I just stop the fermentation at my target specific gravity by cold-crashing it.

For advice on adding sugar to your sake, this article by Will Auld
http://homebrewsake.com/home/2011/06/26/hitting-your-smv-sake-meter-value-–-to-ameliorate-or-not/
would be a better resource than me.