"The Road to Rebuilding the Traditional Brewery" PAGE3
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Sampling the Moromi on the Eighth Day of Fermentation
Normally, our report would end here. However, as an added bonus for we reporters from the Sake Kingdom home page, the kind people from Sawanotsuru took us into the fermentation room. The room is a cool 10C, and filled with the sweet smell of moromi (final mash) and alcohol. The sight of the large fermentation tanks lined up in a row is awe-inspiring. Opening the lid of a tank and looking inside, we could see the fermenting moromi bubbling. This sight reminded us that sake is a living, breathing thing. "Would you like to try some?" This invitation from Mr. Iida of the Fermentation Laboratory was too good to pass up, so we indulged ourselves with a drink of the moromi, which had been fermenting for eight days. Scooping up the white, cloudy liquid directly from the tank into a glass, we slowly took a drink. A slight carbonization stimulated the tongue. The sweet and sour flavor together with a bitterness created an odd taste sensation, almost like a lactic acid beverage. It was a sweet liquid, about a -30 on the sake meter value, and the alcohol content was 14%, about the same as refined sake. Said Mr. Iida, "It's not really that delicious yet, is it? It will start to develop a taste from now." Since we were still chewing on the porridge-like koji rice, I wouldn't say the sample was as good as drinking refined sake, but it was an intriguing inside look into the sake process. It was a valuable experience we will not soon forget.		The person in the photo on the left is standing in this location. It's a little scary looking down. A little hard to see, but this is the bubbling moromi. Moromi scooped from the tank. It looks like something between amazake (a type of thick sake) and rice porridge. "How is it?" "Very interesting."