>Ask over in soc.culture.japan or scj.moderated. Bet you'd be
surprised
>by the answers.

Konnichiwa ....Tomodachi..

The chemistry of fermentation is the same:
Grains are cooked to gelatinize the starch, the starch are
enzymatically converted to maltose, and glucose now the maltose is
fermented by the yeast to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
...... What makes it different is for the Japs to be sticker to
tradition which can include rituals that does not alter biochemical
reaction mechanism of saccharification of starch and fermentation.
Its pretty straight forward: rice is steamed and cooled and inoculated
with moto( a culture of the mold Aspergillus oryzae that behaves like
diastatic malt and convert the gelatinized( cooked) rice to fermentable
sugars.
Then these sugars is inoculated with a strain of saccharomyces
cereviseae which has a high alcohol tolerance( take note Sake can have
an alcohol content of 20% after fermentation higher than ordinary
wine and beer).
One factor that differentiates it from brewing and winemaking is by
allowing the yeast to multiply while its fermenting the sugars to
alcohol.
After the first moromi is fermented another batch of rice mash already
enzymatically converted to sugar is added and the fermentation cycle
is repeated twice to three times.So the wine and beer are single
fermented but the Sake can be double or triple fermented resulting in
higher alcohol content
Once the fermentation is over the liquid is separated from the solids.
The liqour is diltuted to the required alcohol content, pasteurized and
bottled
Sake and beer....dollar and yen....They are the same..... respectively
the former both alcoholic beverage... the latter units of currency.
But they have their own uniqueness.
The japanese beverage has higher alcoholic content but the dollar has
higher value than yen.<g>

Sayonara Brian san