May 24, 2013

Amazake, Continued/甘酒、続き

This morning, I checked the temperature at around 6:45, and it was 49oC. I transferred the amazake into a plastic container. I tasted some, and found it was as sweet as it was last night, so I thought maybe I should have transferred it to a container last night. Anyway, I liked the natural sweetness of the amazake although it was much less sweet than the amazake that I had at the International Festival at IUJ.
I won't bring it to a boil to stop fermentation. Once it cools down, I will put in the fridge.
今朝、6:45頃、温度を調べると、49oCでした。甘酒をプラスチックの容器にあけました。少し飲んでみると、昨晩飲んだ時と甘さは同じでした。昨晩のうちに容器に移しておくべきだったかなあ、と思いました。とにかく、この甘酒の自然な甘さには好きです。国際大学のインターナショナル・フェスティバルで飲んだ甘酒より甘さはずっと低いですが。
私は沸騰させて発酵を止めることはしません。冷めたら、冷蔵庫に入れようと思います。
I put 100 ml amazake in a glass jar and added 100 ml water to make a leavening agent (sakadane) for making bread.
酒種を作るため、甘酒を100 ml、ガラス瓶に入れ、水を100 ml入れました。
In Japan, koji-kin (Aspergillus oryzae) is called kokkin (national fungus). Now I can clearly see how important koji-kin is!
日本では、麹菌(Aspergillus oryzae)は国菌(こっきん)と言われています。麹菌の大切さがよく分かりました!

Edited to add:
追記:
I had a glass of amazake with some ice cubes after lunch.
昼食の後で、甘酒を一杯、氷を入れて飲みました。
Quite good! Sweet and refreshing!
かなりいいです!甘くてさわやかです!

***
Other notes on amazake:

It is recommended to "boil" amazake once it is made, as I said earlier. By "boiling", I mean heat treatment or heat sterilization. Here's how:
Heat amazake to 80oC (70oC according to one site) and keep simmering for 10 minutes (2-3 minutes according to one site). This will keep the amazake from lactic acid fermentation.
甘酒に関する他の注:
前にも言ったように、甘酒ができたら、沸騰させるといいです。「沸騰」とは熱処理や熱殺菌のことです。次のようにします:
甘酒を80oC(或る一つのサイトでは70oC)まで加熱し、10分(或る一つのサイトでは2~3分)煮ます。こうすると、甘酒が乳酸発酵するのを防げます。

2 comments:

Ruminating Roy said...

This looks like it has become a very worthwhile project! I'm glad your amazake looks to be working out well. The last time I made any, it was with sake kasu on Omisoka.

Hiroyuki said...

Ruminating Roy: Yes, very worthwhile! As I said in the post, I've been familar with sake kasu amazake since childhood, but I've never been a huge fan of it, but amazake made from koji is quite different, and I really like it a lot because of its natural sweetness (glucose and other sugars).