To brew 35 litres of Japanese ricewine (known as sake) you need the following ingredients:
10 kg of rice
10 kg of sugar
juice of 15 lemons
3½ kg of raisins
yeast 50 g (dried yeast suffices)
water up to 35 l
The preparation of sake takes place in three stages:
The first stage is to boil/steam the rice.
(this is the quickest stage)
The second stage is aerobic fermentation.
(This is a swift process taking about three weeks)
The third stage is the an-aerobic fermentation where the alcohol is produced.
(This is the essentially time-consuming process. It takes about ½ to 1 year)
Necessary tools:
second stage:
50 l container (such as a standard kitchen garbage container)
clean towel
third stage:
35 l bottle with tight orifice
waterlock
1 m (silicon-)rubber tube
Boil or steam the rice. Cut the raisins and mix them with the rice in the 50 l container. Dissolve the sugar in 30 liters of boiling water and mix the solution with the rice and raisins. Cover the container with the wettened towel. After cooling down to below 40°C add the lemonjuice and yeast. Again, cover the container with the wettened towel. Make sure no fruit flies were able to contaminate the mixture, otherwise you'll end up with 35 liters of vinegar instead of sake. Wait three to four weeks. Meanwhile keep the towel wet.
Sift the mixture and fill the 35 l bottle with the liquid. Close the bottle with the waterlock and make sure no air from outside can leak in. Throw away the solid residu, or use it to bake those famous Japanese rice-cookies! The recipe will be added to this page soon.
In the first month or so the liquid will be troubled and opaque. Also many CO2 bubbles will evade via the waterlock. After the first month the liquid will become clear. Nevertheless, many more bubbles keep evading. In principle the sake is ready when no bubbles are formed anymore. This can take up to a year ...
Have fun!!!! (but first: a lot of patience ...)