TONSA for sake?

Other Fermentables
1

Hi all,

First time making sake, and I’m (loosely) following Fred Eckhardt’s recipe in this book for those who have it Amazon.com

A version of the recipe is also shown here:
http://www.designerinlight.com/eckhardt-sake.pdf

Just wondering, since TONSA is such a well-regarded organic nutrient addition scheme for making mead (from honey obv, which is relatively poor in nutrients when compared to barley), could a facsimile of TONSA also be applied to making sake as well?

TONSA for the uninitiated: https://www.meadmaderight.com/nutrient-additions

…

I guess what I’m REALLY asking here, is - to those who have followed Fred’s recipe, or have made sake in general - do you add nutrient with each addition of rice, or just in the beginning when setting up your shubo starter? Fred’s recipe seems to add wine nutrient at the very beginning along with a bit of epsom salt and a measured portion of Morton’s Salt Substitute (which per my understanding has possassium chloride and other minerals that are good for this particular fermentation). However - in every subsequent addition of rice/koji/water in the recipe (Hatsuzoe, nakazoe, tomezoe) he only adds the Morton’s Salt Substitute (in the book he adds the salt substitute to all steps - although in the page I just posted it seems like he only adds the salt substitute to the initial starter buildup).

Just trying to figure out what other folks have done, whether this is a RDWHAH instance, or whether I’m on to something here…

2

I can’t speak for sake, or anything like it.  Never made it myself.  That said, I do think a staggered nutrient addition is a helpful thing for any fermentation that’s going to go for a long time and/or produce high alcohol content.  I think it could be worth a try to break up the nutrient additions with the other additions.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you could make one batch with the nutrient added all at once, and another with a staggered addition.  See if they come out any different.  :wink:

3

Sorry for late reply, but I don’t believe that staggered nutrient additions are necessary for sake. The koji rice provides a lot of nutrients. I have only added KCl at the Moromi step and all other nutrients at the Moto step.