Glossary

amakuchi: Sake that tastea sweeter than neutral.
amino-san : Amino acid.
aru-ten: Sake to which brewer's alcohol has been added;non-junmaishu sake.
atsukan: Piping hot sake
daiginjoshu: Fermented rice sake polished under 50% at low temperature.This is the highest class of sake.
dekasegi: The practice of leaving one's home and traveling to a distant place for work.
fune: A lager box (usually wooden),used for pressing moromi and separating lees from fresh sake.
genmai: Unpolished rice;brown rice.
ginjoshu: Fermented rice sake polished under 60% at low temperature.
go-mi: The five representative flavors that are sometimes used as a framework for assessing sake :sanmi(acidity),amamisweetness),karamidryness or spiciness),shibumiastringeny or tartness),and nigami(bitterness).
hiire: The sake pasteurization process.
honjozoshu: Sake made from rice,koji,water,and a little alcohol.
ichigo: A measure usually considered to be one serving of sake,equal to approximately 180 milliliters,roughly one masu's worth of sake.
issho: Ameasure equal to 1.8-liters,or ten go,roughly ten masu of sake.
isshobin: A 1.8 liter bottle of sake.
itto: A measure equal to eighteen litters,or ten times the volume of issho.
ittobin: An eighteen
jomai: Steamed rice;the rice-steaming procedure.
jozo: The sake-pressing process.
jyunmaishu: Sake made only from rice,koji,and water.This is pure sake.
kakemai: Steamed rice which is added to the fermenting moromi.
kan(o-kan,kanzake): A general term for warmed sake.
kaori: The smell or fragrance of a sake.
karakuchi: Sake that tastes drier than usual.
kas: The lees that remain after moromi has been pressed to give clear sake;the unfermented remains of the moromi.
koubo: Yeast.
kouji: Rice cultivated with koujikin;used in every stage of sake production.
koujikin: A mold,the Latin name for which is Aspergillus oryzae,used in sake production to break down starches in steamed rice into fermentable sugars.
koku: Originally a measure of rice equal to one thousand masu,or about 380 kilograms;for sake,a measure equal to one hundred isshobin,or about 180 liters.
koshiki: A large vat,traditionally wooden,in which rice for sake brewing is steamed.
kuchiatari: The flavor and impression just as a sake hits the tongue and palate.
kura: A sake brewery.
kurabito: A sake brewery worker(s).
kyubetsu seido: The obsolete (abandned in April 1989)sake classification system assigning a tokkyu(top class),ikkyu (first class),or nikyu(second class)ranking,along with requisite tax increses,to the price of a bottle of sake.
masu: A small wooden box traditionally used for measuring rice and drinking sake.
moromi : The fermenting mixture of rice,koji,yeast,and water.
moto: Also known as shubo,the yeast starter.A mixture of rice,koji,and water in which an extremely high concentration of yeast cells cultivated.(See shubo.)
mushimai: The rice-steaming step of sake production.(See jomai.)
namazake: Unpasteurized sake.
nuka: The talc-like powder that is the outer portion of polished rice kernels.
nurukan: Sake warmed to lukewarm temperatures.
roka: The sake-filtering process,undertaken when sake has been sitting for 10 days.
sakagura: Another world used to refer to a sake brewery.
sakaya: A liquor shop that sells sake.
sandan shikomi: The most widely applied method of adding rice,kouji,and water to the moromi,a three-stage process.
seibun: The components or chemical makeup of something,used here to refer to either sake or rice.
seimai: Rice polishing.
seimaibuai: The degree to which rice has been polished;this number,expressed as apercentage,refers to the amount of grain that remains after rice has been polished.For example,a 35% seimaibuai means that the rice has been polished so that it is only 35% of its original size,and that 65% of it has been turned into nuka.
seimaiki: The machine used to polish rice for sake.
senmai: The rice-washing step in sake brewing.
shinseki: The rice-soaking step of the sake brewing process.
shinpaku: The hard,white center comprised of starch found in the center of good sake-brewing rice.
shubo: Yeast starter,also known as moto.This is a mixture of rice,koji,and water with an extremely high concentration of yeast cells.(See moto.)
tokuteimeishoshu: A collective term referring to honjozoshu
,junmaishu,and ginjoshu.
toji: The head brewer of a brewery.
yongobin: A bottle holding 720 milliliters,or four go.
 
 

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