Glossary

Japanese	Reading	Meaning
熱燗	Atsukan	Hot sake. Note that ordering “atsukan” will get you sake that is generally hotter than good quality sake should be. If you are ordering a quality product like Masumi, better to ask for “nurukan,” meaning warm sake.
大吟醸	Daiginjo	Super-premium sake brewed with rice polished down to 50% or less of its original weight.
吟醸	Ginjo	Premium sake brewed with rice polished down to between 60% and 50% of its original weight.
本醸造	Honjozo	Sake with a small amount of distilled alcohol added. (No more than 10% of the weight of the polished rice).
普通酒	Futsu-shu	Standard-grade sake, with polishing rates above 60%, and distilled alcohol added.
原酒	Genshu	Sake that is undiluted with water.
純米	Junmai	Japanese-style bar or pub.
辛口	Karakuchi	Dry in taste.
粕	Kasu or Sakegasu	The lees that remain after the mash is filtered at the end of the brewing process. Masumi uses its lees to distill a high-quality shochu product called “Sumi 25.”
酵母	Kobo	Yeast. A microbe that consumes sugar and produces alcohol.
麹	Koji	A type of mold (aspergillus oryzae) that produces enzymes that break starch down into sugar. Also refers to rice upon which koji mold has been propagated.
蔵	Kura	A sake brewery. Also called a sakagura.
蔵人	Kurabito	Literally, “brewery person.” The brewing staff members.
モロミ	Moromi	The fermenting mash of steamed rice, water, koji, and yeast that produces sake.
生酒	Namazake	Sake that has not been pasteurized. Namazake MUST be kept refrigerated.
濁り	Nigori	Cloudy sake. Nigori sake is pressed through a rough mesh filter to allow some of the white rice mash through.
日本酒度	Nihonshu-do	Known in English as the Sake Meter Value (SMV), is a measure of the density of sake relative to water. Can be a rough indication of the sweetness or dryness of the sake, higher being dryer in theory, but a variety of factors, especially acidity, influence the flavor so this index alone cannot be taken as a guide to dryness.
温燗	Nurukan	Pleasantly warm sake. Contrast to “atsukan,” which is piping hot sake.
お燗	Okan	A common but rather vague term meaning sake that has been heated up. When ordering a premium sake like Masumi, better to ask for “nurukan,” which specifies that the sake should be pleasantly warm.
酒蔵	Sakagura	A sake brewery. Also called a kura.
酒	Sake,Zake,Shu	Refers to any alcoholic beverage, or specifically to sake, depending on the context. Pronunciation varies depending on what other words appear with it.
精米歩合	Seimai-buai	Polishing rate. Usually indicated as a percentage on the label, this refers to the amount of rice that remains after polishing. The lower the percentage, the higher the grade of the sake.
信州	Shinshu	Traditional name for the mountainous region of central Japan encompassing all of Nagano Prefecture and parts of surrounding prefectures.
焼酎	Shochu	A clear distilled spirit popular throughout Japan. Masumi produces a shochu called “Sumi 25” using the lees remaining after the sake is pressed. This shochu is also used as the base for Masumi’s fruit liquors.
酒母	Shubo,Moto	Yeast starter. The yeast starter is the first stage of sake fermentation, and is intended to produce a robust, highly concentrated yeast culture.
速醸	Sokujo	Currently the most common method for making the yeast starter. Literally, “fast fermentation.” What makes it fast is the innovation of adding ready-made lactic acid to the tank, which allows yeast fermentation to begin immediately. Contrast this to the yamahai and kimoto methods, where the bacteria that produce lactic acid must be grown in the tank for about two weeks before yeast fermentation can begin.
杜氏	Toji	Master brewer.
山廃	Yamahai	An older way of making the yeast starter that is back in fashion because it results in greater complexity, higher acidity, and cleaner finish. The difference between the regular yeast starter method (known as sokujo) and yamahai is the way that the lactic acid needed to begin yeast fermentation is obtained. In regular yeast starters, lactic acid purchased from a supplier is added to the starter tank and yeast fermentation begins immediately. In yamahai starters, bacteria that produce lactic acid are grown in the tank first, and then yeast fermentation begins when the necessary acid level is reached. Note that “yamahai” is an abbreviation of a longer term, “yamaoroshi haishi,” which means to eliminate the step of mashing down steamed rice with wooden poles that was common to sake making before the yamahai method was developed, and continues to be part of the kimoto method even today.