Black is Beautiful
Well it was a good idea that needs a lot of work. There is a lot of flavor going on and it is an interesting failure. I’ll be interested in seeing how it matures with aging.
Was hoping to get these out by #sakeday but the labels weren’t done. So here they are ready to go. 1. Old Mose single pasteurized and filtered 2. DB not pasteurized and lightly filtered 3.SCFD single pasteurized and heavy squid ink test batch.
So the squid ink isn’t working like I thought. I’m really wondering how much carbon is in squid ink, as it seems to have clarified the liquid and bonded to the solids coloring them.
As is it has a light brine with a pineapple/guava/green apple. As it warms up though, it gets saltier and more floral.
#science is hard! So the color isn’t anywhere near dark enough after pressing so looks like squid ink might have to come off the bench for the last few minutes in the game. I also prepped some #aspen staves with a little toasting to get some flavor and color. I’m testing a small bit of the #sake with the squid ink to see what happens before I commit to the whole thing as well. Success or failure, this was a fun experiment. #sakeadventure #homebrew 🍶🦑🍶✊🏿
Not quite the black I am looking for
Wood before
Wood after
Sake kasu with a lovely lavender color
Sake with squid ink test
So I got curious about the flavor of the #sake after the surprising smell and did a little taste test with the crew. 2-1 in favor of the current flavor. The two picked up some strawberry and “summer” wine flavors. The one thought it was on the sour side, like the wine had started to vinegar. A mixed bag, but interesting. So I pulled the red rice yeast, gin barrel chips, and ginger out as a precaution. No need to push those flavors to an undesirable place. I also started testing the #squidink as a backup to see what this particular ink tastes like. A little certainly goes a long way 🦑 #homebrew
The tasters
Red rice yeast, gin barrel chips, and a piece of ginger
The squid ink. 1 tsp in 3 cups of water
Added a few color elements to the brew - some red rice yeast, gin barrel chips, and a piece of ginger. It doesn’t show so well in the pic, but it is a nice rose pink hue. It also has an incredible summer white/rosé nose. It is progressing nicely and might be just about ready for pressing.
Well all the rice additions are in and this light lavender #sake is on its way. Gonna wait a few more days before adding any other color change elements. It is letting off a lovely champagne and berries nose which is a nice surprise.
So I left the pea flower tea to steep overnight and the lovely pea fragrance dissipated and the flavor disappeared as well, leaving me with a dark blue, generic tea flavored liquid. As a bonus when pea flower tea comes in contact with an acid it turns a vibrant purple. I feel like this is a good start to the process.
The labeling for the Black Is Beautiful Stout project
Earlier this year Weathered Souls initiated an idea, Black is Beautiful, to get breweries across the US to make stouts to support restorative justice projects. This made me think that other liquor could do this as well.
A few years back when I first thought of the idea for Old Mose, I wanted it to be black in color and I just couldn’t get it to go much past a blood red (which also works). So I’m trying out a new plan to get it there. So my Black Is Beautiful idea is the black sake. It will be a combo of a few things I’ve experienced and worked with over the last few years. The goals are: something that tastes good and only uses natural coloring.
For this batch I’ll be making a pretty standard ginjo sake using a sandan shikomi method to try and get some good flavor from the sake before adding in all the extra ingredients…which will be: pea flower tea to get a nice blue base, red rice yeast to bring in some earthiness and a good red color, some gin barrel wood chips for color and some botanicals, and if needed to take it that extra mile some squid ink powder. I’m hoping that the powdered version has less brine and more umami to it.
With all that said, this could go very, very wrong. There are quite a few really powerful earthy flavors in the mix that could overpower a lot of things very easily. So I think secret to making it work will be the timed addition of those extra components. Too much of anything will really kill it.
So this should be fun 😀
The pea flower tea at work
The extras waiting in the wings
