The temperature of the water bath that you’re using to heat the sake has a huge difference on the final product. As mentioned in the previous post, chirori have different levels of thermal conductivity, heating the sake at different rates. A sake in tin may come to the desired temperature in 20 seconds while ceramic may take a minute.

Water bath temperature is another factor in that same calculus. Below are some examples of different temperatures and their effects on the final sake:

90C (194F)

This is the highest temperature that people use to heat sake. At this temperature, the sake heats extremely quickly. This results in a more “cooked” sake that may lose some of its more subtle aromatics and complexity.

Despite sounding bad at first glance, this can be a benefit! Extremely umami-heavy, funky sakes sometimes become cloying while heated. Using a high-temperature water bath will pare down the funkiness, allowing the more subtle flavors in the background to come to the forefront.

Using a cooking analogy, this could be equated to grilling. You wouldn’t want to use a charcoal grill on extremely subtle, delicate foods, as it could overpower the basics. However, if you grill a meaty steak, the outcomes can be delicious.

60C (140F)

60C is a lot more gentle on the sake. Instead of shocking the sake and blowing off subtle aromatics, this is more of a middle ground that will preserve a lot more of the elements you’d find in the sake served cold.

This is a great catch-all temperature. Most sakes suitable for being served warm will at least be good enough at this temperature. It’s a general middle ground between preserving delicate flavors and heating the sake intensely enough to make sure it’s not cloying.

Set to Serving Temperature

Another technique, if you’re using a sous-vide circulator, is to set the water bath to the temperature that you will be serving the sake at. So, if you’re serving it at Atsukan (50C), you’d set the water bath to 50C. Nurukan (40C), you’d set the bath to 40C. This way, the sake is getting heated in the most gentle way possible.

This is the way to go for more delicate sakes where you want to preserve the subtle aromatics that you taste in the cold sake. Some old school-style ginjos (think dry with apple/banana flavors) are great served this way despite typically not serving ginjo sakes warm. Usually all of the fruit flavors are cooked off, but when using this method, they can be preserved.

An example

I heated this Niida Honke Kimoto Junmaishu using each of the methods above, all to atsukan (50C). Cold, the sake is incredibly creamy and lactic alongside brighter powdered sugar and apple notes. It tastes like custard apple rice porridge. It’s sweet but balanced by high umami and high acid.

Using the 90C bath, the sake was too stripped down. Most of the complex powdered sugar and apple notes were gone, leaving pure lemon and brown rice notes.

Using the 60C bath, it was much better. It kept some of those apple and powdered sugar notes, while the lemon and brown rice notes from the 90C tasting were still prominent. The combination ended up tasting like lemon pound cake.

Using the last method, the sake was extremely similar to fresh. It didn’t have that strong lemon flavor but the more sweet notes started to come to the forefront instead.

Overall, I preferred this best cold or using the 60C bath. They both had the right balance of flavors and complexity to make the sake shine

Putting it all together

Overall, this is where experience comes in. If you try a sake and find that it’s too stripped down or “cooked,” try a lower temperature bath. On the other hand, if the sake is too aggressive when served warm, try a higher temperature bath.

That being said, some general guidelines could be:

The more subtle, complex, and fruity the sake, the lower the water bath temperature you should use
If there are extremely strong flavors or funky sakes, the higher temperature may make those more palatable when served warm

And yet…

These are just a few examples and guidelines! Feel free to experiment with all sorts of water bath temperatures with your sake. As with the Niide Honke example above, it’s important to mess around with your sake and find out what works best for your tastes. Just because it doesn’t taste great with one method doesn’t mean it’s a bad sake for heating!

Hot Sake Basics #2 - Water Temperature