Today I pressed the sake. A few observations:

1. The #12 yeast is killer with a gin base. It really pushes all the floral notes from the gin spices forward. It also provides great floral notes on its own.

2. The steaming process really imparted a lot of flavor into the rice. Upon doing a sample tasting today myself and my wife were surprised by the amount of flavor. There is a lot going on. The citrus notes from the orange peal are very present. The juniper and spruce tips push some of the piny/tree notes forward.

3. I was hoping the coriander might come through a bit more, but there are some subtle notes in there.

4. I’m not sure I’m going to need the gin barrel chips or the extra tea I saved. It may be too overpowering.

5. My wife made an interesting observation, that is tastes like a cocktail already.

I’m interested to see how it matures as I let the sediment settle over the next few days before filtering it. Fun times!