An assortment of sake bottles.Fred Lum
The question
Okay, so I accidently froze an unopened bottle of sake two days ago and it's still in the freezer. Is it bad now or can I let it thaw and still drink it like normal?
The answer
Drink it like normal. It will taste like normal or be pretty indistinguishable from the original thing, unless you have the honour of serving it to somebody like Japanese Emperor Akihito.
They actually have such a thing as frozen sake in Japan, a beverage similar to frozen rosé, or "frosé," which is trendy in North America at present. Keep in mind that quality sake is almost always best cold, not steaming in the way most people sadly continue to sip it at sushi counters around the world.
Wine and sake suffer remarkably little upon freezing and thawing. Take a blind taste test and you'll see (though I've never performed the experiment with a grand cru Bordeaux, I admit).
Of course, sake is not a wine but, technically speaking, a beer. That's because it's fermented from grain, specifically rice, versus fruit. No matter. The big problem when a beer faces the big chill is in the area of carbonation. Effervescence will be compromised as fluid crystalizes into a solid, then melts back into a liquid. Sake, with rare exceptions, is not carbonated, so there's little to worry about.
Thaw and enjoy. And kanpai!
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