Koji mold for brewing sake

[chilli]

Does anyone know where or how I can get Koji, which is a mold used for brewing Japanese sake? What kind of places would I look? Thanks.

[Monk]

Not sure how popular homebrewing is down there, but I'd say look up your local home brew shop and ask them. My other suspicion is that you should ask member watertrade.

[coin]

http://www.gemcultures.com/

http://www.tibbs-vision.com/sake/

http://homebrewheaven.com/sake-kit-koji-kin.htm

[foolsbreath]

There is a sake producer in australia, but I don't know about NZ, they could probably do a culture. I can find out who it is if you want, I have the info here somewhere, I just have to find it,

Failing that contact lallemand or lalvin, companies involved in the biotech side of winemakeing. I know a couple of winemakers who have gone into lallemand and work in the fields of yeast, mold and bacterias for use in the beverage market

Give me a PM if you want more info IB

[Legba]

http://www.sun-masamune.com.au/products.htm

Go-Shu Australian Sake

[chilli]

Thanks everyone, a homebrew place is the obvious place to check, I didn't even think of that! I guess even if they don't have it they will be able to order it in for me.

[watertrade]

Hi,

I have been collecting food cultures for a while one of which is the Aspergillus oryzae mold, the mold you want for Sake. Koji is actually the inoculated rice used for making the Sake. Its surprising but there are hardly any homebrew stores are selling Aspergillus - I am supposed to be making koji for my local home brew store, I have been putting it off for ages. !

I can recommend gem cultures - they are great to deal with have pretty good prices.

anyway, let me know if I can help

[chilli]

Hi,

I have been collecting food cultures for a while one of which is the Aspergillus oryzae mold, the mold you want for Sake. Koji is actually the inoculated rice used for making the Sake. Its surprising but there are hardly any homebrew stores are selling Aspergillus - I am supposed to be making koji for my local home brew store, I have been putting it off for ages. !

I can recommend gem cultures - they are great to deal with have pretty good prices.

anyway, let me know if I can help

Hi watertrade, that is cool thanks for the info... what is the story with importing it from the US into Australia? I am in NZ, but I imagine it might be similar... Thanks.

Also, once I have the culture, is it easy to propagate or is it easier to buy more?

Edited September 8, 2007 by IllegalBrain

[gecko]

Does anyone know where or how I can get Koji, which is a mold used for brewing Japanese sake? What kind of places would I look? Thanks.

If it's for sake then koji is the one , but if it's for making 'a rice wine' generally you could go down to your local asian food shop and buy some Ragi

Its the Indonesian yeast sold as dried white balls or tablets based on rice flour.

With ragi you can make Brem , a wine made from black or white sticky rice.

It's almost like sherry and delicious over ice on a hot afternoon in Bali (or wherever you happen to be).

You could also make Tape (fermented cassava) or Tape Ketan (fermented rice ) to be used in Iced drinks with red beans, Nata de coco (cubes of 'mother of vinegar' grown in coconut water then cooked in sugar syrup), trop. fruits, flavoured syrups shaved ice and coconut milk.

Ragi is a whole 'ecosystem' of moulds and yeasts that are usually quite robust and operate best at around 28-34deg C.

To store it you take some of the solids from the last batch ,mix with sticky rice flour,

powdered galangal, roll into balls and dry.

Hope this is some help to you

[watertrade]

Hi watertrade, that is cool thanks for the info... what is the story with importing it from the US into Australia? I am in NZ, but I imagine it might be similar... Thanks.

Also, once I have the culture, is it easy to propagate or is it easier to buy more?

Hi,

Importing the Aspergillus is fine, it’s allowed for import by AQIS as long as it’s for personal use. I think commercial quantities are pretty big too. When I have ordered from gem cultures I usually order a load at once. But see the link below for more info - Item 2 - Condition C5414

http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex_casec...;LogSessionID=0

Gem takes international money orders and they are great to work with. Betty I think the ladies name is.

at $2.50 per starter pack the price is great. There are a number of different types of soy starters - which have a number of different micro organisms not just Aspergillus. Each pack is enough to make two batches. The batch size varies depending on what you make but at a guess one batch of light rice koji (for Sake) is about 1.5 kg of koji . Which is enough to make about.... 15 or 20 liters of Sake. Or 2 liters of Miso.

If you like Tempeh, buy the tempeh starter too! It’s very easy to make and fresh Tempeh is amazing! - Natto – if you have never had Natto or don’t know what it is… buy some of that too.

Regarding the propagation of the Aspergillus, it sporeolates really easily and turns a nice olive green in the period of a day or two. The trick is to just get it at the right time. You can also keep a small (100gms) of koji and reuse it to make more koji. This of course can only be done only so many times before weed microorganisms start turning up. I just buy more starter.

Any more questions please let me know I love this stuff.

Cheers

Jim

[watertrade]

If it's for sake then koji is the one , but if it's for making 'a rice wine' generally you could go down to your local asian food shop and buy some Ragi

Its the Indonesian yeast sold as dried white balls or tablets based on rice flour.

Ragi is a whole 'ecosystem' of moulds and yeasts that are usually quite robust and operate best at around 28-34deg C.

Hope this is some help to you

Hi Gecko,

I've always wondered about those 'yeast' balls. I've never been game to use them because I don't really know what is in them.

I should just give it a go. ! Is the ragi just mixed in with a slurry of sticky rice, fermented and strained?

cheers

[gecko]

Hi Gecko,

I've always wondered about those 'yeast' balls. I've never been game to use them because I don't really know what is in them.

I should just give it a go. ! Is the ragi just mixed in with a slurry of sticky rice, fermented and strained?

cheers

Hi Watertrade,

I mostly used it for cassava (Tape Ketela?) -the yellow root variety is the best for tape if you can find it (butter cassava).

I'd take a piece of tape and mash it mix with rice flour and galangal till it was not too wet ,but not too crumbly.

Then roll into balls about 2-3cm dia and dry at around 35deg C in incubator with good air exchange for drying.

Very unusual aroma from fresh fermenting Tape- sweet taste, better nutrient-(B-vitamins ,double the protein), less cooking.

Definitely give it a go

You'll find some basic recipes in Bill's book ('Ferment and Human Nutrition')

I wonder how it would go with potatos, parsnip or carrots...celeriac , fennel roots....Hmmm

[chilli]

Hi watertrade, the gemscultures site has "Light, Red, Barley, Soybean, Shoyu" koji, which do I need for sake? Cheers mate.

[watertrade]

Hi watertrade, the gemscultures site has "Light, Red, Barley, Soybean, Shoyu" koji, which do I need for sake? Cheers mate.

Hi,

You want light starter - its used for mainly fermenting rice, so for sake, amazake and light miso's

cheers