What is Koji?

Grain is the flesh of wine, Qu is the bone of wine, and water is the blood of wine. Grain is grain, qu is qu, and water is water. Brewing is simply a microbial art, and koji is a collection of these microorganisms. Transplanting conidia of Aspergillus into cooked white rice, and then keeping the temperature. Mycelia will grow on rice grains, which is called koji.

Amylase produced by Aspergillus will saccharify starch in rice, so it has been used as raw sugar together with malt since ancient times. It is used to make wine, liqueur and soybean paste, and wheat is used instead of rice. In the way of grain germination, the raw materials themselves are saccharified into sugar by enzymes produced in the process of grain germination, and then the sugar is converted into alcohol by yeast.

Daqu development:

Since the Yuan Dynasty, distilled shochu has become popular, and a large part of wheat koji has been used to brew shochu. Therefore, a kind of Daqu was differentiated from the traditional Maiqu. Although the raw materials used are basically the same as those used in yellow rice wine koji, there are certain characteristics in the production method. In modern times, Daqu and Maiqu used in yellow rice wine have become two different types of koji.

Daqu is differentiated from wheat koji, so the concept of Daqu in ancient wine materials is not clear. Generally, it refers to the large-shaped wheat koji. Daqu mentioned here refers to the wheat koji specially used for brewing distilled liquor. The main differences between Daqu for yellow rice wine and wheat koji are raw materials, koji seeds and culture temperature.