Pure white koji mold (“Yukikomachi”)
Pure white koji mold has been widely used for making amazake, miso and for processing. use. The color of the koji starter itself is pure white, and produced koji mold is also white color.
Packaging capacity/bag | amount of raw material (rice) to be used estimated | price |
70g/bag | 200kg | 4200 yen |
How to make rice koji
List of materials
An example for materials:
One kg of rice and 1- 2 g of koji starter
Protocol to make rice koji mold

Step 1.
Wash the rice thoroughly with water until the supernatant becomes clear, then put it in the water overnight.

Step 2.
Place the steamed cloth in the steamer and put the rice on the cloth and steam it for about 50 min. In case no core is present within a crushed rice grain, no need for further steaming. Making a dent at the center of the bedded rice serves to prepare evenly streamed rice.

Step 3.
Spread the steamed rice on a clean cloth, etc., and cool it down around 45oC.

Step 4.
Sprinkle koji starter on the cooled rice and mix well up. In addition, cover a vat with a bleached cloth and wrap the rice in it. Then, put another bleached cloth which was sterilized with steam, etc. in the vat, and keep it at 30oC place overnight.

Step 5.
The next day, the surface of the rice grains will become slightly white. If the product temperature has been able to maintain between 35 and 40℃, it is in order. Then, in order that the production temperature may not drop too much, unravel the whole stuff well quickly, and keep it warm overnight again. If the temperature is increasing more and more at this time, keep it around 42oC with either working on maintenance or thinning the thickness of the rice, etc.

Step 6.
At the third day, when mycelium grows faintly on the surface of the rice and the whole feeling becomes white and fluffy, making rice koji is completed. After loosening and separating the firm rice koji, sealed in a plastic bag, etc., and stored in refrigerator with about 2 weeks’ open-date.
How to make amazake
“Amazake” is kind to the body, and a traditional fermented food in Japan. It is also called “drinkable IV (intravenous drip)” because it contains B-complex vitamins and amino acids, etc.
List of materials
An example for materials:
Two-hundred g of rice koji, 200 ml (or 600 ml) of water*, a thermal container and a ladle for mixing. *200ml (an equal volume of rice koji) or 600ml (three times as much) water yield a sticky and hard or a soupy and easily consumed beverage, respectively. Prepare a thermal container and a ladle for mixing.
Protocol to make amazake
Step 1.
The rice koji, returning at room temperature before use, put into a thermal container.
Step 2.
After adding hot water (about 70oC), mix the whole stuff roughly.
Step 3.
Then, cover the container and maintain the temperature between 58 and 62oC* for from 6 to 8 hrs.
*Around 60oC is the optimal for glycation reaction. Please be aware that the diastatic enzyme has a possibility to be inactivated resulting in absence of sweetness in amazake at 65oC or higher, and that contaminated bacteria propagate leading to become sour in amazake at 50oC and below.
Step 4.
Stir greatly from the bottom of the container 1 time every 2 hrs or so.
Step 5.
The resulting amazake is stored in refrigerator. In order to store for a long period, it may be boiled (as pasteurization) in a small pot*.
*Please eat as soon as possible in case without pasteurization.
NOTE
To prevent any contamination, please use washed-up sanitary items as the tools to be used.
How to make miso
List of materials
An example for materials:
One kg of soybeans, 1kg of rice koji, 500g of salt, 50g of commercial raw miso*.
*Miso including alive microbes should be used.
Protocol to make miso

Step 1.
Wash soybeans thoroughly and leave them in 5 times as much water as soybeans overnight.

Step 2.
Simmer in a vat or an ordinary pan for 3 to 4 hrs until soybeans turn soft. After the water boils, simmer them with low and/or medium heat.

Step 3.
While soybeans are simmered, mix 1kg of rice koji and 400g of salt well.

Step 4.
Let soybeans cool down to around 45oC

Step 5.
Put soybeans in a plastic bag and mash them often with a beer bottle, etc. You can put them in a mortar and mash them up with a pestle.

Step 6.
Mix mashed soybeans, salted rice koji and diluted commercial raw miso well.

Step 7.
A plastic bag is laid in a preparation container such as a commercially available plastic container, etc. and pave the mixture on the bag while being careful not to let air in.

Step 8.
Sprinkle remaining 100g of salt on the surface of the mixture (for mold prevention) .

Step 9.
After weighting down, wait for half a year to a year. Then, it will be completed.