Making mash from corn grits using koji. Characteristics and recipes for making mash on Koji Recipes for grain mash on Koji

Real Koji (in the original Koji) is a Japanese yeast capable of converting starch-containing raw materials (grains, cereals, flour) into alcohol. This product is not sold in Russia; there is only a Chinese analogue called Koji Angel, which is much inferior in quality to the original. We will review Japanese and Chinese yeast of this type, after which we will show the recipe and technology for making mash.

Unfortunately, even if you search very hard, you won’t be able to buy original Japanese Koji. Their transportation is prohibited for sanitary reasons, so they cannot be imported. The Chinese analogue is also applicable and performs its function, but the meaning of fermentation is completely different, as a result of which the quality of the moonshine is worse.

Chinese analogue of the original Koji (Angel) yeast.

To understand the difference, it is enough to study in detail the composition and principle of fermentation.

Original Japanese Koji (there are no such things in Russia).

1. . The base is rice fermented with the fungus Aspergillus oryzae. To start fermentation, you need to create a certain environment and maintain the temperature. Making mash with such yeast is an art, but the quality of the final product will be exceptional. I saw several offers for purchase on the Internet for Ukraine, but there are no importers in Russia, so it will not be possible to get the original product.
2. Chinese Koji (Angel). The price is about 600 rubles per 500 grams. A pack is enough for about 250–300 liters of mash. Shelf life: 2 years, best stored in the refrigerator (not higher than 10 degrees Celsius). The basis is rice, ordinary yeast, enzymes A and D for starch fermentation and nutritional supplements. All these components can simply be purchased separately and used to prepare mash. It is based on the principle of cold saccharification, which we discussed in detail in this publication -.
3. Chinese Koji (Mellow). A much less popular brand that no one really knows anything about. Judging by the reviews on Youtube, Mellow is better quality than Angel. The alcohol yield is greater, the smell of the yeast itself is much more pleasant and the organoleptic properties of the moonshine are much tastier. This yeast is sold in 1 kg packaging at a price of 1,500 rubles. The dosage and consumption are approximately the same as those from the Angel company.

Since only a few will work with the original product, then we will next consider the technology for making mash using Chinese yeast.

This approach is extremely far from Eastern culture, but in this case there is no alternative.

Koji Mellow. According to some moonshiners, this analogue is better than Angel.

Mash recipe from Koji

Alcohol yield per 1 kg of raw material with starch.

Any raw material containing starch (wheat, flour, pure starch, etc.) can be used as a base. For cooking approx. 25 liters of mash you will need ingredients in the following proportions:

• Grain, cereal or flour - 5 kg.
• Water - 20 liters.
• Koji yeast - 45 grams.

The hydromodulus to raw material is 1:4:9. For 1 kg of raw materials, take 4 liters of water and 9 grams of yeast.

The fungi in this type of yeast are not the fastest, fermentation will take a long time, so there is no point in adding more of them than normal. A figure of 9–10 grams will be quite enough.

Instructions for preparing mash and distilling into moonshine

The technology will look much simpler than with conventional saccharification (hot and cold). It is for the simplicity of operation that these Kojis are loved, so using them is a pleasure. True, the smell of the mash will not be very pleasant - this is normal.

1. We clean and dry the fermentation tank. It is enough to rub it thoroughly with detergent and wipe dry with a paper towel.
2. Pour boiling water over your raw materials (cover the surface a little). The high temperature will kill some of the bacteria and the likelihood of contamination of the mash will be even lower.
3. Add all the water and pitch in the Koji yeast.
4. Install a water seal, take the container to a dark place and maintain the temperature around 23–30 degrees. Koji are considered heat-resistant, they can withstand temperatures up to 36 degrees, but I would not test this point.
5. The mash will ripen within 10–20 days. The timing will depend on the temperature and quality of your mushrooms.
6. It is highly not recommended to taste the finished liquid, so draw your conclusion from the silenced water seal and dense sediment at the bottom.
7. Drain the mash from the sediment, filter through cheesecloth and send for distillation.
8. We collect all the distillate until the strength in the stream drops to 30 degrees. After this, we dilute the raw alcohol with clean drinking water to a strength of 20 degrees and send it for re-distillation.
9. We select about 200 ml of the first alcohol as “heads”. They are harmful to the body and should not be drunk.
10. After this, we collect the “body”, the highest quality and purest moonshine that you can drink. It is necessary to stop doing this at the moment when the strength in the stream reaches 40 degrees.
11. All the remaining “tails” are low-alcohol residues that can be collected and then added to the mash during the next distillation. Read more about this here -.
12. We put your drink on the table and start tasting. The result should be wonderful :)

Due to long fermentation, quite a lot of harmful impurities are formed in the liquid, which can only be removed by high-quality and intensive distillation.

Ideally, it should be double, but if this point is critical for you, then you can carry out one distillation, but still with the separation of three fractions.

Review from experienced moonshiner Samogon Sanych

An interesting video was recorded by Konstantin, author of the Youtube channel Moonshine Sanych. He made a mash using Koji yeast and wheat grits. The technology was well maintained, but the result was still extremely unsuccessful. See the video below for more details.

Is it possible to buy Koji on AliExpress?

There is no unambiguous confidence that you will receive a high-quality product with an adequate shelf life, so there are some unjustified risks. Besides the price on Ali is not much different from specialized stores.

For example, now this yeast costs 765 rubles (for 500 grams), and I’ve seen it even cheaper in stores. Therefore, it is much more advisable to get advice in Russian stores and pay money for a product that you can touch with your hands. I would not make such purchases with Chinese sellers.

A lot has already been said about moonshine made from rice, but since this drink is very ancient, multinational and popular, we can talk about it endlessly. However, there is no need to mention Japanese sake vodka, since sake, or sake, is not so much vodka or moonshine as wine, or even beer, just very strong.

The fact is that the so-called Japanese rice vodka is made without distillation, by simple fermentation with koji molds and yeast, so the drink cannot be classified as moonshine or vodka.

In addition, the strength of sake does not exceed 18-20% vol., which does not detract from its taste and national flavor with all the Japanese attributes of consumption.

But in Vietnam, it is rice moonshine that is popular, and it is made both at home with the addition of the sweet and aromatic lychee fruit, and on an industrial scale. Vietnamese alcohol is considered very tasty and is produced with a strength of 45% vol. under the brands Nep Moi and Lua Moi, on the basis of which various healing tinctures are made with the addition of cobra venom, ginseng root or goji berries, according to the taste of the Vietnamese.

The Chinese's favorite alcoholic drink made from rice is called Maotai, which has a strength of about 53% vol. and is aged after eight times distillation and distillation for another 3 years in the cellar.

At the cost of a careful selection of ingredients and a very conscientious attitude to work, the Chinese managed to make Maotai one of the most famous spirits in the world and their national pride.

Rice vodka sake cannot be distilled

In recent years, more and more Russians find themselves in a situation where expensive alcohol purchased in a store turns out to be counterfeit, which can not only overshadow the pleasure of drinking it, but also cause severe poisoning. It becomes especially sad after a person has spent a lot of money on this counterfeit, which adds mental suffering to his physical and financial suffering.

You can be 100% confident in the quality of alcoholic products only in one case: when you make it yourself.

Therefore, it would not be amiss to remember once again how rice moonshine is brewed, the recipe for which is not a secret and is available to everyone. This information will be especially useful for those who have been making alcohol themselves from sugar, fruits or potatoes for a long time, but have not yet tried a recipe for making it from grains. For more information about rice moonshine, watch this video:

Moonshine experts claim that the yield of the final product from rice grains is very good, much higher than, for example, from corn, wheat, barley or other grain products.

Required Ingredients

To make moonshine from rice at home you will need:

1. Parboiled or polished rice. Those who are trying to save money on rice and take chaffed rice should be prepared for the fact that, firstly, it will have to be washed for a long time and hard, since it is full of various garbage, even mouse feces, and, secondly, the taste of the final product may be damaged from the start. Manufacturers with undemanding taste report that they absolutely do not care what kind of rice they use, since they do not feel the difference, which means why pay more. However, all people are different. The Chinese, for example, use steamed rice, but they know better. High-quality rice does not need to be rinsed; otherwise, for rinsing, you can use a shower hose without a nozzle, which is placed in a container with rice and cold water is turned on. Most amateurs do this procedure at home in the bathroom.
2. Koji is the name given to a special mixture of molds, enzymes and yeast for making mash in a cold way. The Japanese were the first to use this mixture, more than 1000 years ago, to make their favorite drink, sake. For 1 kg of any grain or even potato raw material, you need to add 6 to 9 g of koji from the Chinese company Angel or another trusted manufacturer. You can buy a mixture of fungi with enzymes inexpensively on the Aliexpress website, although some believe that they are cheaper on the Kupinatao website. The required amount of koji is dissolved in warm water and added to the fermentation container.
3. Purified water at room temperature.

In addition, you need a moonshine still, which is not difficult to purchase today.

Production technology

There are at least 2 ways to produce rice vodka: cold and heated. The first method involves the use of a mixture of molds already ready for fermentation, which does not require preliminary preparation of starch-containing raw materials, and the second is based on the thermal preparation of mash with malt and yeast. The second recipe is more common in our country, but it requires a rather labor-intensive procedure of cooking rice porridge to break down the starch. And even more labor-intensive, and not everyone likes it, is the process of straining the resulting sticky mass through a sieve or gauze filter.

Therefore, we will consider only the first recipe for making strong alcohol, without any fuss with rice porridge, but using exotic koji molds to prepare the mash.

These fungi do to grains the same thing that prolonged cooking in boiling water does to them: that is, they break down starch in order to eat the released sugar and release alcohols.

All that remains is rot, completely devoid of starch, sugars and any useful substances.

Koji fungi

All starch turns into sugars, which are eaten by yeast and produce alcohols; they can then be separated from the mash by distillation.

Cooking recipe

The recipe for preparing a strong alcoholic drink called rice moonshine for gourmets is as follows:

1. Only the best rice is selected, mushrooms are purchased from a trusted manufacturer, and only purified water is used.
2. The mash is prepared by mixing rice, water and fungi. To do this, first fill the grains in a plastic flask with water at room temperature at the rate of 3 liters per 1 kg of cereal. Then add the koji mixture, pre-activated in water heated to 35 °C. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to activate the mixture. For 10 kg of cereal you can take 30 liters of water and 60 g of fungi. For the first 5 or 6 days, it is recommended to stir the wort 2 times a day. The entire fermentation process takes from 14 to 20 days, if the temperature regime required for fermentation (from 22 to 36 °C) is not violated. Please note that fermented rice produces a very unpleasant odor. There is no need to be afraid that the mash is somehow contaminated and spoiled: everything is as it should be. Rice is the only grain that smells unpleasant when fermented, which may be why rice vodka was not as popular in Rus' as in China. True, those masters who distill moonshine using Novosibirsk enzymes instead of koji report that their mash has no unpleasant odor. So maybe it's not the rice, but the fungi.
3. Raw alcohol is produced through primary distillation: for this, the mash is filtered, poured into a distillation cube and placed on low heat to slowly separate the alcohol from the other components of the mash. At the beginning of the distillation, the first fraction, or “head”, in the amount of 80 ml, is necessarily selected and discarded. Distillation continues until the distillate strength drops below 40% vol.
4. It is best to purify moonshine with charcoal, since it is the only one that retains the unique taste of the resulting alcohol solution. Although some recommend using potassium permanganate for this, information about a large number of unsuccessful experiments in purifying rice distillate with this reagent makes its use problematic.
5. Another 2 liters of water are added to the cube, and the raw material is re-distilled, removing the “heads” and “tails” until the distillate strength reaches 45% vol., or until the smells of the “tails” are felt. The second distillation serves to further purify the alcohol from unwanted and foul-smelling impurities and increase the strength of the alcohol. When re-distilling, some recommend removing up to 100 ml of the head fractions to eliminate all possible unpleasant odors and impurities. However, less fastidious moonshiners do not remove them at all. From 10 kg of rice, more than 3.5 liters of 80% alcohol can be obtained in this way.
6. Dilution and standing. The resulting alcohol is kept in glass jars for a couple of days, then coal is poured into the jars and kept for some time. After this, filter, dilute with water and leave to rest in a glass container. It is best to let the moonshine sit for as long as possible, since its taste and aroma will only improve. But the maturation time depends entirely on the patience of the manufacturer and consumer. However, you can start tasting after a couple of weeks. From 10 kg of original rice grain you should get about 10 liters of alcohol with a strength of 40% vol. For more information about fermentation using koji fungus, watch this video:

Final result

In appearance, the resulting liquid will be absolutely transparent, and the smell will be slightly reminiscent of milky children's rice porridge with the addition of preserved fruits. The smell of the finished product is very subtle, slightly sweet, delicate and attractive.

And the soft, thick, slightly fruity taste of rice moonshine goes perfectly with any snack, burning the throat if you drink moonshine without it.

Although the Chinese usually make their vodka with a strength of 55% vol., in Russian culture it is customary to drink alcohol at 40% vol., maximum 45% vol. It's just the tradition. For two ways to work with koji, watch this video:

Despite the fact that in many countries private moonshine brewing is prohibited by law, in Russia after 2002 you can start it without fear of administrative prosecution.

Some Russian cities have even turned the process of moonshine brewing into entertainment for tourists.

For example, in Suzdal you can now learn how to brew moonshine: you will be taken around the workshop, where you can not only observe the process of preparing alcohol and taste it, but also take part in this process yourself.

There is good news for lovers of grain moonshine: you can get excellent drinks from rice, corn, wheat, rye, barley and other grains, which are practically no different from those made using saccharification with malt.

Only much simpler, according to the scheme: take cereal, “Koji”, water, stir it, put it under a water mash, wait for fermentation and drive it out.

Important. All rice vodka and sake are products made from "Koji" based rice.

The cost of rice vodka (40° strength) is from 3,000 rubles per 0.72 liter bottle. The cost of a 500 gram package of “Koji” is 590 rubles. And you can get from it 60-90 liters of rice vodka or whiskey, bourbon, wheat with excellent organoleptic properties, which cannot even be compared with store-bought options.

Sometimes sellers of specific products for distillers call “Koji” yeast. This is not entirely true. Therefore, without understanding it, you may be disappointed in the purchased product, since “Koji” not suitable, for example, for sugar mash.

They have a specific purpose; inventive Asians came up with this product to create the famous rice vodka. But it turned out that they are just great for mash made from any starch-containing raw material.

Reference. There are “Koji” made in Japan, but they do not come to our country legally (there is a complicated certification procedure, and the Japanese, apparently, are not interested in such exports). But Chinese ones are sold freely.

Compound:

• the main ingredient is the fungal culture of Aspergillus oryzae (in its “live” form the fungus is poisonous), with already inactive spores;
• artificial enzymes capable of saccharifying grain raw materials in the same way as does;
• dry yeast (presumably alcoholic);
• nutritional supplements for active fermentation.

Universal recipe for mash on Koji

The first rule when working with Koji yeast is to use crushed raw materials. That is, not whole, but crushed rice, not wheat, corn, but cereals or even flour, as well as cereals from other types of grain, or flakes - oatmeal, buckwheat, mixed. You can also use ground beans and potatoes.

It is better to take warm water ( no higher than 35°C!). Proportions:

• 20 liters of water;
• 5 kg of crushed raw materials: grain crops - from millet to corn; legumes - beans; potatoes or ready-made potato or corn starch;
• 45 – 50 g Koji.

Please note: there is no need to add additional sugar or yeast.

Attention. Although it is believed that the fungal spores died during the production of the powder, it is advisable to work with Koji wearing a mask and rubber gloves. And also - do not taste the mash.

Be sure to make mash kept under a water seal. There are two reasons here:

1. Contact of Koji with air, which may contain the “wrong” bacteria, is undesirable.
2. Bad smell from mash (smells like rotten eggs).

For better interaction of components in the initial stage of fermentation (first week), you should stir the mash twice a day.

How long is it wandering?

Braga matures on average 3 weeks. It must be kept at a temperature not lower than 22°C (preferably 27 – 30°C), and without sudden temperature changes.

And a little about the yield of finished moonshine with a strength of 45° (from 5 kg of grain/starch raw materials):

Getting moonshine

The Chinese obtain rice vodka by simple distillation, “without bothering” with repeated distillation and selection of heads and tails. Therefore, each of our distillers can have a no less tasty product, but purified from fusel oils.

The mash, ready for distillation, shows no signs of fermentation, the liquid quickly clears, and the entire sediment lies in a dense layer at the bottom. It’s easy to drain all the mash (especially with a straw) without touching the sediment. You can drive without using nothing will burn, since there is no turbidity in the mash.

To get high-quality grain moonshine, use a device with one or more steam chambers. A distillation column is of little use because it “emasculates” the taste of the grain from which the mash is made. But exactly to preserve grain taste and aroma we use "Koji".

Advice. If you are unable to carry out distillation, you must turn off the water jacket in the distillation column.

In this case, the column will work as - selecting and returning fusel oils to the cube. It is worth removing the Panchenkov nozzles from stainless steel and replacing them with copper springs to select sulfur, which is always present in grain mash.