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Moto, the Sake Starter: Steamed Rice, Koji and Water Fermented Cold for Fourteen Days (Itami, after Rein 1889)
Old sake brewers added no bought yeast. They made a small, cold mash first, the moto, and let it ferment for two weeks: the koji turns starch to sugar, and the yeast that settles in it grows strong in the cold. The finished moto, sour, bitter and alcoholic, seeds the main brew.
Result: moto, 3 to 14 % alcohol (Nishinomiya 10.5 %).
Source: J. J. Rein, The Industries of Japan (1889), pp. 98-99, the brewers of Itami. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
14 days
Instructions
1
1
Steam the rice
Steam the rice
On the third or fourth day of koji-making, steam hulled rice and spread it on mats until the next morning. Ours: steam it over a pot.
Materials for this step:
Short-grain Japanese Rice0.5 kokuTools needed:
Large Cooking Pot
Rice Straw2
2
Make the porridge
Make the porridge
Mix 0.5 koku steamed rice with 0.2 koku koji and 0.6 koku water (by weight rice 10, koji 4, water 12). Divide it among six flat 100-litre tubs, each about one-fifth full.
Materials for this step:
Koji Rice (Aspergillus oryzae)0.2 koku
Water0.6 kokuTools needed:
Wooden Tub3
3
Knead, rest, stir cold
Knead, rest, stir cold
Knead by hand into a stiff paste for 2 hours, then leave it 24 hours; it thins. For several days stir it often with a paddle (kai) at the outside temperature, 0-10 C. It turns sweet and milky, then starts to give gas.
Tools needed:
Long Wooden Stirring Paddle
Thermometer4
4
Gather and rest
Gather and rest
Within six days pour the tubs, three at a time, into a fermenting vat of about 6 hl and leave it quiet one day.
Tools needed:
Wooden Tub5
5
Warm to day 14
Warm to day 14
Wrap the vat in straw mats. Sink a closed tub of boiling water in the mash and move it about; renew it about every 12 hours, as much as the heat needs, until day 14. The mash rises to about 25 C.
Tools needed:
Wooden TubLarge Cooking PotRice StrawThermometer6
6
Cool and check
Cool and check
When the gas slackens and the taste turns from sweet to sour and bitter with a clear smell of alcohol, put the mash back in the flat tubs to cool slowly.
Tools needed:
Wooden TubMaterials
3- 0.5 kokuPlaceholder
- 0.2 kokuPlaceholder
- 0.6 kokuPlaceholder
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