✨ Koji Lovers Unite! ✨
The Koji Collection is officially live on Substack, which will host the kind of koji knowledge you won’t find in any one fermentation handbook—think secrets, stories, and science that’s been hiding just out of reach in English—and yes, we’re going into excruciating detail.
This project is a labor of love from a small: @elad_liam and @datagrazing It’s been a joy to develop, and we’re excited to finally start sharing it with you.
Let’s mold our minds together—tell us what you think! 🍶💫
🔗 Link in bio and below 👇
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#thekojicollection #koji #substack #Aspergillusoryzae #fermentation #kojibuildscommunity #aspergillus #麹 #麹生活 #麹ライフ
What if a bread starter began with rice instead of flour?
Both sourdough and sakadane are ways of keeping a bread starter alive over time, shaped by local ingredients, local microbial life, and the fermentation knowledge around them. While both might have roots in different alcohol brewing traditions, sakadane from the mizumoto/bodaimoto sake method and sourdough is said to have originated from beer brewing in Ancient Egypt, they do it by different means. Sourdough depends on slow, flour enzymes. Sakadane gets added enzymes thanks to koji. Koji’s help with amylase & protease actively pre-digest starch & protein, making sugars and amino acids instantly available for the yeast. The amlyase nudges the loaf toward a soft, sweet crumb, while the protease breaks down the gluten. Sometimes protease gets carried away.
I’m not a professional baker, just an independent researcher who loves koji, sourdough, and is now smitten with sakadane. Since there still isn’t much about it in English, I’m sharing my own research and experiences in the hope of building more exchange around this starter.
Like sourdough, the methods of making and baking sakadane bread seem endless, but let this be a gateway into the world of sakadane!
Read more in the Koji Collection Substack and listen in at @fermentationcast .
#sourdough #koji #sakadane＃麹 ＃酒種 ＃酒種酵母 #thekojicollection
What happens when the world’s most sexy ferments make a baby? In the episode we explain how to make a sourdough starter that has koji added to it. The enzymatic power of koji creates a bread with a texture, taste and softness that you would not expect from a sourdough. And for those still nervous about making koji, you can use store bought koji too. ;-)
This episode is (for now) the last episode of the koji mini collection made together with Maxene Graze from the Koji Collection Substack.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app 🎧 #fermentationpodcast #fermentation #futurefoods
Like the podcast? Buy me a coffee! buymeacoffee.com/Fermentationcast
Process selects bacteria and bacteria select flavor.
This visualization looks at how different miso-making methods shape the bacterial mix, and how that can shape flavor too. Inspired by kioke, large (bamboo) barrels used primarily to ferment miso, soy sauce and sake traditionally in Japan. Each section (stave) represents 10% of the total bacterial makeup for
- factory, think Hikari Miso
- brewery, like Clearspring / Eden Foods
- temae, or handmade miso
In this dataset, temae showed more hand-associated bacteria, while brewery and factory miso were dominated by lactic acid bacteria. That does not mean “better” or “worse.” It means different microbial signatures, different kinds of consistency & scalability priorities, and different flavor tendencies.
One especially interesting case: @gomishoyu . Even though they are a brewery, they still mix their koji by hand. So when their miso’s microbial makeup was sequenced, the results showed that the microbial makeup is more similar to temae miso! It’s no wonder their miso feels somehow so comforting and nostalgic. I would bet that other smaller breweries that still work by hand show a similar pattern.
Data source: misomic / @bioclubtokyo
#koji #kioke #kojibuildscommunity #miso #手前味噌 ＃味噌 ＃木桶
A lot of the more famous koji ferments require a lot of time: soy sauce, miso, sake. It goes from weeks to even months. In this episode we discuss an application that can be finished within a day, even within only 2 hours if you use our extra special trick. We are talking about: amazake! We dive into how to make this sweet and delicious drink and tell you how to make unorthodox amazake from chestnuts and even potatoes.
This episode is another co-production with Maxene Graze from the Koji Collection Substack.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app 🎧 #fermentationpodcast #fermentation #futurefoods
Like the podcast? Buy me a coffee! buymeacoffee.com/Fermentationcast
What are the sensory cues that determine the quality of our white rice koji?
These rice grain cross-sections show different haze patterns: how koji grows on and inside the grain.
Some patterns, like Sō-haze and Tsuki-haze, show strong internal growth and are generally desirable across koji applications, although they have specific use-cases for sake. Sō-haze koji is more α-amylase-leaning, so it might taste immediately less-sweet than the glucoamylase-leaning tsuki-haze. Boasting-rights granted for producing these kojis! Nevertheless, if you are a hobbiest, don't get too distracted by these standards, but strive for koji that attains your taste buds and project goals.
Nuri-haze is more surface-heavy: less ideal for high-penetration uses, but still useful for things like miso.
Haze-ochi and Baka-haze point to weaker or less balanced growth, but they do not come from the same problems.
Haze-ochi can be linked to temperature stress, drying out mid-run, uneven mixing, or microbial / environmental competition.
Baka-haze is more often linked to a bed that is too thick, poor cooling, too high incubation temperature, or delayed mixing.
A strange batch is not always a failed batch. All are a part of the learning process. That's why recognizing the pattern is important as it can tell you what happened and what it may still be good for.
Read the full guide on The Koji Collection: The Visuals of Rice Koji!
/p/visuals-of-koji
And a podcast episode with @fermentationcast !
/episode/6tUBD3vTxnIUAv1CVo5YjB?si=07288d9d7da04b0e
In the West, we often speak about koji as if it is one single thing, and as if it is just what you add to a miso to start the fermentation. In reality, koji has a much wider meaning. During this episode we discuss what is encompassed when we talk about koji. Koji also comes in many different forms, potencies and flavours. We will take you through the different types of koji spores that you can procure and will help you a hand with choosing the perfect spore for your next funky fermentation.
This episode is another co-production with Maxene Graze from the Koji Collection Substack.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app 🎧 #fermentationpodcast #fermentation #futurefoods
Like the podcast? Buy me a coffee! buymeacoffee.com/Fermentationcast
This episode we dive deeper into making koji. There’s a lot more to this fluffy friend than a simple growth of 2 days! We discuss growth phases, how to recognise where you are in the process and how to judge the quality of your koji. And did you know there are different styles of koji?
We record this episode with Maxene Graze; author of the Koji Collection substack. She translates articles about koji from Japanese to English, to help broaden everyone’s knowledge about this fungus.
To read the article on which this episode was based and see illustrations of the different types of koji, go to /p/visuals-of-koji.
We also invite our listeners to share pictures of koji they made: good and bad. Once we have a proper collection, we will make a post containing all these pictures to help you recognise all different forms, succeses and failures.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app 🎧 #fermentationpodcast #fermentation #futurefoods
Like the podcast? Buy me a coffee! buymeacoffee.com/Fermentationcast
Super lovely interview with Data Engineer, Maxene Graze, instructor for the upcoming Fermenting Data course!
In the interview she discusses her practice and her upcoming course designed to give a playful foundation in data visualization, meant for beginners and for seasoned data peeps who need a reminder that this field can be creative and meaningful (not just dashboards).
Read the full interview here: /news/interview-maxene-graze
Her course Fermenting Data: Kimchee Dataset Edition runs
23. Feb. & 23. Mar., Mondays, 18h-20h
/programs/p/early2026-fermenting-data
#data #food #sonification #sound #dataset #tools #art #tech #fermentation #schoolofma
Been interested in learning more about working with Data but the tools to do so seem a bit dry and underwhelming? Our Fermenting Data, Kimchee Dataset Edition five week online course is much more than a data and kimchee making course. The wonderful data engineer and researcher @datagrazing will lead you to
explore:
Data journaling & tracking
Google Sheets for organizing data
Sonification of Data
Physical making tools (drawing, collage, clay, or sculpture) for tangible storytelling
Optional sensors to capture data
And more!
Fermenting Data: Kimchee Dataset Edition runs
23. Feb. & 23. Mar., Mondays, 18h-20h
For more info and to join, visit: /programs/p/early2026-fermenting-data
#data #food #sonification #sound #dataset #tools #art #tech #fermentation #schoolofma
In western koji making, we often measure successful rice koji as being an impressively fluffy white block. However, this type of koji actually isn't desired in a lot of Japanese koji products, like sake making.
ita kōji (板麹), “block koji,” and bara kōji (バラ麹) are two different formats of koji.
Ita forms a cohesive slab, which holds heat and moisture.
Bara stays loose, which increases airflow and temperature control.
There's no good or bad, but the format you choose will influence its use and what haze is able to form. What is haze? Stay tuned for the next installment, or catch up at the following link: /p/visuals-of-koji
#koji #kojibuildscommunity #thekojicollection #麹 #麹作り #糀
