Chinese yeast balls

[blond.chap]

Looks good mate, boil up some cracked grains, cool them down, throw that stuff in with the yeast and you'll be bubbling in no time. Apparently takes about a month to ferment dry.

[Cane Toad]

Just setting up the mill to crack some grain,do you reckon I should give the mould time to take hold before pitching the yeast and what sort of consistency should I make the mash??? Fucked if I know,wing it I spose :handgestures-thumbupleft: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[blond.chap]

Just setting up the mill to crack some grain,do you reckon I should give the mould time to take hold before pitching the yeast and what sort of consistency should I make the mash??? Fucked if I know,wing it I spose :handgestures-thumbupleft: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Definitely wing it, I recon grind the grain as fine as you can (the only reason you leave grain slightly cracked is so that it can act as a filter when lautering).
Invisigoth can probably give a bit more information, but I think you make it much thicker than you would with a normal mash. The recipe for tongba is to basically make the millet look like porridge then just cover with water, but I'd add more that that for this.

I think you re-hydrate the mould before using then pitch it either with the yeast, or leave it for a little while before adding yeast.

Also, I think I aerated my millet too much (smells acidic now) because I had to constantly mush it down, so leave lots of head space.

[Cane Toad]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: alright,I'm gunna put this down tomorrow now,3kgs each of finely milled barley and corn,1kg of finely milled wheat and about the same of weavils,the wheat had a bit of a weavil infestation :shhh: :shhh:
I'll boil it up tomorrow and let cool over night,while rehydrating the koji :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: I might make it about the consistency of pancake batter,not that I've ever made pancake batter,or cooked them for that matter :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
This one I might ferment outside I think :think: :think:

[invisigoth]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: alright,I'm gunna put this down tomorrow now,3kgs each of finely milled barley and corn,1kg of finely milled wheat and about the same of weavils,the wheat had a bit of a weavil infestation :shhh: :shhh:
I'll boil it up tomorrow and let cool over night,while rehydrating the koji :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: I might make it about the consistency of pancake batter,not that I've ever made pancake batter,or cooked them for that matter :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
This one I might ferment outside I think :think: :think:

sounds like you are on your way dood :music-deathmetal:

you'll probably need to stir it once a day. you'll notice that as the koji does it's thing over the days the mush that you started with will gradually get runnier. you wanna start with the consistency of porridge. if you wanna be stingy with your koji then you'd have to look up the storage sugar content of your grains to work out what 25% of your total (including the koji) is, but i'd just use both bags and be done with it. it will be a slow ferment as it's breaking the sugars down as it ferments, but you should end up with a fairly high abv.. since this is for distillation, you could probably add more water if you wanted. since they usually water down sake from 18% to 15% i don't know why they add fairly minimal water. you might want to check the ph to make sure it's acidic enough and if not, adjust. citric should be fine.

good luck pioneer! :clap:

[Cane Toad]

Only gunna use 1 bag I think,I've got some cracked corn soaking ATM,I'm thinking of adding half a bag of koji to it,and the other half of cracked corn I'll boil and add the other half bag to it. Mainly to see which one grows the mould the quickest,sort of use it like yeast in a yeast bomb :handgestures-thumbupleft:
And I'm even gunna keep notes whilst doing this :teasing-tease: :D :D

[invisigoth]

Only gunna use 1 bag I think,I've got some cracked corn soaking ATM,I'm thinking of adding half a bag of koji to it,and the other half of cracked corn I'll boil and add the other half bag to it. Mainly to see which one grows the mould the quickest,sort of use it like yeast in a yeast bomb :handgestures-thumbupleft:
And I'm even gunna keep notes whilst doing this :teasing-tease: :D :D

erm, i hate to disappoint, but i don't think you are going to get any growth. to grow koji you need to inoculate the medium with the spores. and the temp needs to be between 30 and 37c. below 34 you will get mostly proteases produced, at 34ish you get amylase. above 37 for too long kills the fungus. you use it in a similar fashion to malt in so far as the dried inoculated rice you have has enough enzymes in it to break down the rest of your grains. if you don't use enough you won't get full usage of storage sugar.

the koji that you have there has taken the hard work out of inoculating the grain with spores and incubating for a few days. if you wan't to keep going with koji without buying it each time you have to start with the spores, grow them up, keep some for your brew, and allow some of it to dry out whilst being incubated. the dry stuff you have is dead fungus. live koji if allowed to dry whilst incubated will form spores as a survival mechanism. the dry rice covered with spores you can then put into a pepper shaker and shake out to inoculate fresh cooled steamed grain. if the grain is too soft it turns to mush as the koji grows. too hard and the mould can't penetrate the grain properly. :scared-eek: