I heard Koji sang a good song, I heard it had a style And so I came to see it, to listen for a while And there it was, this fine spore, a stranger to my eyes Beginning of Incubation, 2019 White and Black Koji, 2019 In case you haven't met, let me introduce you to Aspergillus oryzae, more commonly known as koji . It is a family of mold that can break raw ingredients down to their basic units (ex. starch=>monosaccharides, proteins=>amino acids). Due to its enzymatic power, koji is a key player in the production of sake, shochu, miso, soy sauce and many other delicious products. At the risk of being a bit reductive, koji serves a similar function as malted barley in western grain based alcohol production. Both malt and "koji-fied" grain contain amylase enzymes (along with other enzymes) that break complex starch chains down into simple sugars that can then be fermented by brewers yeast as well as other families of yeast and bacteria. Grain based alc...