throughout the mass. People eventually
noticed that moldy rice tasted sweet and
smelled alcoholic. Sometime before the 3rd
century BCE, these simple observations led to
a regular technique for producing alcoholic
liquids. By 500 CE, a Chinese source lists nine
different mold preparations and 37 different
alcoholic products.
Today, few people outside of China have
heard of chiu, but many millions have heard
of its Japanese counterpart, sake(pronounced
“sa-kay”). Rice cultivation and probably chiu
production were brought to Japan from the
Asian mainland around 300 BCE. Over the
following centuries, Japanese brewers so
refined chiu that it became something
distinctive.
Starch-Digesting Molds
Though modern industrial production has
brought a number of common shortcuts and