simplifications, Chinese and Japanese brewers
have traditionally used very different
preparations for breaking rice starch down
into fermentable sugars.
Chinese Chhü : Several Molds and Yeasts
The ancient Chinese preparation, chhü, is
usually made from wheat or rice, and includes
several different kinds of mold as well as the
yeasts that will eventually produce the
alcohol. Some of the wheat may be roasted or
left raw, but most is steamed, coarsely
ground, shaped into cakes, and then left to
mold in incubation rooms for several weeks.
Species of Aspergillus grow on the outside,
and species of Rhizopus and Mucor on the
inside. Aspergillus is the same kind of mold
used to digest soybeans to make soy sauce and
Rhizopus is the major mold in soybean tempeh
(p. 496, 500), while Mucor is important in
some kinds of aged cheeses. All of them
accumulate starch-and protein-digesting