In the first few days of this year, after watching one of the Liziqi videos, I decided that a good way for me to introduce a little more frustration into my life and to waste both time and money would be to try my hand at fermenting soy sauce. Because I’m pretty much pleased with life and I’ve not quite saved enough for the funeral that would surely follow if I attempted the Korean variety, I decided on fermenting a traditional Japanese sauce.
Off I went looking at the types that are commonly made and the methods used. I settled on a Aspergillus Oryzae mold and found a source in Austria. These folk seemed to know what they were doing and had a great tutorial, in English, on exactly how ferment ‘Shoyu’. That tutorial is here.
I’ve got pieces and parts of the recipe inbound. Mold from Austria, soy beans from Iowa, wheat from Washington state and salt from the Bahamas. I’ll use water from one of the springs that feed the little stream out back.
I had wanted to make this from soy beans raised in my garden and wheat from a nearby farm, but it will be another 8 months before my garden will kick out the beans. This has got a brew time of 14 months so I’ll be in soy heaven come March of 2022.