Craft brewing is all about innovation. Whether it’s adding new flavors to a recipe or finding new ways to brew, there’s no shortage of paths brewers are willing to explore. That’s how many found themselves last month in Denver at the Craft Brewers Conference standing at the White Labs booth talking with Todd Bellomy about a microorganism that will speed up the process for kettle-soured beers.
Bellomy, a long-time brewing-industry professional turned sake entrepreneur, was touting the benefits of white koji, which is technically a fungus and is used to make a wide variety of fermented foods.
Most of us know about koji’s role in making miso, soy sauce, and, of course, sake. Koji breaks down substances such as rice or soybeans to fermentable sugars. Yellow koji is most commonly used in sake. White koji has been used to make shōchū, a cousin to sake.
However, when you add koji into the mash of, say, a Berliner weisse, it will dramatically cut the time needed to properly kettle sour a beer.