It is hot yet again, slightly more humid though, perhaps.  Munchkin is keeping herself busy and has left me to my own devices.  I was excited that today was THE day for transformation of the rice koji into miso; afterall, we did soak black beans in preparation and the big pressure cooker was cleaned and readied for action.  However, upon close examination of the inoculated rice grains, I made an executive decision and decided to go for another twenty-four hours.  The soaked black beans have been transferred into the freezer until the time is right.

While nicely colonised, cracking the rice grain open showed that the mold could still penetrate the grain a bit further.  Also, deep inside my gnomish heart, that mad, self-sufficiency streak wants the Aspergillus mold to start fruiting (ie. make spores) so that I can collect the yellow-green spores and replenish my supply for future batches.  While not impossible to bring into Belize, the starter cultures are difficult to order and then ship into the country without some hoops having to be jumped through (I’ve got a friend in Japan who feels like he owes me a favour but I don’t want to collect on his good will yet!).  Being able to harvest my own spores would free me from this dependency on factors that I don’t have control over.  Let’s see if I can pull it off…the plot thickens…

It is hard to assuage Fermentation Frenzy once it grabs hold of you so I had to find something to still my trembling nerves while waiting for the koji to continue its colonisation.  I finally decided to rack some mead that has been sitting around settling and aging…I had been dissatisfied with the way this batch has been clearing and decided to do something I usually don’t do:  use some gelatin finings to try and clear it a bit more.  I was concerned that perhaps it had not cleared well because of contamination and doing this would also afford the opportunity to have a quick taste.

This accomplished, the moment of truth arrived:  the presentation of a slightly cloudy glass of non-carbonated mead to the tasting expert, Munchkin.  Fortunately and happily (for both of us) the sampling test was passed and I received a smile of approval from Missus Munchkin!  Yosh!

Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow!  Cheers to all!

0