Miso Making (Part 2)

It’s been a while since my last post in Feb !

The note on the lid says : 2022/2/23 500g of soybeans, 1000g of malted rice & 255g of salt. Should makes 2.5kg of miso.

My miso had been fermenting in room temp, passed the hot summer (it is important to let the miso ferment during the hot summer days) and finally ready!

I checked the miso pot twice on June and July. I found some mold on the miso on the rim of the pot so I removed it with the clean scraper and wiped off the inner wall of the pot. I placed a plastic wrap to cover the surface of the miso, place the lid then some weight and continue the fermenting process in room temp.

I checked the miso again on July and same thing happed again !! I removed the mold as I did previously and continue to let the miso stay in the room temp until the summer is over.

In my early days of miso making, the mold really scared me and I ended up throwing out the whole batch of miso. Mold traumatized me so much that I couldn’t make if for several years. This year I think the boiled soybean paste was a little too dry. It was soft and creamy when pureed but when I added the rice malt, the rice soaked up the moisture too much. I didn’t thought much about it but while fermenting the miso batch didn’t release much liquid and this was one of the reason it got molded.

The liquid released from miso form a barrier and this prevent the miso to mold. This was a good lessen and next year, I’m going to make my miso much more mushy.

Fermented miso for 6 month glowing under the plastic wrap.

Anyway, after the hot July and August, my miso batch finally started releasing some liquid, this liquid is soy sauce, and no more mold (yay).

I can still see some bits of rice malt which signify me that the miso batch should be more wet at the begining.

I stir the batch and checked the inner layer of the miso but it seemed fine. (relieved) As I mix the miso, the rice malt seemed very visible and still hard. I think this is the sign that I needed more liquid at the beginning. I guess this year all the ingredients was a bit too dry. ( There were no trouble in my previous yr batch ) I did taste it and it was ready to go, but will be kept in the fridge for further slow fermentation until I finish my older batch of miso.

The finished color of the miso is darker than the previous year.

As I placed the miso in a plastic container, I tried to tap the miso down as tight as possible to let the air out of it. I never have the trouble of mold storing in the fridge but you never know. While the miso is stored in the fridge, the miso continue it’s fermentation and you would be able the see the liquid emerging. I packed the miso in a mound, a little bit higher in the center and lower between the rims so the liquid sets around the rims of the container. I sometime collects these liquid and use it as a thick soysauce (actually we call this Tamari Shoyu).

So many things learned from this batch of miso this year. I will revise and try to brush up my miso in my try!

links: Miso Making (Part 1)