Professor P. Cohn has recently described the mode in which he has
manufactured the Japanese sake or rice wine in the laboratory. The
material used was "Tane Kosi," i.e., grains of rice coated with the
mycelium, conidiophores, and greenish yellow chains of conidia of
_Aspergillus Oryzoe_. The fermentation is caused by the mycelium of this
fungus before the development of the fructification. The rice is first
exposed to moist air so as to change the starch into paste, and then
mixed with grains of the "Tane Kosi." The whole mass of rice becomes in
a short time permeated by the soft white shining mycelium, which imparts
to it the odor of apple or pine-apple. To prevent the production of the
fructification, freshly moistened rice is constantly added for two or
three days, and then subjected to alcoholic fermentation from the
_Saccharomyces_, which is always present in the rice, but which has
nothing to do with the _Aspergillus_. The fermentation is completed in
two or three weeks, and the golden yellow, sherry-like sake is poured
off. The sample manufactured contained 13.9 per cent. of alcohol.
Chemical investigation showed that the _Aspergillus_ mycelium transforms
the starch into glucose, and thus plays the part of a diastase.
Another substance produced from the _Aspergillus_ rice is the soja
sauce. The soja leaves, which contain little starch, but a great deal of
oil and casein, are boiled, mixed with roasted barley, and then with the
greenish yellow conidia powder of the _Aspergillus_. After the mycelium
has fructified, the mass is treated with a solution of sodium chloride,
which kills the _Aspergillus_, another fungus, of the nature of a
_Chalaza_, and similar to that produced in the fermentation of
"sauerkraut," appearing in its place. The dark-brown soja sauce then
separates.
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