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Fermentation Atlas

Starters and koji from Shaoxing, Zhejiang

Linfan jiumu (Shaoxing 'shower-rice' yeast mother)淋饭酒母

acidic, high-alcohol yeast mash used as starter for yuanhong, jiafan and shanniang. Made in 7 steps over 36 h – 2 days. The longest step, soak glutinous rice, takes 36 h – 2 days (Zhejiang Liquor Industry Association (drafted…). Saccharomyces and Saccharomycopsis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step36 h – 2 daysSet[SX-SPEC]Soak glutinous rice
Temperature27–32 °CSet[SX-SPEC]Fill vat, mix jiuyao, form an inverted-funnel well (dawo)
DocumentedStarters and koji36 h – 2 daysMore starters and kojiMore from China

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
glutinous rice
jiuyao (rice-flour + Polygonum hydropiper cake)
wheat qu
water
Starter: koji/qu/mold-starter (jiuyao + wheat qu)

Total time across the recorded steps: 36 h – 2 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Glutinous rice soaks in water

Step 1 of 7
Soak glutinous rice
Time
36 h – 2 days
Set
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Saccharomyces
Rhizopus

Output: soaked rice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • Pure-culture yeast mother (纯种酒母)rice soaked 3–4 days at ~25 °C; tank pitched at 24–28 °C, max 33 °C, 48 h; spec: acid ≤4.5 g/L, ≥1.5×10^8 cells/mL, budding ≥15 %, ≥9 % vol alcohol (SX-SPEC 6.3.2)

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [SX-SPEC] Zhejiang Liquor Industry Association (drafted by Guyuelongshan and Pagoda/Tapai), group standard draft "绍兴酒(绍兴黄酒)酿造工艺技术规范" (revision of DB330624/T 09—2004), posted on ttbz.org.cn 2025-09-22spec
  2. [TIAN2022] Tian S., Zeng W., Fang F., Zhou J., Du G., "The microbiome of Chinese rice wine (Huangjiu)", Curr. Res. Food Sci. 5:325–335, 2022paper