Skip to content
SPIRITS OF JAPANLand · Water · Time
ENJA
Close-up of rice grains covered with koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae)

CRAFT — 発酵

Sugar becomes alcohol. Every drink begins here.

Photo: Forrest O. / CC BY-SA 2.0

  1. 01

    Making sugar

    Grapes already hold sugar. The starch in rice, barley or sweet potato must first be broken into sugar by enzymes — from koji, or from malt.

  2. 02

    Multiple parallel fermentation

    In sake, saccharification by koji and fermentation by yeast run side by side in the same tank. Beer ferments wort after mashing is complete; wine ferments the grape's own sugar directly.

  3. 03

    As a brewed drink

    Pressed or filtered after fermentation, the result is a brewed drink — sake, wine, beer.

APPLIES TO

SOURCES

  1. 1日本酒の製造工程日本酒造組合中央会 Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association · Industry body · accessed 2026-09-26

PHOTO CREDITS

All image credits →
  1. 1Rice koji — Forrest O. · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons