A. Luchuensis Spores
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A. Luchuensis Spores

(61 customer reviews)

From: 7,50€

The amount refers to how much wet substrate can be inoculated. For more info, click here.

A. Luchuensis, like Black Koji, is a special type of Koji which is traditionally used for making Shochu, a distilled drink.

This kind of Koji has gotten a lot of attention since it has been praised so much in the Noma Guide to Fermentation. To quote from the book: “[…] its flavor is remarkable, reminiscent of green apple and lemons. We were thrilled at Noma when we came across this special mold, because the citric acid it produces brings a sharp layer of contrast to the umami-rich flavor of koji.”

When you grow this Koji, please be aware that it can be overpowered by its more famous cousin, A. Oryzae. For this reason I recommend that you use trays/cloths that you have not used with A. Oryzae before (or clean/sterilize your equipment well) in order to avoid cross-contamination.

This is the albino version of A. Luchuensis.

It grows best on barley. Be aware that it grows more slowly initially compared to A. Oryzae, so it is recommended to start this koji at 35°C compared to the usual 30°C for other strains.

Weight1,75 g
Amount

For 5 kg, For 50 kg, For 200 kg

hsnumber

2102101090

61 reviews for A. Luchuensis Spores

  1. Scott (verified owner) –

    Fantastic product arrived safely to United States shipping address with no problems!

  2. An De smedt (verified owner) –

  3. Sotirios Pilafidis (verified owner) –

  4. Valter Pfliegler (verified owner) –

    Grew very nicely, also checked it on a Petri-dish, perfect.

  5. Orsolya Kovács (verified owner) –

  6. Livia Del Rosso (verified owner) –

  7. MB (verified owner) –

  8. Ludovico Coccioli (verified owner) –

  9. Helena Martin (verified owner) –

  10. Mark Abraham (verified owner) –

  11. Jermaine Liesdek (verified owner) –

    Powerfull

  12. matej bloksa (verified owner) –

    The spores were of high quality and easy to use, resulting in a successful batch of miso and amazake

  13. Jordan Lindsay (verified owner) –

  14. Fredrik Elin (verified owner) –

  15. Charlie Gros (verified owner) –

    Amazing!!!!

  16. susan –

    i grow the spores on black rice and then add equal parts tomato sauce, 2 days at 60C for a brilliant umami rich tomato sauce for pasta and braises

  17. Eva de Winkel (verified owner) –

  18. Kasper Melsvik (verified owner) –

  19. Julia Nachreiner (verified owner) –

    No problems growing these spores (on brown rice). I love the flavour of the amazake, tastes like lemon butter milk to me. The Shio Koji gives a great flavour to stir fries. I will definitely experiment more with this species.

  20. Declan King (verified owner) –

  21. Dario Marxer (verified owner) –

  22. Simon Hoffmann (verified owner) –

  23. Dave H. (verified owner) –

  24. Karan Kapur –

    Viktor and Christine’s mission with Fermentationculture.eu is absolutely incredible. Consistently high quality products with speedy deliveries and at a reasonable price point.

    They got Miso kits for beginners which just catapults ones journey into Koji and solid state fermentation. And if you are a more experienced Koji enthusiast or want to experiment on your own, they have a wide variety of cultures for that too.

    Very responsive and supportive on emails as well, and quick to process.

  25. Guido Bauhammer (verified owner) –

  26. Slawomir Skora (verified owner) –

  27. Hoàng Phúc Cao (verified owner) –

  28. Anonymous (verified owner) –

  29. Peter Dalmy (verified owner) –

  30. Lukas Bertschi (verified owner) –

  31. Adam (verified owner) –

  32. Jérémy Godard (verified owner) –

  33. George (verified owner) –

    Quick delivery and good quality spores. The packet needs to be diluted into some medium like starch or flour before use which, in my opinion, is a bit inconvenient. Otherwise I would have given 5 stars!

  34. Vanessa Urben (verified owner) –

    Trying miso with this one now, very suprising taste. I love lemons what can I say..

  35. N Decker (verified owner) –

    Very viable product that was true to type. Performed well and lived up to my hopes. Thank you for offering this product!

  36. M.M. Janssen (verified owner) –

    Very lively spores. Received order within a few days.

  37. M.M. Janssen (verified owner) –

    Very lively spores. Received order within a few days.

  38. Mamboline (verified owner) –

  39. Dennis (verified owner) –

  40. Kim Jensen (verified owner) –

  41. Jacob Petersen (verified owner) –

  42. Philippe Castagner (verified owner) –

    Really cool. I probably won’t be growing it regularly but I’m glad I tried it.

  43. ilaria Zappi (verified owner) –

  44. artur orjuhovschii (verified owner) –

  45. Delphine Rehfuss (verified owner) –

  46. João Alves (verified owner) –

  47. Raphaël Gétaz (verified owner) –

  48. James Sherwin (verified owner) –

    Great product, quick delivery

  49. Askan Worms (verified owner) –

  50. jere Vihervaara (verified owner) –

  51. Maxim Faber (verified owner) –

  52. Claudia Liliana Quiroz Ramirez (verified owner) –

  53. Eric Morris (verified owner) –

  54. Walter (verified owner) –

    Compared with spores directly imported from Japan, the Japanese spores were not only much cheaper, but also more efficient. I inoculated with the usual amount of spores, but the fungus spread and grew slower and less dense than my earlier batches.

  55. jay ciccarelli (verified owner) –

  56. Anna Williams (verified owner) –

  57. Αriadni Portokaloglou (verified owner) –

  58. Sharon Roberts –

    My customer experience with Viktor and Christine continues to be outstanding. I reiterate the above customer comments. My first attempt was 8 months ago and the results are in a cool cupboard and continue to get more and more delicious. I teach sourdough and have worked as a professional cook and have an interest in all food, worldwide. Nothing prepared me for such an exciting discovery as working with spores and discovering the depths of umami. I can highly recommend Viktor and Christine’s cashew nut miso and pumpkin seed miso. I now have Natto on the go and can’t wait.

  59. Benjamin Ronald Moebius (verified owner) –

    This A. Luchuensis koji is pretty rare so I was so happy to see it on this site! The koji kin are quite powerful – I only used a maybe 1/4 teaspoon to inoculate 800 grams of barley. With the koji, I made citric koji water which we use in Japanese recipes as a stand in for sake, though the flavor profile is more sour (like a wonderfully ripe grapefruit) but still with a lot of sugar. Then we use it in western recipes as a stand in for white wine, where it is exceptional!

  60. Max Mönch (verified owner) –

    This spores are amazing. If you look for the fancy NOMA book recipes. Go for this strain. With pearled barley it develops a strong aroma of lemon and apples as described above. You will not be disappointed…

  61. Matt (verified owner) –

    I used about 1/4 of the spore packet to innoculate about 1kg of steamed pearled barley. Not much activity at 24 hrs but after a stir and 12 more hours (36 total) there was a nice even layer of white fluffy mold. Based on the directions from the noma guide I harvested and chilled the batch at that point. I agree with the tasting notes of green apple and lemon, fairly tart. Aroma was not as strong or tropical as previous batches with a light aspergillus oryzae strain.

    I used the Koji to make some amazake with some wheat berries. Equal portions wheat and Koji. The aroma from that was really interesting, like a baked apple and honey. The flavor was more simple, fairly tart with apple and lemon. Really interesting to experiment if you want some acidity in your ferment.

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