The purpose of this study was to confirm the quality characteristics of distilled soju with different rice pretreatment processes. The non-steamed fermentation method is a technology that uses starch to produce saccharification and alcohol without going through the steaming of raw materials. It has advantages such as reduction of manpower and cost, prevention of nutrient loss, and minimization of waste water. In this study, rice used were non-steamed and pulverized 'Baromi2', nonsteamed and steamed ‘Samgwang’, and puffed rice. As the fermenting agent, koji, modified nuruk, N9 yeast, and purified enzyme were used, and lactic acid was added to prevent contamination during fermentation. The amount of water was 300% in total, and after the first watering, 5 days after fermentation, the second watering was carried out. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the non-steamed fermentation method using ‘Baromi’ was superior to the existing fermentation method in terms of temperature during fermentation, final alcohol content, soluble solids, and pH. By expanding the stability of the production technology of non-steamed fermentation technology, product quality improvement can be expected.
Soju is a Korean traditional distilled alcoholic beverage produced from mashes various crops and Nuruk which is cultured with wild microorganisms. This study was conducted to investigate rice-Soju brewing characteristics of yeasts isolated from Korean traditional Nuruk. The general components of rice (Hanarumbyeo) raw materials were 14.7 g of water, 6.8 g of crude protein, 0.9 g of crude lipid, 0.4 g of crude ash, and 76.5 g of carbohydrate in 100 g. Saccharifying and proteolytic activities in Hanarumbyeo ipguk (solid-state culture of Aspergillus luchuensis) were also determined. The alcohol content of the fermented wash from isolates was 15.37-16.58% (v/v), which is 16.7-36.0% higher than that of industrial yeasts (12.33-13.19%). Reducing sugar contents were 2.04-3.92 and 7.92-8.78 g/100 mL in the isolates and industrial yeasts, respectively. The isolated yeasts showed 25.2-52.7% higher yield of distillates (41% alcohol) compared to industrial yeasts. Forty-one components were detected in the rice distillated Soju (25% alcohol) and principal component analysis revealed differences between the isolated and industrial yeasts with respect to the contents of i-BuOH, isobutanal diethyl acetal, ethyl caprate, and tetradecanoic acid.