2021, Jan. 22
A container and a weight
for homemade Miso.

Thank you for choosing the Travelling Fermenter's Miso workshop!
Please find a container as I write below for fermenting beautiful homemade Miso. If you are not sure about the size, please send me a message.
Quantity
・1.8-2L(For 1kg of Miso)
*I'll write about this more at the bottom.
Shape
・A deep one, not a wide one.
・Make sure if you can put your hands in.
(Otherrwise it's hard to pack your Miso.)
Texture
・Anything but metal.
Plastic, glass, wood, and ceramic are fine.
You can find containers like this at 100 yen shops or DIY stores. They may be for storing sugar, rice, bread, or salt, but they're useful for your Miso too.


Why I recommend deep containers.
It's because a narrower surface area makes your work easier.
When you ferment Miso, there's a risk of having mold on the surface because Mold can grow anywhere with moisture, food, and air. It's not a fail, but it's better not to see something ugly on your Miso. So, please remember the wider the surface area, the more chance for mold to grow.
When you use a deep container, the surface area can be narrower, and it can reduce the risk of the mold having a party on your Miso. And also, you don't need to scrape much Miso off. So that, choosing a deep container makes your work easier. Moreover, traditionally, Miso brewers use deep containers.
*I don't say the narrower, the better. Please consider if your hands can reach the bottom of the container when you pack the Miso.
Examples of useful containers.
(Please don't mind the lid. We don't use them.)




Examples of less-useful containers for making Miso.


The size of the container and the weight.
I recommend the participants to place a weight on the top of their Miso while it ferments. Traditionally, the Japanese use heavy rocks as a weight, but it's hard to find them these days. So, I use a bag of salt instead of rocks.
The size of the weight needs to be around half the amount of the Miso. When I make more than 10kg of Miso, I'll use less than half, but if you go with a small amount, please stick with the half amount.
So, when you make 1kg of Miso, you'll need 500g of weight, and the container needs to be more than 1.5L.
However, I prefer to use 1.8-2L because of the Tamari soy sauce.
Tamari appears when you have a good amount of salt and moisture in your Miso. It tastes like sweet soy sauce, but it's tastier than that. Sometimes, it leaks out from the top of the container if there's no space on the top. So, that's why I prefer 1.8-2L.
Please refer to the sizes below.
Miso Weight Container
1kg 500g 1.8L~
2kg 1kg 3.5L~
3kg 1.5kg 5L~
4kg 2kg 6.5L~
5kg 2.5kg 8L~
*Here's the example of the salt bag.
*The container doesn't need a lid, but a sheet of paper to cover the top


