Jiuqu

Jiuqu (simplified Chinese: 酒曲; traditional Chinese: 酒麴; pinyin: Jiǔ qū) is a type of East Asian dried fermentation starter grown on a solid medium and used in the production of traditional Chinese alcoholic beverages. The Chinese character 麴 is romanised as qu in pinyin, chhu or chu in other transcription systems. The literal translation of jiuqu is "liquor ferment", although "liquor mold" or "liquor starter" are adequate descriptions.

Jiuqu specifically refers to a type of ferment (Qu 麴) used to manufacture alcoholic products (Jiu 酒), such as Huangjiu (Cereal Wines), Baijiu (Distilled Spirits) and Jiuniang (alcoholic rice porridge/pudding). There are other varieties of Qu specific for different types of fermentations, such as in the production of Jiang you (酱油 soy sauce), Cu (醋 vinegars), Sufu (豆腐 fermented bean curds) and Doubanjiang (豆瓣醬 fermented bean pastes). Qu is the direct Chinese counterpart of the more widely known Japanese fermentation starter called Koji, although Qu predates and differs from it slightly.