Saccharification in the context of "Caramelization"

Hydrolysis (/haɪˈdrɒlɪsɪs/; from Ancient Greek hydro- 'water' and lysis 'to unbind') is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution and elimination reactions in which water is the nucleophile.

Biological hydrolysis is the cleavage of biomolecules where a water molecule is consumed to effect the separation of a larger molecule into component parts. When a carbohydrate is broken into its component sugar molecules by hydrolysis (e.g., sucrose being broken down into glucose and fructose), this is recognized as saccharification.

Huangjiu (Chinese: 黃酒; lit. 'yellow wine') is a type of Chinese rice wine (mijiu) most popular in the Jiangnan area. Huangjiu is brewed by mixing steamed grains including rice, glutinous rice or millet with qū as starter culture, followed by saccharification and fermentation at around 13–18 °C (55–64 °F) for fortnights. Its alcohol content is typically 8% to 20%.

Huangjiu is usually pasteurized, aged, and filtered before its final bottling for sale to consumers. The maturation process can be complicated but important for the development of the layers of flavors and fragrance. A few brands of premium grade huangjiu could have been aged for up to 20 years. As huangjiu's name suggests, its typical color is typically light yellow and orange, but it can in fact range from clear to brown. Many famous huangjiu brands promote the quality of water used in brewing in their advertising, and some consider it to be the most important ingredient.

Inverted sugar syrup is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, made by splitting the disaccharide sucrose. This mixture's optical rotation is opposite to that of the original sugar, which is why it is called an invert sugar. Splitting is completed through hydrolytic saccharification.

Aspergillus oryzae, also known as kōji mold (Japanese: ニホンコウジカビ (日本麹黴), Hepburn: nihon kōji kabi), is a mold used in East Asia to saccharify rice, sweet potato, and barley in the making of alcoholic beverages such as sake and shōchū, and also to ferment soybeans for making soy sauce and miso. It is one of the different koji molds used for food fermentation.

However, in the production of fermented foods of soybeans such as soy sauce and miso, Aspergillus sojae is sometimes used instead of A. oryzae. A. oryzae is also used for the production of rice vinegars. Barley kōji (麦麹) or rice kōji (米麹) are made by fermenting the grains with A. oryzae hyphae.