Silo, a zero-waste restaurant based in London, UK, has established a new site for the cultivation of koji, soy sauce and beer grain miso in commercial quantities.

The new ‘Fermentation Factory,’ launched in partnership with Crate Brewery, is headed up by Silo’s R&D leader, Ryan Walker. The project aims to scale up what has traditionally been an in-house venture, transforming ‘challenging ingredients’ into high-value products that can be used in mainstream kitchens and bars.

This summer, Silo will supply its fresh koji business-to-business, supporting other restaurants, bakeries, breweries, bars and home cooks in reducing waste. As well as fresh and dry koji, the factory will manufacture and distribute a miso product made from spent beer grains from Crate Brewery, and a ‘zero soy sauce’ made using waste bread from the restaurant.

Silo takes the ‘uglier’ parts of waste ingredients and upcycles them into what it describes as ‘liquid gold’ – producing a range of garums, ferments and misos, used throughout the restaurant’s tasting menu. These umami flavour enhancers encapsulate founder Douglas McMaster’s ‘closed-loop’ cooking style, lending unique flavour profiles to the restaurant’s dishes.

Koji, a cultivated fungus, is used as a starter to energise the fermentation process. The Fermentation Factory will cultivate large quantities of this product, making it available to businesses that seek to produce their own miso and ferments sustainably in-house.

Silo aims to make sustainability accessible and economically viable on a commercial scale by providing businesses with the core tools for closed-loop processes. The Fermentation Factory will open its doors later this summer in an abandoned nightclub, marking the next stage in Silo’s mission to ‘make zero-waste living a global reality’ as it celebrates its ten-year anniversary.

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