Many Questions

Ok so I'm still new to well... everything related to home brewing and ive made some mead's, and a few beers with liquid extracts and yes it is very simple but that doesn't mean i understand it all. Any way that's a little insight on me, so now i want to try to make some makgeolli.

I'm having a lot of trouble finding the yeast for it since it is made from rice. I found that it need something called Nuruk, or Jiu-Bing (they look like jawbreaker candy's) and a little bit of baking yeast is what the recipe calls for. Now I heard or saw some where that it is just malted wheat, but on this bottle i bought it says 90% rice 10% millet. So could I just grind up some millet or some malted wheat or maybe both. I would prefer to just use one. Also I saw some stuff in the store that said glutinous rice flour and could i throw that in the mix maybe i don't really know I'm just thinking out loud here.

So to sum it all up my questions are: Does anyone have a link to a site where i can buy so Jiu-Bing balls, or some Nuruk. Would malted wheat, or millet, or glutenous rice flour work as a good substitute for Nuruk or Jiu-Bing
<--- I like that smile a lot as you can see

Nuruk/Jiu-Bing is pretty much just a wild yeast starter (kind of like sourdough) that has been rolled into balls and dried so that they can be used as yeast. Because they're wild yeast, milage may vary. This would be akin to back in the old brewing days where there wasn't isolated strains of yeast that could be easilly purchased. (Not necessarily a bad thing. People like lambics, and sourdough bread (not that we in this subforum can really have it), and similar wild yeast products. It's just that it is a wild yeast and variations in flavor will occur for good or for bad)

Additionally, you could use specific yeasts, it's just that refined yeast strains have not really been available so tradition is used instead. Check your local asian mart if you really want to, but an isolated strain of yeast could potentially be better, or at least have less of a coarse taste.

Glutenious rice flour is just a short grain rice that tends to be somewhat stickier than long grain rice. Used for asian desserts bok-tan-goh and such. http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=102035 has a bit of info, even if it's another forum. (It's exactly what you're looking for)

Good on you for great info, Kevin.

My only piece to add is that gelatinizing and coverting the starch in millet and rice will be way harder than figuring out something to ferment it with. If I were you, I would worry about that first.

You cannot just grind up some millet or wheat and put it in hot water. You will end up with soup, not beer. You need to convert the starches to sugars before you worry about fermentation. See the sticky in this forum on malting, great info in there.

please try sprouting the wheat by soaking into the water for few hours and then you can hit with stick to flatten it and steam. cover with wet clothes maintaining 35°c overnight, form round or square cake and dry under the shadow area, it will naturally acquire fungus which can help breaking down into alcohol. plese try it few times.