Tabb
Well-Known Member
I just got back from my local Asian market, asked the lady, she brought me right to it. $4 . Hooray for me.
Went to the asian market and the staff there had the same as everyone here reported...they never heard of dried yeast balls. Found this in the cold food section. No mention of yeast but the bag says rice cake and the ingredients say rice, salt and ethyl alcohol. Anyone else have experience with this or know if it'll work?
I agree. Looks like snack food.Pretty sure that's a snack food there. The yeast balls I found were mixed in between the bags of flour, salt and sugars. I circled the local store twice before finding them.
Rice wine, but yeah. I had the same reaction to the sake making process. It just seemed like way more work then I was willing to go to.I had just bought the book, Brewing Sake by William Auld less than a week ago and was disappointed by the enormous number of steps in the process as you build up the size, so figured it was $19.95 lost and no Sake.
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But finding this great thread while I was doing my normal perusing of the HBT boards, I could hardly get to sleep thinking of heading out and looking for the proper yeast or kobi/koji.
I was happy to find it here not too far away in Portland OR and picked up 3 bags of it. Each bag has 10 balls in it, all for $1.85 (per bag). I wish brewing yeast was this cheap!
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Anyways, I boiled 5 cups of glutonous 'sweet' rice (what a glob) and added 4 balls of yeast after it cooled. I placed in a jar that looks familiar on this board and look forward to some nice sake in about 3 weeks.
Thanks for all the information on here, I'm happy to be adding sake to the list of fermented beverages I make.
I likely will be getting some Thai Jasmine and getting a batch of that started as I think this will be pretty popular.
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Just bottled mine tonight. Amazing! Really good, great sweetness, but boy is it potent. I can see how you would get really messed up on this stuff.
Ready to do a second batch, this time with Jasmine rice. All I had last time was cheap calrose stuff from the supermarket.
So I just finished some of this up and the taste is great. Very sweet. Better than I anticipated. The only thing I didn't care for was the texture of it. Is there a way to take some of the chalkiness out of it?
What about oxidation? I've been treating mine like all other beer/wine, trying to minimize oxygen contact.I would imagine letting it cold crash and separate would take care of that but it will also effect flavor. Maybe try filtering a few times through doubled up cheesecloth or paint strainer or coffee filter
Awesome pictures.
Thanks!
I forgot to mention that, despite the low yield, the taste is great! Very sweet, very strong, but very good. I can only imagine what adding fruit flavors to it will do.
It does look great! Not sure which of those would lead to that yield though. I usually get almost half a gallon from 5 cups dry rice. Although I dont think its the soaking because Im pretty sure sonofgrok mentioned he does not soak anymore.
On a different note, I did some searching on the red rice yeast and while it does point out it's advantages in cholesterol reduction (assuming you buy that mumbo jumbo anyway)... I did start seeing quite a bit of info of permanent liver damage. Has anyone found anything a bit more solid? I suspect low levels probably won't hurt us in any event but still enough to make me hesitate a second before doing the red batch (save the appearance being a little rough).
I just harvested my rice wine after 24 days. I only got about half of a 750 ml bottle from 5 cups (dry) jasmine rice and 4 yeast balls. I am guessing the factors that led to this are -
#1 Fermentation temp too low, esp early on. (probably closer to the low 70s, high 60s)
#2 Not enough water, no soaking... Water level in rice cooker was one finger knuckle's length above the rice level, and it cooked real fast.
Anyways I am not upset at the yield, I just know I can do better based on what other people have posted. I will probably put a paint bucket heat lamp - http://brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html - into the cooler - and hooking that up to one of the STC-1000s that I should be getting in the mail soon, at least until I build my dual fermentation chamber
OP here - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/ma...fun-different-361095/index94.html#post4950345
Hmm, yes. The preliminary results from my 6 grain experiment would indicate that the type of rice is actually very important to the degree of liquefaction you get.Correctomundo. I don't bother soaking anymore. I get some pretty good rice though.
Soaking is time consuming and I am lazy. Makes this ferment even easier than it already was.
Any suggestions on something else I should do?
I used 2c jasmine rice and 2c water. My fermentation went well for the first 2 weeks, but has since seemed to stall. There are no off odors, I just have a thick rice sludge on the top half and liquid in the bottom half. I decided to stir, but that didn't seem to help. I pitched a bit more leaven to see if that makes a difference. I am fermenting right around 70, and so far it tastes sweet and very alcoholic. Any suggestions on something else I should do?
Yep. Leave it alone. RDWHAHB.
BattleGoat said:Yep. Leave it alone. RDWHAHB.
edds5p0 said:Of course. I was just concerned since I'm 3 weeks in and still have a good way to go.
Of course. I was just concerned since I'm 3 weeks in and still have a good way to go.
sonofgrok said:If you are 3 weeks in, you should be about ready to harvest.
edds5p0 said:I still have quite a bit of rice left, it's like a pudding right now.
jazzman said:It's been 3 days from my first batch and wondering if this is normal. I used 5 cups sushi rice and boiled/simmered with 10 cups water about 20 minutes until water was gone. I didn't cool it too well and layered it and mixed each layer with parts of 2 crushed yeast balls (2 total in gal jar). I keep it in the dark but temps are in low to mid 60's. I don't see liquid but now see grayish blue tendriles or mold on the top of the rice. This normal or just bad news?
I still have quite a bit of rice left, it's like a pudding right now.
The only item I was able to find at the Korean store was a (Hara)Mochi Iiyo -6P-(Japanese Rice Cake). Will post the pics soon if anyone happens to be able to read them but while they label it as glutinous rice powder, salt, and citric acid I can find nowhere (in English) that mentions yeast (although the label was added at the store). Going to get stuck trying them out eaten first but will save a few to try just in case.
That said and I know I'm probably overthinking this... Doesn't Miso Paste contain the Koji mold and Yeast as a primary ingredient? I wonder if you could culture it from this (although I can't imagine a good finished product fermented with a tablespoon of miso paste ).
This looks fun and rewarding. My local stores do not carry the dried yeast ball. Is this a good price per gram/oz? http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HSHRCILJ&CartID=1
~Dis
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