Clarifying Chinese Rice Wine

Hey all. I was super inspired by sonofgrok's post about traditional chinese rice wine. I've got my first half gallon sitting in the jug about ready to drink.

Anyways I used some super clear to filter out all of the white sediment, which I assumed were just unwanted particulates. Anyways It's crystal clear and racked off. I added about 2 cups of frozen blackberries to back sweeten and flavor the wine.

My question is that are you even supposed to clarify and rack off or should I have left it that white milky color. did I remove anything important? Thanks again any input is appreciated.

Well....many who leave it cloudy say it helps with the sweetness. But I do not know that anyone has aged the cloudy version. My batches drop clear without fining, just use double layer fine mesh jelly bag. I switch the collection container when it is time to squeeze the bag, I call the cloudy stuff 'rice beer' and drink it first.

If you like it cloudy go for it. I do wonder how that holds up after pasteurizing?

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about it. I just had the extra laying around and figured why not. About how long after fermentation does it reach peak flavor? thanks for the reply!

techbrewie said:

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about it. I just had the extra laying around and figured why not. About how long after fermentation does it reach peak flavor? thanks for the reply!

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Unable to answer that, I keep consuming my supply.

Yep just drank my first half gallon this weekend. Went way too fast

tried the next batch without racking off. the flavor is definitely different with a lot thicker mouth feel (to the same consistency of milk.. not sure if that's normal.) I think i prefer it racked off and backsweetened with fruit and some sugar.

techbrewie said:

tried the next batch without racking off. the flavor is definitely different with a lot thicker mouth feel (to the same consistency of milk.. not sure if that's normal.) I think i prefer it racked off and backsweetened with fruit and some sugar.

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I like it cleared, backsweetened with fruit. I left the last batch with solids, but it was tea based.