Interesting. My first attempt came out similar to what sarthak just described, but didn't see anyone else having the same problem in the thread over the 1-2 times I skimmed it in the last two months or so!
I suspect it was too cold, temperatures in my apartment wouldn't have been over 16C. I used some 2 year old sushi rice, steamed, about 6-7 cups worth, with some Chinese yeast balls. Gave it 4 weeks, definitely got a strong acetone smell around week 2, although it mellowed out over time.
Yield was low compared to what I was reading, maybe 500mLs, although I was finding it frustrating to squeeze the lees and probably could have gotten another 100-200mLs if I'd stuck with it. Came out very tart and with a relatively low ABV, maybe like ~8-10% based on how I felt after a glass. I actually didn't mind the tartness too much as I like sipping on things with a strong taste (black coffee, whiskey, etc), but I wouldn't offer it to anyone else, so I considered the batch a failure. It did play nicely with some raspberry cordial.
Despite this, I'm encouraged to try again, as it seems like most people are quite happy with the results when it's done correctly. I've been making beer for about a year and a half, and this is kind of a fun departure. I ordered some ARL from China, which arrived a week or two ago. RYR seems impossible to find in Australia; nobody seems to sell it online, and the two bigger Asian grocers in town said although they'd had it in the past, don't carry it now. I've got a Chinese friend who owes me a favour, so I might put them on it...
I picked up some 3.8L glass jars from KMart ($7/ea, have a cork stopper) and two 5kg sacks of rice from the big Asian grocery/restaurant supply store. In addition to doing side-by-side ARL vs yeast balls, I'm trying both Thai glutinous and Thai jasmine rice, before committing to one of the 25kg sacks, which are a lot more cost effective. I kinda stuffed up a bit when I was making it; steaming 12 cups of Jasmine was taking ages so I wound up dumping it in to the water after a while then stirring it up and letting it sit... which actually came out perfectly. I tried just straight water with the glutinous (1.5 cups per 1 cup dry glutinous rice) and it was waaay too much water, poured a fair bit of it off. Seemed to come out OK in the end, but so much for consistant methodology. I also forgot to StarSan the first jar, although from what I understand this stuff isn't as precious about infection as beer is.
I've placed them in my fermentation chamber for now, which is in the low 20s (have a pale ale in there right now). I'd like to remove them after a few days so I can put my JOAM back in (I suspect a stalled fermentation there due to low temps as well), but we'll see.
Does anyone have suggestions for steaming large batches? Assuming I can get something to turn out drinkable, I'd like to scale up to fermenting in the 30L PET buckets I have, and I think my eBIAB rig could work pretty well. It's a Bayou-type kettle with the perforated SS bucket, which sits above the waterline + heating element. I figured adding the rice (in a BIAB bag) and steaming would work. Does the rice need stirring when being steamed in large batches? It seemed cumbersome to get to the stuff on the bottom, but likely that it would overcook if I didn't. My usual method of cooking rice on the stove is the 1.5:1 in water, which turns out fine, but wouldn't work given the element is inside the kettle in this case.
