Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

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madwilliamflint said:
This stuff takes a long time, especially mead (since I'm not a beer drinker.) I figure, if it's going to take 9-12 months to age correctly, then by God I'm going to have 2 dozen experiments come to fruition all at once so I don't waste valuable time.

My notes are good enough (I think) so that if I get one success out of this many attempts, I'll be way ahead of the game.

I don't know a damn thing about any of this stuff. But I'm bloody well going to learn as fast as I can get the information into my head.
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Are you mixing rice wine and mead recipes?
 
MasterCrook said:
Are you mixing rice wine and mead recipes?
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Eep, no. Those are just the two things I tend to be working with. I DID toss a half pint of blueberries in one of my rice wine experiments as a goof to see what happened.

I want to compare adding small amounts of fruit to the beginning of the process with adding a little at bottling, see what happens and all.

But I'm not mixing honey and rice...yet. But hey, I'm still new. Maybe I'll do a jar like that just to see what happens.
 
madwilliamflint said:
Eep, no. Those are just the two things I tend to be working with. I DID toss a half pint of blueberries in one of my rice wine experiments as a goof to see what happened.

I want to compare adding small amounts of fruit to the beginning of the process with adding a little at bottling, see what happens and all.

But I'm not mixing honey and rice...yet. But hey, I'm still new. Maybe I'll do a jar like that just to see what happens.
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I've seen a few recipes where honey and raisins are added together before the ferment. I like things simple, so just plain old rice wine for me :)
 
MasterCrook said:
I've seen a few recipes where honey and raisins are added together before the ferment. I like things simple, so just plain old rice wine for me :)
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After my first success I'll always have plain rice wine on hand. It's too delicious. But I'll likely always be running the odd goofy experiment off on the side as well.
 
ChefRex said:
Got your package today, thanks brother! I will be doing a batch heavy on the RYR, how much have you used in a batch?

jak1010 is the man!
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No worries. I usually use about 1/2 a cup of RYR for a 5 cup (dry) of Thai Jasmine rice. Good stuff.
 
ChefRex said:
Straight up? Or do you add yeast balls also?
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Sorry, yes yeast balls too. Someone tried doing it without the yeast balls and it didn't work. Although it's red yeast rice, the yeast itself doesn't get the job done and you need yeast balls. For a 5 cup batch, I add 3 crushed balls.
 
Here's the 2 week update on my ARL and RYR batch. Smells and looks amazing. Can't wait to finally have another batch of red! 7 more days feels like a lifetime away.

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Has anyone scaled this up to doing it in a 6.5 gallon brew bucket. I've read enough that I want to try it but, if it's good I wanna have lots of extra to share and partake in.

Thanks, J
 
twofocused said:
Has anyone scaled this up to doing it in a 6.5 gallon brew bucket. I've read enough that I want to try it but, if it's good I wanna have lots of extra to share and partake in.

Thanks, J
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Check out page 328 of this thread. That and a few pages after should help you with a large batch.
 
So here are my most recent experiments. (Finally got pics of them.) The two jars are jasmine rice, started with the remnants of my first batch (no additional yeast balls or anything.) They're behaving exactly the same, near as I can tell.

One has a handful of blueberries..because why not, rice is cheap.

The cookie jar I put together last night and is 5 pounds of Nishiki and a package of yeast balls (that I'm going to mix in a bit more thoroughly this evening when I get home.)

What's interesting to me is that I never get the kind of liquid differentiation that other pictures seem to indicate here. It never separates on it's own. My 'mixture' just gets soupier and soupier. I generally consider it "done" when it doesn't have enough structure to hold the CO2 in suspension.

20140815_031556408_iOS.jpg


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scarekrow said:
Can some one please explain RYR and ARL? I've tried the search function and looking thru most of the pages of the post. Thanks
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see below




pdxal said:
I believe:
RYR=red yeast rice
ARL=Angel Rice Leaven
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That's exactly right. The ARL is another form of the mold/yeast combination that allows rice to break down and ferment.

RYR is an additive to a batch of rice wine that adds a red color and a slightly fruity flavor. In most of my batches, it produces a larger yield and tastes great.
 
madwilliamflint said:
So here are my most recent experiments. (Finally got pics of them.) The two jars are jasmine rice, started with the remnants of my first batch (no additional yeast balls or anything.) They're behaving exactly the same, near as I can tell.

One has a handful of blueberries..because why not, rice is cheap.

The cookie jar I put together last night and is 5 pounds of Nishiki and a package of yeast balls (that I'm going to mix in a bit more thoroughly this evening when I get home.)

What's interesting to me is that I never get the kind of liquid differentiation that other pictures seem to indicate here. It never separates on it's own. My 'mixture' just gets soupier and soupier. I generally consider it "done" when it doesn't have enough structure to hold the CO2 in suspension.
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They look fantastic. Do you stir or mix after assembly? I've found that if I just assemble and leave it alone, I get separation. If I mix often, it just gets soupy like in your pics. Have you tried the ARL I sent you? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on any differences you notice.
 
jak1010 said:
They look fantastic. Do you stir or mix after assembly? I've found that if I just assemble and leave it alone, I get separation. If I mix often, it just gets soupy like in your pics. Have you tried the ARL I sent you? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on any differences you notice.
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Yeah I shake the crap out of them when they start swelling up. So it's just the "yeah I can't leave well enough alone" then. "nevermind".

I haven't used the ARL yet as I wanted to wait 'til I had more of the same jasmine rice I've been using as a control group. BUT I got a 20 pound bag last night (along with 15 pounds of honey, the woman at the supermarket is convinced I'm insane.)

So I may start a batch with the ARL this weekend, depending on other things I've got going.
 
madwilliamflint said:
So here are my most recent experiments. (Finally got pics of them.) The two jars are jasmine rice, started with the remnants of my first batch (no additional yeast balls or anything.) They're behaving exactly the same, near as I can tell.

One has a handful of blueberries..because why not, rice is cheap.

The cookie jar I put together last night and is 5 pounds of Nishiki and a package of yeast balls (that I'm going to mix in a bit more thoroughly this evening when I get home.)

What's interesting to me is that I never get the kind of liquid differentiation that other pictures seem to indicate here. It never separates on it's own. My 'mixture' just gets soupier and soupier. I generally consider it "done" when it doesn't have enough structure to hold the CO2 in suspension.
Click to expand...
I prefer mine clear so I set it and forget it and get the separation and is the reason I was unhappy with my results using the lees to start another batch I ended up with a batch that would not separate.
When I get a nice divide I will scoop off alot of the rice off the top and pour off the clear liquid then go back and strain off the rice.
To each his own but you owe it to yourself to try it clear also.:mug:
 
ChefRex said:
I prefer mine clear so I set it and forget it and get the separation and is the reason I was unhappy with my results using the lees to start another batch I ended up with a batch that would not separate.
When I get a nice divide I will scoop off alot of the rice off the top and pour off the clear liquid then go back and strain off the rice.
To each his own but you owe it to yourself to try it clear also.:mug:
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Yeah, I tried a side by side experiment of same Thai jasmine rice and Vietnamese rice wine yeast tablets and mixed one with a chop stick after a few days and left the other one alone. The batch that I mixed up ended up taking much longer to clear than the one I left alone. Minimally greater yield with mixing, but only about 10% more for all of the trouble.
 
Just harvested an experiment I started back around the first of June... it was "Medium Grain" white rice. I mixed it with some ground up RYR and plain RYR as well as a package of ground up yeast balls. Since it was an experiment, I only bought a couple small packages (like 2# total) of the rice. I cooked it up as normal and then put it away and forgot about it for about 2 months. I finally harvested it today. Just enough liquid to overflow a bomber bottle. I poured a little off for head space and tasted it. Very "hot." Not sure how else to describe it.
 
I think I will try this again, in a smaller 1 or 2 gallon jug. Is there any consensus on how much water to cook with and add? Also just a reminder that I am using Korean rice balls, the package is labeled "bo nam cali" if anyone has any experience. May look for some ryr if Im up toward the asian market.
 
I rinse the rice and boil in approximately 1.25 cups water per cup of rice, 25 mins, leave covered and remove from heat for at least 10 mins before fluffing. Sometimes i'll let it cool overnight.
I never add additional water. No help with the korean balls.
 
I don't rinse, and cook the rice with the amount of water the rice cooker indicates. I don't add any water. I use Chinese yeast balls and Vietnamese yeast 'tablets', so I can't help you with the Korean ones either.
 
I don't have any experience with the Korean balls either but I can say that I've never added any additional water other than what the rice is cooked in. Sounds like it could be worth doing an experiment since there's water additions when making sake.
 
Alright thanks, I probably should have said tablets instead of balls too. I assume they are from Korea but that is just what the lady at the market said.
 
ChefRex said:
I prefer mine clear so I set it and forget it and get the separation and is the reason I was unhappy with my results using the lees to start another batch I ended up with a batch that would not separate.
When I get a nice divide I will scoop off alot of the rice off the top and pour off the clear liquid then go back and strain off the rice.
To each his own but you owe it to yourself to try it clear also.:mug:
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a HA! That's important information.

I harvested off my first batch first by straining (put a glop of stuff in the strainer and roll it around until it rolled as a single mass), then pouring into a secondary glass bottle to let separate, then I poured out what was clear and poured the rest back into the primary with everything else.

Those two glass jars I started off the lees from the first batch. And everything seemed fine for weeks (which is why I thought the "starting from lees from a previous batch doesn't work" was hogwash) except for exactly what you just mentioned, it seems to not want to separate.

I went through the same process, but the yield of clear liquid was very small, even though rather a lot came through the strainer on the front end.

What I wonder (based on what I think I know) is if mold spores don't behave like yeast in that they'll just grow ravenously from almost nothing.

So what I did this weekend was crush up and added one yeast ball to each jar to see what happens.
 
jak1010 said:
They look fantastic. Do you stir or mix after assembly? I've found that if I just assemble and leave it alone, I get separation. If I mix often, it just gets soupy like in your pics. Have you tried the ARL I sent you? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on any differences you notice.
Click to expand...

Just started an ARL batch this weekend. 6 cups of the same jasmine rice I've been using for the most part.
 
madwilliamflint said:
Just started an ARL batch this weekend. 6 cups of the same jasmine rice I've been using for the most part.
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Very good. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the difference in taste. Did you use the whole pack?

If you break it down by weight/grams, the package indicates that you'd only need about a 3rd of the pack for the 6 cup batch you made.

I always use the whole pack though since I'd rather over pitch than use not enough.
 

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