Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

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We bottled the most recent batch yesterday, in 16.9 ounce PET bottles. They're already pretty dang firm. I'll pasteurize them in the next day or two, I'm sure.

Have revised my former tasting note - not pineapple, definitely pear flavor. Man it's good stuff! Time to start another batch. Only have two batches working right now. EEeeek! :D
 
Hate to say I told you so but....ah who am I kidding. This stuff is friggin awesome! I knew you'd like it. :)
 
Oh, yeah, we like it! The first batch was good but man this most recently harvested batch runs circles around it. The only dif is the water ratio - first batch was 1:1.5 rice to water, IIRC, and this batch was 1:1. The difference is startling!
 
I will be trying this very soon. Stepmom goes to asian store all the time and asked her to pick up some yeast balls and I always have rice.
 
Ill know more tomorrow, but..... I may have ruined my wine! I tasted it, and it tasted great. I decided to bottle pasteurize. I had a brain cramp and took it all the way to 177f before I realized where I was. I've never taken any homebrew that hot before, hopefully it's not ruined. Normally I make sure the brew hits 140 for a few minutes, this time the actual wine temp hit 177....... ouch!
 
Got another just like it taste like grapefruit kicks like gin.

1395806446242.jpg
 
AbstractBrewer said:
Ill know more tomorrow, but..... I may have ruined my wine! I tasted it, and it tasted great. I decided to bottle pasteurize. I had a brain cramp and took it all the way to 177f before I realized where I was. I've never taken any homebrew that hot before, hopefully it's not ruined. Normally I make sure the brew hits 140 for a few minutes, this time the actual wine temp hit 177....... ouch!
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I'm doubting you'll find any difference in taste, let alone ruining it.

@iewia, Let it go. Have you seen the science experiments growing on some of these batches that comes out fine? The alcohol level this rice wine gets to will kill just about anything that may hurt you. Looks almost like a tiny spec of red yeast rice got in there.
 
To those who pasteurize - my rice wine was bottled on Sunday in the 16.9 ounce PET plastic screw-on lid bottles. They're now hard as a rock and I want to kill off the yeasties. Am I gonna blow these suckers up with that much carbonation in there, and then heating it?

Looking for recommendations/experience/advice from the experts here! :)

This batch tastes SOOOO good that I want to halt any further fermentation now and would love to have it "sparkling" so hoping I don't have to decap or just release any of the pressure....
 
Temptd2 said:
To those who pasteurize - my rice wine was bottled on Sunday in the 16.9 ounce PET plastic screw-on lid bottles. They're now hard as a rock and I want to kill off the yeasties. Am I gonna blow these suckers up with that much carbonation in there, and then heating it?

Looking for recommendations/experience/advice from the experts here! :)

This batch tastes SOOOO good that I want to halt any further fermentation now and would love to have it "sparkling" so hoping I don't have to decap or just release any of the pressure....
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Should be fine, I've done plenty of carbed PET bottles (and glass) with no bombs as yet. I don't heat mine with bottles inside however like some I've seen do (they call for using a false bottom type of setup). While my pot is heating to 140, I soak my bottles in hot tap water (especially important I think for glass) to minimize temp shock. Then I load my preheated pot (removed from heat), put lid on, let it sit for 15-20 min. So far so good......


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So nothing too big then? pickle jar here I come!!!! I gots rice all I need is for my step mom to pick me up yeast balls frok the asian market and I will make me some.....seems so easy it's scary...but so right!
 
DanzigsMISFITS said:
So nothing too big then? pickle jar here I come!!!! I gots rice all I need is for my step mom to pick me up yeast balls frok the asian market and I will make me some.....seems so easy it's scary...but so right!
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my point was that just about any container will work as long as the amount of rice you make will fit. If you noticed, the size of my containers have got progressively bigger (finding out its hard to make "too much").


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My favorite size is the half gallon Mason jars. Easy to deal with and holds about 5 cups of cooked rice with room to spare.

I also have a 1 gallon plastic jug which formerly housed biscotti from Costco. It's lightweight and makes it easy to deal with it and not such a worry about breaking it.
 
I started with a leftover spaghetti jar and a taller pickel jar, but upgraded to a wide mouth 1 gallon glass container from Target for $5. Its got a batch in it right now that I need to harvest. I'm guessing about a 1/3 of liquid. I'd highly recommended the wide mouth kind of jars. It makes getting the rice in so much easier!
 
I think most on here have brewing buckets for beer or wine. I just use them. 1 lb of rice or 25 lbs. My 10 lb batches seem to come out more consistently than the bigger batches.
 
chalkdust41485 said:
I started with a leftover spaghetti jar and a taller pickel jar, but upgraded to a wide mouth 1 gallon glass container from Target for $5. Its got a batch in it right now that I need to harvest. I'm guessing about a 1/3 of liquid. I'd highly recommended the wide mouth kind of jars. It makes getting the rice in so much easier!
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Yeah I have one of those huge pickle jars.. almost two liter bottle sized... once my yeast comes I shall start.
 
I recently bought a big 3 gallon glass jar for agua fresca from World Market that I have been using. I quite enjoy having all the extra wine from the large batches. :)
 
Hi everyone, this is my first post, I think. I've read everything here and a lot elsewhere. I've done one very successful batch so far, 2 cups California sushi rice, 2 crushed yeast balls. The rice was streamed, not soaked at all. I yielded about 500 ml of wine, then I pasteurized it, and put it I the fridge for about a week. It tasted like 14% abv, but it was too sweet. I know there has been done info about adding water during the ferment to allow for more conversion, does that actually work? Has anyone tried pitching more rice and yeast after the 21 days? I want to reduce the sugar and increase the alcohol.
 
MasterCrook said:
Hi everyone, this is my first post, I think. I've read everything here and a lot elsewhere. I've done one very successful batch so far, 2 cups California sushi rice, 2 crushed yeast balls. The rice was streamed, not soaked at all. I yielded about 500 ml of wine, then I pasteurized it, and put it I the fridge for about a week. It tasted like 14% abv, but it was too sweet. I know there has been done info about adding water during the ferment to allow for more conversion, does that actually work? Has anyone tried pitching more rice and yeast after the 21 days? I want to reduce the sugar and increase the alcohol.
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Did you let it ferment the full 21 days? Mine has been pretty sweet at that point too - I just put it in a bottle and in the fridge and let it slowly ferment til I like the taste, THEN pasteurize it. Make sure you taste it at least every other day, or "burp" the bottle, because mine build up quite a bit of pressure in a day or two.

BTW my pasteurization process yesterday went very well except I was kind of shocked that my plastic PET bottles, which formerly had SHOULDERS - now have a SHNECK - shoulders and neck all run into each other with no shape left to them at all! I'ma be VERY careful when I twist off the tops on those!
 
Yes, it had the full 21 days, I harvested and bottled on the last day. Does the second fermentation you suggested reduce sugar/increase alcohol? Why bottle first before second ferment then pasteurize, instead of leaving the first ferment longer then bottle pasteurize?
 
MasterCrook said:
Yes, it had the full 21 days, I harvested and bottled on the last day. Does the second fermentation you suggested reduce sugar/increase alcohol? Why bottle first before second ferment then pasteurize, instead of leaving the first ferment longer then bottle pasteurize?
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Just my way of doing it - I like to get it off the rice so I can start another batch in those containers. It continues to ferment in the bottle. I pour it off into a couple 750ml Johnny Walker bottles with cork stoppers, makes it easy to deal with them in the fridge because they're taller, square-bottomed bottles and don't take up much of a footprint in my already-full refrigerator.

I think, and it's anecdotal, that taking it off the rice and letting it ferment a bit slower at very cool temps lets me gauge when the flavor is just right, without contantly opening/tasting/possibly infecting the fermenter jars.

Like anything else that has to do with brewing, there are likely as many ways to do it as there are folks doing it. Not necessarily right or wrong, just what works out well for me.

And yes, it does reduce sugar/increase alcohol - I still have half a bottle of my first harvest in the fridge, it was harvested the first part of this month, and now is nearly totally dry in taste and high in alcohol, judging by the smell/burn of it.
 
That makes sense, I'll try it out that way for my next batch. I have the same issue with fridge space, but I'll fit it somehow. Thanks!
 
Temptd2 said:
BTW my pasteurization process yesterday went very well except I was kind of shocked that my plastic PET bottles, which formerly had SHOULDERS - now have a SHNECK - shoulders and neck all run into each other with no shape left to them at all! I'ma be VERY careful when I twist off the tops on those!
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Strange. Wonder if there is a big difference between bottles, or maybe it was due "excessive" carbonation? The only deformation I've seen was my first attempt while trying to heat container with bottles already loaded (began to bulge from the bottom). I would be interested to hear how it goes when you get around to opening one.


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MasterCrook said:
Hi everyone, this is my first post, I think. I've read everything here and a lot elsewhere. I've done one very successful batch so far, 2 cups California sushi rice, 2 crushed yeast balls. The rice was streamed, not soaked at all. I yielded about 500 ml of wine, then I pasteurized it, and put it I the fridge for about a week. It tasted like 14% abv, but it was too sweet. I know there has been done info about adding water during the ferment to allow for more conversion, does that actually work? Has anyone tried pitching more rice and yeast after the 21 days? I want to reduce the sugar and increase the alcohol.
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I always let mine go at least 28 days, but many times it's still working and I let it go even longer. Like you, the "As directed" method results in a rice wine that is way too sweet for my taste. I've gotten to be friends with some Chinese folks here in town that make rice wine. They add an additional 1.3 times the weight of the dry rice in water. So in the 10 pound batches I make, I've added as much as 13 pounds of water after the rice was cooked. This resulted in a tested 18% alcohol level in a very dry rice wine.

The method most use here leaves a LOT of useable sugar in the liquid. The starches continue to be broken down long after the alcohol levels stall out the yeast. I've backed off the water addition in mine to a 1/1 level.. 10 lbs rice and 10 lbs water. This leaves a nice wine with just a little sweet remaining, still at that 18%+ level, and the additional water is just that much more of a yield at the end. With my 10 lb batches, I end up with a little over 2 1/2 gals of wine. I also have started keeping the batch as cool as possible during fermentation. (As close to 60 degrees as possible) Seems like anything @ 70 degrees or higher I get a sour tasting batch.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!
 
MasterCrook said:
Hi everyone, this is my first post, I think. I've read everything here and a lot elsewhere. I've done one very successful batch so far, 2 cups California sushi rice, 2 crushed yeast balls. The rice was streamed, not soaked at all. I yielded about 500 ml of wine, then I pasteurized it, and put it I the fridge for about a week. It tasted like 14% abv, but it was too sweet. I know there has been done info about adding water during the ferment to allow for more conversion, does that actually work? Has anyone tried pitching more rice and yeast after the 21 days? I want to reduce the sugar and increase the alcohol.
Click to expand...
I know you've gotten a few suggestions already, but you could also try changing the kind of rice you are using. If I remember correctly California sushi rice is a pretty short grained sweet rice. Try the jasmine instead. The shorter grain rices tend to convert more completely to sugar, so makes a thinner, sweeter, stronger wine.

My attempt to do a secondary fermentation with distillers yeast was not successful.

You could always try cutting it with something tart, like grapefruit or cranberry juice, too.

EDIT: Another thing you can do is let it settle out in the fridge and try the cleared portion. Most of the sweetness is in the particulates.
 
Thanks everyone for the info!
Trbig: I plan on doing three small 2 cup batches in different jars. I'll weigh 2 cups of uncooked rice and add that weight in water into each ferment jar before sealing. I'm looking forward to the results.

Leadgolem: I was thinking about adding some whites labs sake yeast, but since you had bad experiences with distillers yeast, I'll cancel that plan. I'm also going to use Jasmine rice, yeast balls, and RYR for my upcoming batch. Before it was just California sushi rice and yeast balls. I hope the addition of water, RYR, and use of Jasmine will produce a better product
 
Strained my 3/4 gallon at 3 weeks. Got about half gallon, sake like but sweeter, has a kick, been drinking it with orange or pair juice. Gonna do up more tomorrow.


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My most successful batch so far, half jasmine rice half sweet black rice. Fermented 4.5 weeks or so then cold crashed and poured off the solids.

img_3335.jpg


p10100911.jpg


p1010094.jpg


All of my batches have had a bit of a sour/sulfury taste regardless of water ratio, fermentation temps, etc so I am pretty sure the yeast I am using is the culprit. Still tastes good especially warm. Anybody else had experience with these?

p1010123.jpg
 
Tamarlane said:
My most successful batch so far, half jasmine rice half sweet black rice. Fermented 4.5 weeks or so then cold crashed and poured off the solids.

img_3335.jpg


p10100911.jpg


p1010094.jpg


All of my batches have had a bit of a sour/sulfury taste regardless of water ratio, fermentation temps, etc so I am pretty sure the yeast I am using is the culprit. Still tastes good especially warm. Anybody else had experience with these?

p1010123.jpg
Click to expand...

Damn that looks good!!!! Next batch will be half jasmine and half sweet black rice.
 

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