Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

saramc said:

How does that red rice wine taste? Looks fabulous!

Click to expand...

Wonderful. Excellent mouthfeel, tons of fruity notes. Middle ground for sweetness. No acetic "tang" at all. Lots of alcohol. Not hot like fusel alcohols, just young wine strong alcohol.

I'm hoping the strong alcohol flavor will calm down in a few months. I bottled pretty much the whole batch, just tasted a bit while I was harvesting.

edds5p0 said:

Sounds like you've got all the bases covered.

Click to expand...

Yep. Sometimes it pays to read the instructions.

I've been thinking about adding some rhubarb to the final product... maybe freezing about a pound, then par-boiling to kill off any nasties on the rhubarb. What do you guys think??? Would a pound be too much for the amount of wine I'm going to be getting from 2 gallons of cooked rice?

Newsman said:

Yep. Sometimes it pays to read the instructions.

Click to expand...

And sometimes it pays to try new things in order to find a better way of doing things.

Day 3 and the rice is definitely beginning to liquify. All the little mistakes I made in steaming the rice were worrying me but... yet again... RDWHAHB

Newsman said:

I've been thinking about adding some rhubarb to the final product... maybe freezing about a pound, then par-boiling to kill off any nasties on the rhubarb. What do you guys think??? Would a pound be too much for the amount of wine I'm going to be getting from 2 gallons of cooked rice?

Click to expand...

You adding the juice or the pulp? K-meta would do just as well on the wild yeastie beasties too. But you will find freeze/thaw of rhubarb will produce nice juice yield, just do not forget all the acid that rhubarb can provide.

saramc said:

You adding the juice or the pulp? K-meta would do just as well on the wild yeastie beasties too. But you will find freeze/thaw of rhubarb will produce nice juice yield, just do not forget all the acid that rhubarb can provide.

Click to expand...

Thinking of adding frozen/thawed pulp and letting it sit for a few days to get the flavor. Then, maybe adding some Splenda or something.

Newsman said:

Thinking of adding frozen/thawed pulp and letting it sit for a few days to get the flavor. Then, maybe adding some Splenda or something.

Click to expand...

I think it would go so awesome with the twang the rice wine has!!

Has anyone had the patience to let it age a while? Just curious how long it would take to reduce/mellow some of that young wine burn.

Sidenote, harvested a 6 week RRY batch this weekend that I hadn't had a chance to do in a couple weeks and no Aceto or Lactic buildup at all. This is the second batch I pushed out a little farther than typical to no ill effect with the RRY. I'm kind of starting to wonder if the RRY aids to inhibit these reactions or if I was just lucky.

Longest I had it was 3 weeks after harvest not pasteurized but refrigerated

Ostomo517 said:

Longest I had it was 3 weeks after harvest not pasteurized but refrigerated

Click to expand...

Same here and always harvest at day 21

It did seem to mellow a bit in the fridge from when first harvested as far as sourness and bite

Just an update. One week in the fermenter and I have around an inch+ of liquid in the bottom of the jar. Took a test sample from the bucket and it's delicious and more complex than I imagined. It's rather sweet, but there's definitely alcohol in there too. If I used long grain rice again, I would probably only add one cup of sugar per 6 cups of rice. But I'm hoping to have glutinous rice before the next batch.

If you can't manage glutinous, go with Jasmine Rice. It's between 1.5-2x the price of regular rice but that's still superior than the 3x-4x price of Glutinous. Many of the posters in the thread use it only (guessing due to price mostly) and the harvest is superior to anything shy of the Glutinous as tests by Leadgolem demonstrated.

I wound up using sushi rice that I had planned to make sushi with.... 3 years ago. We will see how it goes. It'll be great to use up that stuff.

Accidic said:

If you can't manage glutinous, go with Jasmine Rice. It's between 1.5-2x the price of regular rice but that's still superior than the 3x-4x price of Glutinous. Many of the posters in the thread use it only (guessing due to price mostly) and the harvest is superior to anything shy of the Glutinous as tests by Leadgolem demonstrated.

Click to expand...

I use jasmine not because of price but more because its the rice we always have because we love it. It also makes some pretty awesome rice wine

sahdff said:

Just an update. One week in the fermenter and I have around an inch+ of liquid in the bottom of the jar. Took a test sample from the bucket and it's delicious and more complex than I imagined. It's rather sweet, but there's definitely alcohol in there too. If I used long grain rice again, I would probably only add one cup of sugar per 6 cups of rice. But I'm hoping to have glutinous rice before the next batch.

Click to expand...

Did you add sugar to your batch?

Newsman said:

has anyone tried Red Yeast Rice, Yeast Balls AND Angel Rice Leaven? My thinking is that would be a monster ferment!

Click to expand...

Never tried it but at such a low cost, experiments are cheap and fun. Especially if it's only 21 days.

So, I was browsing the grocery store aisles and came across this "Black Rice." Says it turns purple when it's cooked. Now I'm thinking, "Black / purple rice, plus RYR..." Anyone ever used anything like this? (Apologies for the crappy photo... I shot it with my camera phone!)

jak1010 said:

Did you add sugar to your batch?

Click to expand...

I actually added sugar to the water I cooked the rice in. I took a WAG and added two cups for six cups of rice. This was only a week ago, so too early to really tell what the final results of this experiment will be. I didn't compare prices directly because I didn't know the difference at the time, but glutinous rice was around $1 a lb at the local asian store. Jasmine rice at the chain grocery store was more like $3/lb.

Accidic said:

Has anyone had the patience to let it age a while? Just curious how long it would take to reduce/mellow some of that young wine burn.

Sidenote, harvested a 6 week RRY batch this weekend that I hadn't had a chance to do in a couple weeks and no Aceto or Lactic buildup at all. This is the second batch I pushed out a little farther than typical to no ill effect with the RRY. I'm kind of starting to wonder if the RRY aids to inhibit these reactions or if I was just lucky.

Click to expand...

I do not believe you were lucky. I haven't had any tanginess in any of the RYR batches.

I've got a sample from April 1st, that's the oldest I've got on hand now. Based on the strength of the apparent alcohol I believe it will take a minimum of three months for it to mellow. I was planning on sampling it around the 4th of July.

Aging was kinda the point of making the large RYR batch. If I've only got one bottle it will almost certainly go down the hatch before it's had a chance for the strong alcohol to age out. With the equivalent of 6 750ml bottles from the last batch I should be able to give some the time it needs to mature.

Newsman said:

So, I was browsing the grocery store aisles and came across this "Black Rice." Says it turns purple when it's cooked. Now I'm thinking, "Black / purple rice, plus RYR..." Anyone ever used anything like this? (Apologies for the crappy photo... I shot it with my camera phone!)

Click to expand...

I have seen black glutenious rice that I want to try. Just make sure it isn't brown rice as other have tried using brown and have not had good results. If you do ferment that dark rice, let us know how it turns out.

sonofgrok said:

I use jasmine not because of price but more because its the rice we always have because we love it. It also makes some pretty awesome rice wine

Click to expand...

Ok but I don't really think that's the case for everyone at least. The price thing is still legitimate in any event. In the multi-type test they found the glutinous tasted (granted this could vary from person to person) the best but the solution was still to go with Jasmine over it due to price. The cheapest I can get Glutinous around here is ~$1/pound and that's only if I buy 50lbs. I can get Jasmine in 25lb bags for $13-18 from various stores all day long. Even with the more expensive bags that's still $14 cheaper (28%) than the cheapest short grain I can find. I'm sure prices vary from place to place but I can't imagine that it flips the other way anywhere in the US at least.


As for the Black Rice, I had considered it a couple times but I'm leaning towards adding smaller percentages to batches rather than going all Black Glutinous. For one it'll be significantly cheaper to test and for two, the last batch of Black Glutinous I picked up was not nearly as well polished as the average glutinous grain and had a very Brown Rice like coat on the outside still that was terrific when steamed.

Picked this up yesterday, ($4 for 2#) I will probably make some tomorrow to judge for myself if its sweet enough to try at fermenting. Probably will end up doing a 50/50 Thai Jasmine and Thai Black batch.

Accidic said:

Ok but I don't really think that's the case for everyone at least. The price thing is still legitimate in any event. In the multi-type test they found the glutinous tasted (granted this could vary from person to person) the best but the solution was still to go with Jasmine over it due to price. The cheapest I can get Glutinous around here is ~$1/pound and that's only if I buy 50lbs. I can get Jasmine in 25lb bags for $13-18 from various stores all day long. Even with the more expensive bags that's still $14 cheaper (28%) than the cheapest short grain I can find. I'm sure prices vary from place to place but I can't imagine that it flips the other way anywhere in the US at least.

As for the Black Rice, I had considered it a couple times but I'm leaning towards adding smaller percentages to batches rather than going all Black Glutinous. For one it'll be significantly cheaper to test and for two, the last batch of Black Glutinous I picked up was not nearly as well polished as the average glutinous grain and had a very Brown Rice like coat on the outside still that was terrific when steamed.

Click to expand...

Jasmine and glutenous run the same exact price in my neck of the woods. From my batches, I would agree that Jasmine had a better taste and aroma.

I look forward to the black rice experiments. I will pick some up this weekend and give them a try also. I also have some strange plump Italian rice that I may sacrifice for the rice wine experiment.

Ostomo517 said:

Picked this up yesterday, ($4 for 2#) I will probably make some tomorrow to judge for myself if its sweet enough to try at fermenting. Probably will end up doing a 50/50 Thai Jasmine and Thai Black batch.

Click to expand...

Same price here,but only available in 5lb bags. Guess I will eat half and make wine with the other half.

5lb bags I can see. From 10-25 it gets a lot cheaper really fast. Since you go through it super fast with this and eating it though I just get the 25, and keep the extra in a 5g bucket. I went through 25lbs between eating and making this in the past 3ish months but I make fairly big batches since my wife and I are lushes.

Accidic said:

5lb bags I can see. From 10-25 it gets a lot cheaper really fast. Since you go through it super fast with this and eating it though I just get the 25, and keep the extra in a 5g bucket. I went through 25lbs between eating and making this in the past 3ish months but I make fairly big batches since my wife and I are lushes.

Click to expand...

You know, 25lb bags are the same cost per lb on both of these rices here. They run $20-$25 for a 25lb bag. Wish there was a price break, but I have yet to find one locally. I have found that my local grocery store will sometimes run 1/2 off sales on the jasmine in 5lb bags, rice so I just stock up then.

I bought some potassium sorbate for a batch of Skeeter Pee. I've never used the stuff (I usually stick to beer and rice wine) it says to prevent renewed fermentation when sweetening. Anyone used this in the rice wine after back sweetening as an alternative to pasteurization??

Ostomo517 said:

I bought some potassium sorbate for a batch of Skeeter Pee. I've never used the stuff (I usually stick to beer and rice wine) it says to prevent renewed fermentation when sweetening. Anyone used this in the rice wine after back sweetening as an alternative to pasteurization??

Click to expand...

I haven't used it in rice wine. I personally don't care for it. The effectiveness is PH dependent, and it doesn't kill yeast. It prevents yeast reproduction. So if you bottle in a sealed container, like a beer bottle, you can still get bottle bombs from the live yeast in the bottle.

It may interest everybody on here to note two things. Pasteurization at 160f for 10 minutes did not alter the flavor of the red rice wine. It did cause the liquid to separate into a clear and cloudy portion in the bottle. This happened as soon as the bottles cooled after pasteurization.

Accidic said:

Has anyone had the patience to let it age a while? Just curious how long it would take to reduce/mellow some of that young wine burn.

Click to expand...

Aged some unpasteurized, chinese balled, 1:1, 70s, jasmine wine for a few months in the fridge. Definitely mellowed and my favorite, yet. But it's so good at harvest I doubt I'll give fridge space to long term storage. I don't push most things too far past the point of diminishing returns, though

OG_IBU_Bunghole said:

Aged some unpasteurized, chinese balled, 1:1, 70s, jasmine wine for a few months in the fridge.

Click to expand...

Very efficient yet descriptive description!

Ostomo517 said:

I bought some potassium sorbate for a batch of Skeeter Pee. I've never used the stuff (I usually stick to beer and rice wine) it says to prevent renewed fermentation when sweetening. Anyone used this in the rice wine after back sweetening as an alternative to pasteurization??

Click to expand...

The sorbate would work, along with k-meta addition, only IF the wine is dry...and most of the rice wines are harvested with a bit of residual sugar. Take hydro readings and if at 1.000 or less it should work, but be aware any solids in the rice wine will screw up the reading. But if I planned on keeping this around for anything other than immediate consumption I would pasteurize, due to the wine's well known affinity for lacto-infection. No need for sorbate then.

Leadgolem said:

It may interest everybody on here to note two things. Pasteurization at 160f for 10 minutes did not alter the flavor of the red rice wine. It did cause the liquid to separate into a clear and cloudy portion in the bottle. This happened as soon as the bottles cooled after pasteurization.

Click to expand...

Good info. Do you just stir it up or shake the bottle to mix it back up after you pasteurized?

I hope to "harvest" my first batch over the weekend, it'll be 3 weeks on Saturday. Not sure how I want to flavor it though, still deciding.

I should note that I've been bringing it up to the 160s but only for a moment and then took it off the burner and cooled it relatively quickly afterwards. I've not been letting it sit @160 for 10m and so far I've not had any renewed fermentation or issues with Lactic/Aceto. My last batch I bottled @80ish degrees and one of the bottles I just did as a large 2L clear bottle so that I could watch it. After it was chilled in the fridge, the bottle contracts slightly and it's been sitting there for 10 days with no change. I intend to let that one sit for 10-12 weeks keeping an eye on it but it seems to have done the job.

Per engineering toolbox it says you should only need 15s at 161 degrees and since I took it off the burner around then and got the sink situated to put it in a cooling bath I'd say it probably had 30-45s at least and probably hit 161 before starting to drop anyway. The link referred to is here: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pasteurization-methods-temperatures-d_1642.html

Accidic said:

I should note that I've been bringing it up to the 160s but only for a moment and then took it off the burner and cooled it relatively quickly afterwards. I've not been letting it sit @160 for 10m and so far I've not had any renewed fermentation or issues with Lactic/Aceto. My last batch I bottled @80ish degrees and one of the bottles I just did as a large 2L clear bottle so that I could watch it. After it was chilled in the fridge, the bottle contracts slightly and it's been sitting there for 10 days with no change. I intend to let that one sit for 10-12 weeks keeping an eye on it but it seems to have done the job.

Per engineering toolbox it says you should only need 15s at 161 degrees and since I took it off the burner around then and got the sink situated to put it in a cooling bath I'd say it probably had 30-45s at least and probably hit 161 before starting to drop anyway. The link referred to is here: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pasteurization-methods-temperatures-d_1642.html

Click to expand...

That is a very handy reference. One thing to keep in mind though, is that temperature describes the heat the liquid gets up to, so you would still want to hit that temp on the inner most part of the bottle for the time described before pulling away from the heat.

Any chance this is RYR?

LabRatBrewer said:

Any chance this is RYR?

Click to expand...

That actually looks more like a red-grain rice. RYR is usually a more vivid shad of red, and it will have a very flat, rough surface.

edds5p0 said:

That actually looks more like a red-grain rice. RYR is usually a more vivid shad of red, and it will have a very flat, rough surface.

Click to expand...

Darn!, I have two huge asian markets nearby, and I know RYR must be there somewhere. My attempts at asking have failed due to my language limitations...I can barely describe what I am looking for in English.

CooperBrew said:

Good info. Do you just stir it up or shake the bottle to mix it back up after you pasteurized?

I hope to "harvest" my first batch over the weekend, it'll be 3 weeks on Saturday. Not sure how I want to flavor it though, still deciding.

Click to expand...

I have not opened any of the bottles yet. I had planned to shake them up before serving.

Accidic said:

I should note that I've been bringing it up to the 160s but only for a moment and then took it off the burner and cooled it relatively quickly afterwards. I've not been letting it sit @160 for 10m and so far I've not had any renewed fermentation or issues with Lactic/Aceto. My last batch I bottled @80ish degrees and one of the bottles I just did as a large 2L clear bottle so that I could watch it. After it was chilled in the fridge, the bottle contracts slightly and it's been sitting there for 10 days with no change. I intend to let that one sit for 10-12 weeks keeping an eye on it but it seems to have done the job.

Per engineering toolbox it says you should only need 15s at 161 degrees and since I took it off the burner around then and got the sink situated to put it in a cooling bath I'd say it probably had 30-45s at least and probably hit 161 before starting to drop anyway. The link referred to is here: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pasteurization-methods-temperatures-d_1642.html

Click to expand...

edds5p0 said:

That is a very handy reference. One thing to keep in mind though, is that temperature describes the heat the liquid gets up to, so you would still want to hit that temp on the inner most part of the bottle for the time described before pulling away from the heat.

Click to expand...

This is why I maintain the temperature for 10 minutes, to compensate for the difference in the water temperature and the liquid in the bottles.

Honestly though, 160 is more then you need to kill off the yeast and most bacteria. I based my temps off of the FDA pasteurization recommendation for apple juice.

LabRatBrewer said:

Any chance this is RYR?

Click to expand...

edds5p0 said:

That actually looks more like a red-grain rice. RYR is usually a more vivid shad of red, and it will have a very flat, rough surface.

Click to expand...

Agreed, doesn't look like RYR to me.

Leadgolem said:

I have not opened any of the bottles yet. I had planned to shake them up before serving.




This is why I maintain the temperature for 10 minutes, to compensate for the difference in the water temperature and the liquid in the bottles.

Honestly though, 160 is more then you need to kill off the yeast and most bacteria. I based my temps off of the FDA pasteurization recommendation for apple juice.




Agreed, doesn't look like RYR to me.

Click to expand...

Well, Ill make a batch with a cup of it added. Maybe it'll just add color. I also picked up a bag of black glutinous rice. (on adding color, there was a bag of bright green "dried rice flakes" that were tempting me).

Anyone have a picture of the package that RYR comes in? Maybe with a picture I can find it. I think I've read the whole thread, but sorry if its already here.