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I wouldn't wash off cooked rice. In my experience, even extra water during cooking leads to a sour tasting wine and other off flavors. I used to cook the rice with a 1:2.5 ratio (1 cup dry rice to 2.5 cups of water) and found that 1:1.25 (1 cup dry rice to 1.25 cups water) results in the perfect balance of strong and sweeter rice wine. Your results may vary but, try a few ways and see what you like. It's cheap enough to experiment with. :)

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app
 
wouldn't that wash away some of the yummy starchy goodness

From what I have read both methods are used for different wines . I do not see how rinsing off the cooked rice could wash away the starches trapped inside the rice . It certainly washes off something on the outside left over from cooking it .

Maybe make two test batches of a cup of rice each .rinse one and see if they both taste the same .

On another note for the people that say this stuff has a 20% abv . Go buy a bottle of MD 20/20 and drink equal amounts of it and this . See which one does the job the best . I got my money on Mad Dog . A well invested couple of bucks . You will of course have to force your self to drink the MD ( yum yum ) but you are tough you can do it .
 
Okay then off to the alcohol ratings .
Average wine is about 12%v/v .
Rice wine depending on the sweetness is from 13 to 16% v/v so lets just go with semi sweet at 15% v/v. so this being done by traditional fermentation methods and I seriously doubt that simply steaming and tossing in some yeast for a month is going to measure up the exacting methods created over thousands of years .

% v/v in this case would be the equivalent of 15 ml of alcohol in every 100ml of wine . v/v % is volume of solute / volume of solution x 100%

So even at the best done by a chinese wine expert this stuff can not measure up to a bottle of cheap grape wine made by good old American know how by the fine wine making experts at Mogen David makers of the worlds finest wine puked up by more slobbery drunken kids and winos than all other wines combined .

Always use one of these to drink your wine out of . http://www.jiangnan.edu.cn/zhgjiu/u7-1.htm

If you want to know how to raise the av then go here and learn how it is done . Stirring at the right temp is the key here .and keeping fermentation temp low http://www.jiangnan.edu.cn/zhgjiu/u3-5.htm

If you keep on clicking NEXT at the bottom you will get a wealth of information from the experts . Very interesting reading

I intend to do a more traditional method next test batch . I will use the stirring at the proper time and the secondary fermentation . then test the alcohol content . I suspect this will result in a better tasting stronger wine .
i also plan on doing a mix of white and red ( or black as they call it around here) rice .

Something I noticed about water content . the process is to put the rice in jar and then poke a hole in the middle for the wine to settle in . Well I can tell you that using the normal amount of water in a rice cooker will not allow you to do this as there is too much water and the rice just falls back into the hole . So this makes me think that a steaming basket is better for this wine and that using the rice cooker may have a adverse effect on the ABV since more water is obviously added in . So perhps next time I will steam instead.
 
MarcusKillion -- we're NOT using the "normal amount of water" when we make rice... we normally do 1.5x as much water as rice, at the most. :)
 
Only very bad things get sent to Kansas . Them yeast balls must have really pissed of God & Satan & maybe Mother Nature . Better forget about em .
For proof I offer you me . 43 in years of suffering in Kansas and infinity to go . I keep filling out the forms to get sent to a nicer place like Hell but they keep denying me .
WOW i gotta say the few times i been threw Kansas i must have kept my head down at all the right times. or sleeping thankfully i didn't stop for a motel i may have been munsoned in Kansas. JK :)
 
The fermenting vessel... A 10L (2.5 gallon) wide mouth carboy... Basic original recipe with a longer ferment...

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1388921109.177680.jpg

The yield as bottled today... 1 x 700mL bottle, 3 x 375mL bottles, 4 x 330mL bottles...

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1388921205.260228.jpg

All now settling in the fridge…
 
MarcusKillion -- we're NOT using the "normal amount of water" when we make rice... we normally do 1.5x as much water as rice, at the most. :)

yes I know . I was just commenting on a post about water use amounts and also about that hole . It seems that the normal amount for the rice cooker is far less than for boiling and still the hole can not be done . To do that hole one may have to actually steam the rice as I think that would thoroughly cook the rice without getting it too saturated in water .
I tried the rice cooker at normal amount of water for rice cooker ( 3 cups rice 4 cups water ) and with sticky rice it does not work as it does not cook the rice completely leaving much of it hard . I did have to add in a little extra (which is about what you use at 1.5 X as much water ) . that cooks it good but still too much water to make that hole . So steaming is probably a better option I think if one wanted to make that hole for whatever reason . Actually from what I have read and the pics seen this hole is not needed and was originally used because of clay pots . they could not see in like we do with glass so they put that hole in the rice so it would fill up and they would know the wine was being made .
 
WOW i gotta say the few times i been threw Kansas i must have kept my head down at all the right times. or sleeping thankfully i didn't stop for a motel i may have been munsoned in Kansas. JK :)

Welcome to Kansas . Please set your watch back 50 years .
 
Poll :
Do you really like the taste of -
White rice wine ?
Red rice wine ?


White - NO
Red - not bad . Just mixed red and white together as the chinese did for a second fermentation. Hope it tastes good .
 
Poll :
Do you really like the taste of -rice wine

I don't know yet.


What does it taste like?

noway to describe it that I know of . never tasted anything like it . Seems to be sweet but in a weird way. Stings in the throat after swallowing . Has a alcohol taste but not sure if that is really a lot of alcohol or just a taste it has .
try some after a week or so . Just suck some out with a turkey baster or something and put in fridge to settle for a while or it will be real nasty .
 
After several batches I don't think I like it. I definitely like the clear stuff on top but I really don't like the chalky stuff underneath. I don't think I'll be making anymore. I'm putting my non-beer energy into apfelwein and/or meads from now on.
 
After several batches I don't think I like it. I definitely like the clear stuff on top but I really don't like the chalky stuff underneath. I don't think I'll be making anymore. I'm putting my non-beer energy into apfelwein and/or meads from now on.

you have to put it in the fridge for a couple days or so and allow that crap to settle down . It is very easy to mix back in so I used a turkey baster and sucked most of it out slowly and left a little in jar so as not to get the crap.
Try making it with red rice or black as it is sometimes called . It has a different taste kind of like weak cranberry juice . Might grind that stuff as the hulls are very hard and I think it might work better .
 
you have to put it in the fridge for a couple days or so and allow that crap to settle down . It is very easy to mix back in so I used a turkey baster and sucked most of it out slowly and left a little in jar so as not to get the crap.
Try making it with red rice or black as it is sometimes called . It has a different taste kind of like weak cranberry juice . Might grind that stuff as the hulls are very hard and I think it might work better .

I've made different batches with different rices and different yeasts and I've decanted the good stuff off the chalky stuff. Overall, I just don't think it's worth it to me for how much good clear stuff I get. I mean I don't hate it I just find it pretty Meh overall.
 
Day 8: Smell is less vanilla sweet, more tart with maybe a little alcohol(could be co2 burn).
 
I'll be ordering more from you soon I think.

Again? You must like the product...

FYI, I only have 2 bags of Red Yeast Rice left. The store I buy from has sold out and they're not sure when/if they're going to get more.

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Question!
Im sure this has already been asked but i dont wanna look through 327 pages...

Can you add fruit when you do everything in the beggining? to add flavor and such. Or is there a specific time when your supposed to?
Thanks.
 
I have 12 cups in bucket for drinking, 4 cups in jar for eating.

PICS?

Also what are your measurements that you used? when i do this next week i want to make a BIG batch but i dont want to mess up the process.
 
ended up adding another 8 cups to the bucket. cooked at a rice to water ratio of about 1:1 1/8. added about 1 ounce of yeast for every 4.5 cups of dry rice.

no pics unless you just want a pic of the outside of the bucket
 
Question!
Im sure this has already been asked but i dont wanna look through 327 pages...

Can you add fruit when you do everything in the beggining? to add flavor and such. Or is there a specific time when your supposed to?
Thanks.
Most folks are adding juice to the finished product. I wouldn't put fruit in the jar, fearing it might result in infection.
 
I almost always add fruit juice to it after fermentation is complete.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app
 
Question!
Im sure this has already been asked but i dont wanna look through 327 pages...

Can you add fruit when you do everything in the beggining? to add flavor and such. Or is there a specific time when your supposed to?
Thanks.

I just put a dried prune in some of this that had already been bottled . . Put it in fridge for a couple days and the flavor soaked right in .
 
Just remember that this rice wine is sweet because there's still residual sugar left over after the yeast has ate all it could. Any other sugary juices will only make it sweeter. I've added dried mango to batches at the start, but thinking now, putting it in at the beginning, part of the sugar from the fruit will be eaten by the yeast, so if you want much of the actual flavor of the fruit to come out, you'd be better to do as suggested by a few and add after the ferment is done.
 
Finally got around to trying this. I cooked two cups of dry jasmine rice in my cooker, with about 2 1/2 cups of water. After the rice cooled, I added two thoroughly crushed yeast balls and mixed the powder in with my (sanitized) hands, making an effort to break up all the rice clumps. Then I let it set at room temperature, about 72* F.

After 24 hours, I shook the living daylights out of the jar to make sure everything was thoroughly mixed.

After 48 hours, I already have enough liquid to see it when I tilt the jar... I'm pretty jazzed. :D
 
What do we get for having read the entire thread? It took two weeks but I finally finished.

Then you move to the front of the class to answer all the questions. Those of us that have been around here a while may have forgotten a lot of it. Since it's all fresh in your head, we divert all questions to you. Congratulations!!! :D
 
I've tried several large batches (10 lbs of rice) with sweet and jasmine rice and they have been coming out with a sour taste. The general consensus was that by adding too much water, it somehow made a sour batch, but some Chinese friends of mine have always added 1.3 x water to the weight of the rice. (13-14 lbs water) They told me that they don't even make it in the summer time and that @ 60 degrees is best temps for it or it gets sour. So my thinking was that temps had more to do with getting a sour batch than the water. They also said to not be afraid to stir it every day. That's a problem I've had in the past.. having a big plug of rice on top not getting converted.

So... I made a batch up last month that should be done in a few days (Jan 14) and have left the batch in a room that stays colder in the house with the door shut. I used 10 lbs sweet rice cooked at 5 cups water to 3 cups dry rice, 1 bag RYR ground up with 10 yeast balls. After the rice was done, I added 1.5 gals cold water, stirred it up, which brought the temps down enough to add the yeast balls/ryr mixture. Stirred well and put back in the cold room. I popped the lid on it and stirred with a sterilized spoon every day for the first week and a half. It needed it. Every day, there was a thick dry-ish layer of rice on top.

After the week and a half, the dry-ish rice had been converted enough that even though it was still floating on the top, it was in liquid, so it wasn't going to make a plug of starch any more. A couple days ago, I decided to give it a taste to see how it was doing. Rice wine without any added water is way too sweet for my taste. The reason it's sweet is there's still a lot of residual sugar from the converted starch for the yeast to eat, but the yeast has reached it's alc. tolerance level and stalled out. The added water dilutes it to where it lowers the alc. level and more of the sugars can be eaten by the yeast. You just have to find that combination that's correct. Too much water and you get a watery wine. Too little water, and you get a sweet wine and wasted the potential to get more.

ANYWAY... I tasted the wine and thought "Wow!" This is hands down the best batch I've made. My wife hasn't liked any of the other batches, but I let her try this one and she even likes this one. My son's girlfriend has tried most of my batches and I let her try some and she said, "Wow! This is the best one you've made!" It's still a sweet taste, but not sickeningly so. Just a medium sweet with a really nice warmth after you drink it.

As I said, it should ne ready in a few days, but I guess the colder ferment temps have slowed things down and there's still a few CO2 bubbles coming to the surface. May give it an extra week, but I'm stoked about this batch. The level of the ferment bucket looks to have 4 1/2-5 gals in it, but after straining, I should be left with at LEAST 3 gals of goodness.

I guess I need to get another batch going while it's still winter! lol. I'll post some pics when I go to bottle it.
 
Then you move to the front of the class to answer all the questions. Those of us that have been around here a while may have forgotten a lot of it. Since it's all fresh in your head, we divert all questions to you. Congratulations!!! :D
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trbig;
Am I reading right that you cooked the rice and then added in an additional 1.5 gallons water to the rice ? does this not make it very weak . Everything I have read states to only cook the rice and nothing about adding in more water .
Is this because you are adding in the RYR ?
 
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