the-martian-gringo
New Member
This will be my first home brew ever and I'd like to make rice wine, as it seems fairly simple. Here is the recipe I'm using:
1 Soak raw, glutinous rice in hot water for 1 hour.
2 Drain and then steam the rice either in a commercial steamer or in a colander over boiling water for 25 minutes.
3 Spread the rice out on a tray and allow it to cool for 2 hours.
4 Grind the Chinese yeast into a uniform powder and mix it with the flour.
5 Combine the rice and yeast mixture by hand until blended.
6 Transfer the mixture to a container and cover tightly with a lid. Store the container in a warm, dry place and allow the mixture to ferment for 1 month.
7 Separate the liquid from the remaining rice mixture. The liquid is rice wine and the residual is rice mash. Wrap the mash in cheesecloth and squeeze to extract the remaining wine.
8 Place the rice wine in an airtight container, such as a jar or bottle. Refrigerate the wine to stop the fermentation process and keep the wine from turning into vinegar. The wine ages in its container and changes from an amber color to black while developing a sherry-like flavor.
I got that recipe from ehow.com, and I just have a few questions if anybody can answer them for me.
First off I don't want to have to buy a pressure cooker or steamer just for this project, so does it matter if I boil the rice or does it have to be steamed?
Second, I have ten pounds of long grain enriched white rice, can I use that or do I have to buy the glutinous rice? From what I understand, glutinous rice is simply the sticky rice that you can buy in any Asian foods section of the supermarket.
Third, I'm not sure what a Chinese yeast ball is but yeast is yeast right? Can I use regular bakers yeast instead? I know there is brewers yeast that yields higher alcohol contents, but I'm not sure where to buy it or if it even makes a noticeable difference. Any thoughts on that?
And finally, I have flour obviously (what kitchen doesn't?) but is it really required for the wine?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
1 Soak raw, glutinous rice in hot water for 1 hour.
2 Drain and then steam the rice either in a commercial steamer or in a colander over boiling water for 25 minutes.
3 Spread the rice out on a tray and allow it to cool for 2 hours.
4 Grind the Chinese yeast into a uniform powder and mix it with the flour.
5 Combine the rice and yeast mixture by hand until blended.
6 Transfer the mixture to a container and cover tightly with a lid. Store the container in a warm, dry place and allow the mixture to ferment for 1 month.
7 Separate the liquid from the remaining rice mixture. The liquid is rice wine and the residual is rice mash. Wrap the mash in cheesecloth and squeeze to extract the remaining wine.
8 Place the rice wine in an airtight container, such as a jar or bottle. Refrigerate the wine to stop the fermentation process and keep the wine from turning into vinegar. The wine ages in its container and changes from an amber color to black while developing a sherry-like flavor.
I got that recipe from ehow.com, and I just have a few questions if anybody can answer them for me.
First off I don't want to have to buy a pressure cooker or steamer just for this project, so does it matter if I boil the rice or does it have to be steamed?
Second, I have ten pounds of long grain enriched white rice, can I use that or do I have to buy the glutinous rice? From what I understand, glutinous rice is simply the sticky rice that you can buy in any Asian foods section of the supermarket.
Third, I'm not sure what a Chinese yeast ball is but yeast is yeast right? Can I use regular bakers yeast instead? I know there is brewers yeast that yields higher alcohol contents, but I'm not sure where to buy it or if it even makes a noticeable difference. Any thoughts on that?
And finally, I have flour obviously (what kitchen doesn't?) but is it really required for the wine?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!