Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

This is my first batch... 6 cups sweet sticky rice, about 3+ plus yeast balls, 1 gallon pickle jar and cheese cloth. day 1
day 2
day 3
day 4
day 7

My question is when do I harvest?


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Damn that looks good! I usually harvest at 21 days and then move back to the same container with the cheesecloth and lid for another 5-10 days. Then bottle.

 

What temp are you fermenting at? I'd say at two weeks do a taste test.


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I brew because I must.

 

75°


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I am at 80 degrees so mine turning to vinegar faster makes sense. Maybe I should have washed my rice? LMAO!



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I brew because I must.

 

Very surprising that a week would make that much of a difference.

BUT it brings up an interesting point: Is oxygenation a serious issue with this? I had a relatively full mason jar (with the rubber seal removed, replaced with cheesecloth, works well) going and when the yeast really got swinging the jar would burp bits of rice slush (I had it set in a 5 gallon pail just for this.)

So I took a few inches off the top and tossed it, now I'm wondering about how much air I have left in the jar.

I'm happy to run the side-by-side experiments, but if someone's already done it, I'd rather use my jars for something else

 

Here's a pic from my last batch right before harvesting. It came out perfect.

 

Damn, those look yummy. I haven't made a red batch in a while. Guess I have to make one (or many like you) now.

 

Is this the correct mold? First time making it, 8 days old, approx ten cups dry Jasmine rice. There's plenty of liquid so fermentation is going well.

 

Thanks, it was yummy indeed. It came out to be 9.5, 750ml bottles. The batch I'm fermenting now is a lot less red, I'm doing a test to see if the flavour and abv is affected with less red. Plus, I'm trying to avoid consuming too much of the statin in the ryr.

 

That looks like a big chunk of mold for only 8 days. What kind of smell is coming from the lid off the jar? If there is liquid right under it, I wouldn't be worried

 

Alright, you've twisted my arm. I'm doing a 5 cup batch of Thai Jasmine rice with ARL and RYR.

I'm going to do a 21 day fermentation, harvest it and then move it back into a glass jar with an airlock for another 7-10 days.

Can't friggin wait!!!

 

How much RYR did you use on this batch? I'm not reading back , was this the 1/2 cup batch?

 

I looked at the first couple pages of the old threads and found that many of the links to what yeast balls they were using didn't work any longer. My local shop has no clue what I am looking for, even after showing them pictures of what I am after. What online stores have people been getting stuff from?

 

Got my ARL from 360videoshopping, and RYR from asiansupermarket365.

Or there's always eBay. Some rando sells some stuff on there.

 

Someone on this forum has been selling them on Ebay,Name slips me at the moment.

 

jak1010. Awesome ebayer btw. Just got a bunch from him last week. If you look up 'chinese yeast balls' on ebay you won't be able to avoid running in to him.

 

Nice! I have yet to try ARL, so far my yeast balls have been working well. Maybe next time. What's the price for ARL? Have you noticed any difference with the end product when you do the secondary ferment without the lees? I usually pasteurize right after harvesting, at 4 weeks.

 

I used 16 cups dry Thai Jasmine, 1 ball per cup, and an equal amount of crushed ryr per cup. I didn't measure exactly, just used a cutlery spoon and eyeballed the ryr to be the same as the crushed yeast balls.

 

Smells like sweet rice, no off odors. There is quite a bit of darker mold though. I'll probably just start over. I buy rice in 50# bags from Costco so no real loss.

 

I'd let that batch continue. You'd be surprised how nasty this stuff can look but still turn out fine.

 

I agree, it could still turn out ok

 

Got it going...rice is nice and soft and fluffy. Now I just have to wait (feels like forever) for the rice to cool.

 

Looks like it's going to be good!

 

All set..in total I used 5 cups of dry Thai Jasmine rice, cooked with 6 cups of water. Cooled it down. Made a lasagna style layer of rice, ARL, RYR and repeated till done. I used the entire pack of ARL and 1/3 cup of RYR. Capped it with cheesecloth and the lid. It still amazes me that this stuff turns into wine. It's friggin rice!

 

I'm looking forward to watching this turn into beautiful rice wine, please post pictures

 

One yeast ball per cup? I use one per gallon, about 5 cups dry. I guess no harm in more yeast.


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I brew because I must.

 

No problem at all. I'll post pics each week and note the progress. Problem is, it'll be perfect timing for a Labor Day party and it'll all be gone. I already have a steady and large supply of this stuff but it's been a while since I made a batch of the Red.

 

I always tend to over pitch yeast. If it says 1/2 a pack I use a full pack. It's all good.

 

I've been watching this thread for awhile, trying to read through the whole thing, but it's so long that I'm still only half way through it. I finally signed up and decide to weigh-in.

Last week on 7/24 I started my first batch of RYR wine and so far it's looking great. The smell is phenomenal, it's lighting up the whole dining room. I used 8 lbs of sushi rice, soaked and steamed, 5 yeast balls and 1 cup of RYR. I ground up the RYR and yeast balls, coated the rice nice and evenly and put it all in a black porcelain enameled stock pot I use for brewing and wine making. So far , so good. I have to keep fioghting the urge to snoop and poke around in it.

I also started a large batch of white rice wine Monday 7/28 using 20 pounds of medium grain rice and 10 yeast balls. I've got a little experience with large batches from my experiments with sake. I steamed the rice, ground up the yeast balls and mixed them with a cup of flour to help get a nice even coat over the rice. I put it in a 6 gallon bucket with an air-lock. When I got home from work the next day it was already bubbling away.

I also have an experiment going with pearled barley. I soaked 2 lbs overnight cooked it in just enough water to cover it, let it cool and coated it with 2 yeastballs mixed with flour. The barley is already getting soft and sweet. I've got so many ideas and experiments that I can't wait to try with this technique. I've ordered 10 lbs of milled black rice and 3 lbs of red sorghum. I'm going to do a batch with each. With the sorghum I'm just not sure if it will have to be crushed first.

 

Just shipped a bunch of stuff to Illinois today. I can hook you up!

 

Rando? What's that? Must be a A Texas thing. Sure ain't Jersey.

 

Some of my hundreds of customers should be backing me up here. Most of them just read and they don't post.

Come on people, sign up and share your experiments.

 

Thanks buddy...I appreciate the kind words. By the way, I'm super excited that you bring this stuff to work with and everyone loves it. Awesome of you!

 

KIdding, jak1010 is the man!

 

Ha, that's great. I'm sending you some RYR. :beer:

 

Burnt and oddly made an extremely wet mushy rice. (Forgot it was on stove then tried to save it after the smoke cleared) . After multiple *nearly many* batches, I am seeing mold. I guess its the overly wet rice combined with hot ambient temps.

 

Yeah, I've had good results with that amount. By the end of fermentation everything is mush and the abv is nice and high

 

My first batch of white was slightly burnt and some of the rice was stained yellow, like yours. The result was much better than what I expected for a first batch, considering it was burned too. The wine had a really nice sweet malt flavour. I haven't made a white batch since then, but I'd like to make a small batch of burnt rice wine just for the flavour. The quality wasn't the best, but I was more surprised by the fact it actually turned into drinkable wine.

 

Welcome! These sound like some nice batches you have going. Please post pictures of the progress. I'm curious to see how mixing with flour affects the end product. I've heard of this recipe before, but I haven't seen any results from it. There are so many recipes and techniques out there, I've even read about one which involves securing a shallot under the lid off the ferment jar!