Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

That's interesting. Mine doesn't behave like that at ALL.

I use a jasmine rice and it just sorta loses it's structure, gets soupier and soupier until it's so liquid that it stops holding on to fermentation bubbles entirely. The process is kinda amazing to watch. I've wanted to time-lapse it, but I lack the technology to do so at the moment.

Once that happens, I pour it through a strainer, back in to a jar, then let it settle out and bottle.

 

2 days in. Looking good. Lots of air bubbles and smells awesome. Keeping it in 2 Walmart plastic bags and about 72-75 degrees.

 

Nice liquid forming, looks good

 

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Aspergillus and it mentions THREE types of Aspergillus fungus. Anyone know where I can find the other two types? Thinking especially the black might be fun to use.

 

That's interesting. I wonder if it can be bought or maybe grown. This stuff is fascinating.

 

Sorry if I posted this already,

I had made a bunch of cooked White Rose long grain rice, 8 cups dry, for an event that cancelled because of weather. So I threw some ground yeast balls in and stashed it away for 4 weeks.

I was very surprised at how well it turned out, almost as good as the batches made with Thai sweet/glutinous rice.
It cost much less than the fancy Asian, jasmin or basmati rice out there.

I think I paid $14 US for 40 lbs at the supermarket near me.

That works out to cost much less than $0.50 US per liter of rice wine, including the cost of the yeast balls.

I might have to scale up my production

 

Not sure if you saw the post I made a while back. I cultured my yeast balls and actually found Rhizopus oryzae, not aspergillus.

 

Haha. And you broke my chops when I said there was a difference when using ARL. Guess what you got there?

Just messing with you. I'm jealous that you have the ability to actually culture and determine what you have in the balls you're using.

 

So, can we send you samples of the yeast balls we're using so you can culture them and tell us which fungus we're using?

 

1 week in and here it is. A big soupy mess. Smells fantastic as usual.

 

That really turned to mush. Did you stream or boil the rice? My rice doesn't completely turn like that, some grains are less cooked from the steam and stay intact.

 

I've been slacking on harvesting, got another three behind this one

 

I boiled. Been looking at steamers but boiling works fine and whenever we make rice to eat, we boil. Maybe if I had the counter space, I'd get a steamer.

 

That last post was supposed to quote MasterCrook. Not sure what the hell it actually quoted.:what:

Edit: It actually quoted a post from 2006 and a completely different thread on this forum. :what:

 

I apologize. I would offer you a complementary pair of replacement chops but I can't seem to locate any...

 

Lmao, no worries

 

Interesting, how old is that batch? Was the rice steamed or boiled? My batches never turn out like that. I get a thin cap on top with all the liquid under it and sediment on the bottom.

 

No need. My chops recover quickly. Must be the healing properties of the wine.

 

A little over a month, boiled, looks pretty typical of mine.

 

This is too cheap to make to not play around with. I started a batch with a handful of blueberries in it just to see what would happen (having a surplus of blueberries from a couple meads I kicked off last weekend.)

What I'm wondering is what the difference would be between having them in there as a part of the primary fermentation, as opposed to tossing some in a 'finished' bottle. So I'll do that side-by-side and report back.

I picked up a big lobster pot a couple weeks ago and I'm sorely tempted to just go gangbusters and make a 5 gallon batch of this.

 

Thought I'd post an update on the progress of my three batches. The large batch with 20 lbs of medium grain rice is doing fantastic, the airlock is bubbling away, yesterday I peaked to check the progress and and the rice has almost completely lost it's structure and is swimming in liquid, smells wonderful.
The barley batch has been the most surprising. It's the fastest progressing of the three batches, it is about 3/4 liquid and the barley is completely disentegrated. I stole a taste and MAN, IS IT GOOD! it's sweet and STRONG and really nutty. I'd encourage anyone out there to give it a try.
The RYR batch, surprisingly has been the slowest progressing of the batches, it's just beginning to liquify. The rice has completely lost it's structure and pools of liquid are finally starting to form.
Yesterday I started the red sorghum experiment I was planning using 3lbs. I've never cooked sorghum so I had no idea what I was doing. I tried soaking it overnight but that accomplished nothing, it was still hard as a rock. I covered it in an inch of water brought it to a boil and turned it down to a simmer. It drank up all of the water in no time so I kept adding liquid. in all it drank up at least two quarts of liquid. Like couscous it seems to drink up as much liquid as you give it. I tossed it with three crushed yeast balls mixed with a cup of flour. The texture was a lot like barley so I'm hoping for similar results. No signs of activity yet but it's only been one day.
I'll post pictures of everything when I bottle it. Right now the containers I'm using don't allow me to get good pictures.

 

Awesome. Keep sending updates. The barley batch sounds interesting. I see myself making this soon.

 

I've had a couple big mason jars (half gallon-ish?) going in my living room. I find it takes a week or so to get going, then it cruises along really nicely.

Just wanted to throw out the data point that, over this weekend it got pretty hot in my livingroom (upwards of 80 degrees) and the activity soared. I had to put the jars in a bucket with a towel over the top to keep them from sputtering all over the place (usually I just give them a good shake when the contents have expanded into the danger zone.)

Looks like I've got enough structural breakdown now that it shouldn't be an issue as it'll let go of the CO2 more readily.

It does make me wonder what would happen if I put a batch in a far warmer place of some kind.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

 

Generally speaking, warmer fermentation lead to higher alcohols (higher fractions, not higher %'s) and wicked headaches. Just my experience and granted it's with beer yeasts.

(At this point the typical move is for 10 people to say they do it and theirs turns out great!)

 

Haha that's great. That's how I do mine...just kidding. I start mine high (probably 78-85 degrees) for the first 3 days and then move to a cooler spot (about 72) for the rest of the time.

My first few batches, I thought hotter is better because of the action but, it's not better in the end.

 

ah. Thanks for the info guys. Yeah I had that kicking around in the back of my head from my first experiment.

I really need to figure out how to create a fermenting chamber with a temperature control of some kind. Being at the whim of weather seems like it can only end in needless disaster given the number of things I have running in parallel.

 

I made a big batch of this stuff (5 lbs dry rice) with the Jasmine rice and a few packets of Korean yeast balls. I don't remember the package name but they were like mentos sized tablets with around 10 per package. It turned out pretty tart, I wasn't able to get to it until after 3 weeks. Anyone know if it was an error on my part or if it is the character of the yeast?

 

That's easy enough to do... get a chest freezer and a thermostatically-controlled outlet. Or do the same with a mini-fridge.

 

How much water did you use vs rice? More water seems to give a tarter flavor.

 

Agreed. I do 1 1/4 cup of water to every 1 cup of dry rice. For me, more water equals more tart in my experience.

 

I soaked for an hout then strained. After that I used 3.6 cups per lb. 18 cups total when cooking. IIRC there was no standing water when done cooking.

I didnt add any other than cooking either.

 

Hmm.... Never tried to figure out how much water per pound of rice... how many cups of rice in a pound?

 

It looks like a little more than 2 cups dry according to google. I was doing it by counting cups out of the bag and some ratio, but I dont remember any of the numbers now. Im just going off the notes I took.

 

If you still have it, try this. Get another small glass jar (like a quart sized mason jar) and fill it 3/4 of the way with your wine. Fill the rest with water and about 3 teaspoons of honey. Cap it with cheesecloth and the lid and let it sit for about 5 days. If there's still active yeast, the water will dilute the abv allowing the yeast to activate. The honey should effect the taste and in about 5 days, the tartness should be gone.

 

Unfortunately I pasteurized all the bottles. I want to try it again with smaller quantities though.

 

Heh. Yeah, well...that's a good idea. But I have 16 batches going, most 1 gallon mead variations, but a few 3 gallons as well. I think I'm going to need to hook up an AC in my basement and insulate a room really well.

 

I love your thought process and willingness along with ability to do this. A true brewer indeed.

 

This stuff takes a long time, especially mead (since I'm not a beer drinker.) I figure, if it's going to take 9-12 months to age correctly, then by God I'm going to have 2 dozen experiments come to fruition all at once so I don't waste valuable time.

My notes are good enough (I think) so that if I get one success out of this many attempts, I'll be way ahead of the game.

I don't know a damn thing about any of this stuff. But I'm bloody well going to learn as fast as I can get the information into my head.

 

In