Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

It depends on the reason. For clearing it and allowing the solids to drop out, I'd say yes. Very effective. For slowing down the yeast and fermentation, I'd say be very careful. In my fridge, it tends to continue and needs to be "burped" often.

 

Thanks! It doesn't bother SWMBO nearly as much as the CarBoys.

 

Yup, I'll be making a lid tomorrow. Cool thing is, the lids fit pint and quart size jars so I can move it around if needed based on the size of the batch. Thanks again.

 

Here is my wine that I put in the fridge to cod crash last night. What do I do with it now?


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If you want clear wine, keep those greedy little fingers I see in the right side of the pic away from it for a couple more days in the fridge.

Try a sip from the clear stuff on top, then shake up the bottle a bit and try another sip. See how you like it best, then drink it that way. A week or so in the fridge will condense those solids and leave you more clear stuff.

 

That was quick. I'd say keep Thing away from it. (Is that the hand creature from The Adams Family?) and taste both versions of the wine. Clear and then solids mixed in. See what you like.

 

Yea....what he said.

 

OK. Harvested this batch today. From the original five cups of rice, I wound up with exactly seven cups of wine. And it's potent stuff....

I think it's delicious, although I may not be the most reliable judge of such things; I'm opinionated and have strong preferences. For example, I think the wheaty smoothness of Marker's Mark disqualifies it as a bourbon, although I'd take it over Canadian whiskey. Real bourbon uses rye with the corn instead of wheat, and has a bite to it.

At any rate, no way am I going to tamper with this wine by adding juices, flavorings, ice cubes or anything else. The only thing I'm going to do is chill it, and let it settle while I decide whether to stir the solids back into it whenever I pour a (small!) glass.

The bean pot performed like a champ; making rice wine is now its assigned mission in life. Interestingly, the rice is completely unrecognizable as such. It turned into a batch of somewhat ropy dough, that could almost be mistaken for a thick, well-aged sourdough starter. I'm going to roll it into balls, dry it, and see if I can use it instead of store-bought yeast balls for my next batch.

 

I like the bean pot idea. You like the results?

 

On a side note...I made a lid for mason jars that can be used for rice wine. I made this one with a small whole punch and then a reamer to expand the size. Unfortunately, I made the whole too big for the airlock so, I used some wax to seal the gaps. I attached it to the quart mason jar for a wild yeast starter for a batch of apple juice.

Thanks AbstractBrewer for the cool idea!

 

First off take out the cod you crashed it with unless you want fish sauce.
But seriously, like others have said. Let it settle in the fridge and pour a clear sample and see what you prefer; clear or solids mixed in. I personally prefer clear, but many others in this thread prefer it with the solids mixed in. It's all up to personally preference. Don't forget to open the container periodically to release the pressure. Unless pasteurized, the yeast in the wine continues to work at refrigeration temps. And most important of all, enjoy.

 

Ha, I may be a little buzzed but I nearly pissed my pants reading this. It's getting late. Too much to drink and we lost an hour tonight. It's almost 3 am right now. Do you have to skip the clocks ahead tonight in Texas?

 

Holy crap! I totally forgot about that stupid clocks forward nonsense. Looks like I'm going to bed right now since it's actually almost 2:00 here!

 

If you continue forward, and make the hole large enough for a wine bottle bung, you'd be golden. I have drilled hundreds of Mason lids. I roast coffee, and drill the lids for one way valves all the time. It can be a pain. The only issue with the wax is that it is not flexible, so it will not provide a really good seal. Grab a round file, and expand that hole to wine bottle bung size!

I also like the idea of the bean pot, Ill bet I get even more points if I grab an antique one and use it for Rice Wine. She might even be convinced it makes a nice center piece for the dinning room! lol

 

My only complaint about the bean pot is the same one I have about bucket fermenters: I don't get to watch the process. In the 5-gal carboys I use for beer, I get to see the krausen form, build, and change; watch the currents created in the wort; keep track of the trub and gloop settling on the bottom; etc. But with the bean pot, I don't even get to watch an airlock bubbling.

It's tough, but I'll handle it.

Whether your SWMBO goes along with displaying the pot will probably depend on whether she likes the smell. It isn't strong, but it's persistent. I love it myself, but I'm biased. I'm not sure what my wife would think...

I brought my first little batch in to show my relief at work, stuck it in a cabinet and forgot to take it with me. When I returned a couple of days later, it was perfuming the whole control room.

For what it's worth, I did check out antique bean pots online before ordering a new one. But I didn't find one I both liked and could afford.

 

Hahahahaha I bought some pineapple juice to mix it with. I'm going to try the two tonight. And see what I like better


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Let me know what you think after you try it. I haven't used straight pineapple juice, just pineapple coconut juice. On the next batch I'm going to try just straight coconut milk/water to flavor half the batch.

 

I liked it a lot. I have one bottle with pineapple juice and one without


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6 days in mine has turned very goopy like... Quit e runny

 

Picture?

 

Yeast balls are in hand! Im about 45 minutes away from packing this all into the Mason jar.

jak1010,

Thanks for taking care of me man!

Chris

 

You are welcome! Now you're just 3 long weeks from a finished product. With this stuff, 3 weeks feels like 3 years.

 

Make sure the rice is cool enough, I understand your excitement but patience is a virtue, it's worth it!

 

Yea, maybe jumped the gun, but only a little.......... The rice was slightly warm to the touch, but I had to load it. It was not hot by any means, just a little warm.......... Next batch Ill give myself more time. Warm wont hurt Im sure? I mean it was cool enough that some of the rice felt cold, but the stuff near the middle of the pile was slightly warm.

 

I'm sure you'll be fine, I have an infrared thermometer and the temperature varies quite a bit as the rice cools.
Finishing this and I'm out.



I love this stuff!

 

Yep, I've put the yeast in at a point when the rice was too hot. Only had one bad experience where the yeast had no positive effect and I had to toss the batch. But, when I say too hot I'm talking so hot that I couldn't hot it with bare hands. I used a sterilized spoon to put the rice in and when I got to the mixing part, it was the first time touching it. Luckily it was a small one. Since then, all good.

 

Just a heads up any burnt rice makes the while batch bad. I lost all that rice. No amount of ginger will cover that taste.

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Sorry for your loss I didn't think it would work out good from cooking experience, going to give it another try?

 

That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Get back up on that horse and brew more.

 

Well, my rice wine still looks just like that. I stuck it out in the garage to cold crash and it's kept bubbling about every 10 seconds. I think I'm going to heat treat it and stop this nonsense...

 

I even tried to heat treat and copper condition that stuff. Didn't work either.

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I think it will always have some carbonation. Regardless.


Brewed Not Bought!

 

Properly pasteurizing this wine will kill the yeast. I've done this on every batch and never had one continue to ferment or carb up in the bottle.

 

What's copper condition?


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I finally got a big enough brew pot (Stainless steel turkey fryer) to get the the level of water high enough on a wine bottle to be equal to the level of fluid inside the bottle. I also have never had any yeast survive a proper pasteurization.

 

My least favorite part of homebrew..... waiting for a slow starting yeast. No activity in my airlock yet.

 

Well you boil it with pennies in it and try to fry your taste buds. Heat treatment and copper conditioning. Lol


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I've never made this with an actual airlock before. Based on the concept that the first few days are spent by mold breaking down the rice, I'd expect that the airlock activity would be seen at day 9 or above.

Maybe someone who used an airlock before can comment on how their batches acted.

 

I made that last batch in a bucket with an airlock. It took awhile. Next batch it with ryr in a pickle jar.


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Harvested another batch, two+ quarts, Kinda a funky pink as I used a cup of forbidden rice with 5 cups of jasmine. No major flavor change.
I have an empty container, must be time to start another batch! I love this stuff!