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I do 85F for 7-10 days. Then let it go down to ~68F for 2-3 months.

Soaking and steaming is better at keeping individual grains. This provides a lot of surface area for aeration which benefits fungus and amylase activity. This in turn is good for the fermentation because the yeast get a gradual feed of sugar as the rice grains break down.

Clogged cheesecloth theory sounds reasonable. The ancient method of washing, soaking, and steaming the rice attempts to cook the rice while keeping discrete grains. That way, you get liquid and air exposure at the surface of the grains where the saccharification and fermentation organisms live...

He had a very small section in his sake book on Chinese rice wine and Shaoxing. His description is along the lines of the various historical methods documented in Grandiose Survey of Chinese Alcoholic Drinks and Beverages published by Jiangnan university of China. Here’s a link I posted a while...

Depends on if you want regular rice wine at 10-11% alcohol, or something higher like Shaoxing style wine.

Bucket or wide mouth container would be best for primary fermentation. More surface area is better. You can loosely fill the container with clumps of rice. Sprinkle crushed yeast balls as you add layers of rice. Don’t pack it down. You should have air gaps in the rice/yeast mixture. You can...

I think that should be ok. The general process he describes says at around 48 hours when the rice starts collecting liquid at the bottom. At that point the .56:1 water goes in along with .25:1 crushed yeast balls. I think a lot of us had to go longer than 48 hours for the rice to liquify...

According to Fred Eckhardt, add water to the cooked rice at .56:1 ratio by volume to make ordinary rice wine at 10-11% alcohol.

Is the rice actually dried and hard? Or is it just that there isn’t any liquid at the bottom? If the rice grains are hard, you have to start over. If not, you could try letting it sit at ~85F to see if you can get things going again. You could add a little water to see if that helps. If it...

Sho Chiku Bai sweet rice is good. I use it for some types of regular Chinese cooking too. https://www.kodafarms.com/sho-chiku-bai-sweet-rice-preparation-serving-suggestions/ You can get it at the asian markets. I’ve seen it on Amazon and Walmart too. If you have another bucket, you could...

Kokuho Rose is medium grain sushi rice. It will give a lower yield compared to short grain sticky/glutinous rice. If you rolled up each batch tightly, or packed the rice into the bucket tightly, it may be slow to start. The yeast needs oxygen early on to build up. That’s best done by having...

Sake and Chinese rice wine are very different. The Chinese wine that we are making is huang jiu (wong jau) which if aged, becomes like a Shaoxing or sherry type wine.

Congrats, this sounds really good! Yes, the sugar is from the amylase activity of the Rhizopus. The yeast will convert that to alcohol over time.

Sounds good! The yeast needs oxygen in order to multiply. They probably got off to a slow start due to needing more oxygen. In the old days, the winemakers would stir the rice periodically during the first days to oygenate, release CO2, and adjust temperature.

If it smells yeasty and fruity, just give it more time. If everything is good, you can start seeing liquid after about 3 days. It can take longer if not optimal. The mixture might need a bit more oxygen exposure if it’s packed tightly into your container and leveled off on top. Best would be...

Chives are a bit mild. I like those with eggs, shrimp, and/or rice noodles. Green onions would be good, especially with garlic chili paste.

Might need more ginger, soy sauce, and wine. A little fish sauce is good too. The red yeast is mainly for color and health benefits.

You can follow this one to get an idea. http://carolynjphillips.blogspot.com/search?q=fermented+bean+curd She also does a red rice wine, but I like less water than she uses. If you really get into it, there are Chinese documentaries on Youtube about historic methods for fermented bean curd...

Recipes for red yeast rice wine vary, but standard is 80g red yeast rice to 1 kg glutinous rice, in addition to the regular yeast balls. After the wine is done, save the rice in a jar in the fridge and you can use it for various recipes. I actually used some to make red fermented bean curd...

Since you used the red yeast rice, you can make Fuzhou style red chicken. https://werynice.com/home/?p=245 You strain and save the leftover rice to use for cooking. You can use it to make the red colored Chinese bbq pork too.