Hmm, possibly inadequate access to the starch in the corn. Maybe try cornmeal instead? Another possibility would be to try hominy, or masa harina. The nixtamalization process might be necessary for the corn to be broken down by RYR.
Beni-Koji. Red Yeast Rice. Old School... like really really Old School
- Thread starter TheDemonSlick
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this whole thread is a giant ethanol-making nerdgasm. thanks for all the science and experiments to each of you. I go shopping at my local chinese market almost daily. I'm looking forward to having a new fun project like this to start.
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TheDemonSlick
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Yeah I was thinking of trying cornmeal.... My other thought was to just give up on corn and ferment some more red rice wine and run it. I'm kind of scared to do a rice/nuruk/makgeoli thing bacause I can't always guaruntee I'll be there to pull it and everything says it will go sour if you miss it. I might strain out the corn nuruk ryr batch and run it anyways... it doesn't smell too bad, and I know there's some level of alcohol in it. Unfortunately, my next day off is a week from Saturday, and I have to do another run then too, takes about 5 hours.... I'll have to see what I have time for.
Hmm, I wonder if it will go sour so easily. I've seen a few comments that seem to indicate that the RYR actually slows the production of the acetic acid. I've got my oolong and first RYR batch that are definitively not ready to harvest at day 21. I'll be waiting to day 28 for those, possibly more. So, I think I will be finding out.
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TheDemonSlick
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Not worried about rice wine but the magkeoli, the nuruk. Korean stuff.
Edit - I guess that's a rice wine too, but you know what I mean.
Edit - I guess that's a rice wine too, but you know what I mean.
I thought he boiled and crushed the corn? That being the case I can't imagine the access would be any better than cornmeal although cornmeal probably possesses less enzymes (even if they are dead in this case).
Also, if you were just fermenting for ethanol, sugar would be easier. Not to mention cheaper to boot.
Also, if you were just fermenting for ethanol, sugar would be easier. Not to mention cheaper to boot.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
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TheDemonSlick
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My goal was to replace malting with an amylase producing mold. It's not working. I also tried the yeastballs with a sugar wash to see if I could get the higher abv that you get from the rice wine, but that didn't fly either.
The corn was boiled but not crushed. Sugar washes are easy, I have 2 buckets down now, but some of the grain stuff is nice too, just a huge pain in the a$$. I'd like to be able to do corn without added alpha enzyme or tedious malting. Also, the rice wine is yummy, and can be further processed into scochu.
If you didn't crush it (smash might be a better word) I'm not sure the amylase can get to the sugar inside it. The obvious difference between kernel corn is the pericarp which serves as a kind of condom against your enzymes so to speak. Crush some of it and see if it takes off? Or did you throw it out already? It should work though, there was a DFH propaganda show a year or two ago where they did something like that using spit or some such as the Amylase. Chichi or something.
That was my thought.
Here's the day 21 photo of the RYR batches. I have to say, I'm very disappointed. I've moved the jars to the top of my fridge, hopefully the increase in temperature will help with the liquification.
Wait, you've got then in the fridge? I want to say I read somewhere the mold doesn't like cold and thrives around 73. I keep mine in the pantry.
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TheDemonSlick
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Naw, he said "top of the fridge", like on top.
Correct. The compressor for the fridge will output a little heat every time it runs, and being up so high will get me another couple degrees. The cabinet above your fridge is one of the warmest places in most peoples houses.:fro:
Hmm, why not just mix the red rice wine with your high alcohol base before you use your other thingy? Or even afterward. After would probably give you a better flavor.
Ah, gotcha. Misunderstood. Unfortunately, there is an A/C vent right above mine so it's rather chilly up there in my house.
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TheDemonSlick
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I'd like to do some grains, and I'm Lazy. Sugar wash is easy, but I want to branch out into grains like corn, wheat, barley, etc, and I was looking for an easy way. It's all good. Rice is a grain too
Here are the 6 batches I had running. I had to harvest them, I'm going to be busy over the next week and I didn't want any of them going sour.
RYR+Rice Yeast Balls: Reasonable, though not good, yield. Very smooth, definite alcohol warmth going down. Extremely fruity. Extremely good.
Yeast Balls+Oolong tea: Poor yield. Very smooth, very sweet. Fairly low perceptible alcohol content. Slightly fruity. Very pleasant.
RYR with jasmine rice: Somewhat low yield. Very smooth, definite alcohol warmth going down. Slightly fruity. Odd yeasty aftertaste. Acceptable.
RYR with jasmine rice, and distillers yeast: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
RYR with Extra Long Grain rice: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
RYR with Extra Long Grain rice, and distillers yeast: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
The temperature played a fairly big part here I think. Either the fermentation temperature was to low, low 70's during most of the process, or the rice temperature was to high when the batches where mixed up. I will keep the results in mind for future batches, however the second possibility may render the experimental data here invalid.
At some point I will repeat the experiment and see if the relative performance of the batches matches these results.
RYR+Rice Yeast Balls: Reasonable, though not good, yield. Very smooth, definite alcohol warmth going down. Extremely fruity. Extremely good.
Yeast Balls+Oolong tea: Poor yield. Very smooth, very sweet. Fairly low perceptible alcohol content. Slightly fruity. Very pleasant.
RYR with jasmine rice: Somewhat low yield. Very smooth, definite alcohol warmth going down. Slightly fruity. Odd yeasty aftertaste. Acceptable.
RYR with jasmine rice, and distillers yeast: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
RYR with Extra Long Grain rice: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
RYR with Extra Long Grain rice, and distillers yeast: Batch failed, no useful liquid yield.
The temperature played a fairly big part here I think. Either the fermentation temperature was to low, low 70's during most of the process, or the rice temperature was to high when the batches where mixed up. I will keep the results in mind for future batches, however the second possibility may render the experimental data here invalid.
At some point I will repeat the experiment and see if the relative performance of the batches matches these results.
I decided to go ahead with a larger batch of RYR+Yeast balls with jasmine rice. Even though the yield was low, the flavor of the wine was outstanding. I forgot to mention that none of the recent batches had any of the tang I got from the prior batches of rice wine.
This time I cooled the rice for 4 1/2 hours before mixing the powdered RYR+Yeast balls. It is also starting on top of the fridge.
Ah my first fermentor. I remember that first cider well... It was terrible.
This time I cooled the rice for 4 1/2 hours before mixing the powdered RYR+Yeast balls. It is also starting on top of the fridge.
Ah my first fermentor. I remember that first cider well... It was terrible.
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TheDemonSlick
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Weird, my ryr/bakers was good, but my recipe had added water and I did a secondary ferment in the 1 gallon carboys.
Seems plausible. Mine had water in it in only 24hrs and I went light on the water when cooking the rice. The more I thought about it the more it made me think that maybe the added weight of the larger batch helps to press on the kernel causing the water to be secreted faster as it breaks down. Otherwise though, I got nothing.
Before I went to work today I noticed that the towel I had wrapped around the dispenser to keep the light out was wet. The liquid actually over topped the dispenser and got on the towel. I stuck the whole thing down in a 5 gallon food grade bucket before I went to work.
Yeah, that wasn't the greatest idea. Next time I'll just use a bigger fermenter.
I am sure that stuff stains pretty good.
I usually stir the rice up a lot which makes it take up more space. I filled my last batch all the way to the lip of the 2g cookie jar I use and it dropped a couple inches in the first few days and probably 3" after a few weeks. I'm not quite clear on how you jam that much in to keep it at that level unless you're intentionally pressing it down as you put it in.
This.
Like I said, not the greatest idea. I had to punch holes in it again to let co2 out when I got home today. It had heaved up above the level of the dispenser.Sorry, there won't be any more pictures of that batch until harvest day. The fermentor is really slippery and I don't want to risk breaking it pulling it out until harvest. Smells nice though, very fruity.
