Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[sonofgrok]

Just popped two batches in yesterday for the first time in months. Booyah!

 

[mjwj12]

Mine it coming along very well.

 

[trbig]

Finally bottled mine last night after letting it cold crash and settle for a couple weeks. Ended up with twelve 750ml wine bottles full of nice clear wine minus about a good swig from filling the 12th. That one is now minus a couple swigs more. It ended up being maybe a bit on the dry side after clearing, (FG of .988.. though still some sweetness in the taste) but that's easily fixed with a shot of some sort of fruit juice additive, though it's still good on its own. I've got @ 20 bottles of the wine with RYR now, so tonight I'm going to start a batch without it.. just the 10 lbs of sweet rice. Instead of adding a gallon and a half of additional water after cooking, I'm going to try cutting that back to just a gallon and see if I can find something in between this very dry and the sickening sweet (To me) of no water added.

 

[trbig]

*Crickets chirping*

Man, am I a thread killer or what!?

 

[jak1010]

Haha...Not at all. In fact, I was reading your last post and wondering when you started that batch you just bottled.

 

[trbig]

Haha...Not at all. In fact, I was reading your last post and wondering when you started that batch you just bottled.

Looks like @ Dec 17th.. strained out @ Jan 14th and sitting in a fridge until bottling.

Tonight, I just got done bottling 5 gallons of banana wine, I put 6 gallons more on cold crash duty for a week or two, will be putting 14 gallons of pear wine into secondaries, and after that, will start a 10 lb batch of sweet rice wine minus the RYR.

I got 12 gallons of beer started in the last two days with three more 6 gal batches to make before we go on vacation in a week and a half, so my alc supply is getting built back up this winter!
:cross::cross:

Go ahead.. hit me with the lol. I deserve it.

 

[ChefRex]

First batch initiated, 5 cups dry Thai jasmine rice added 2.5 oz sugar for some reason. It is now in an improvised fermentation chamber at around 80F. Sound good?
Want to start another batch tomorrow with RYR, How much should I use for the same size batch?
Thanks in advance and thanks again jac1010!

 

[trbig]

I've had trouble with batches that warm getting sour. Chinese friends told me the best temps for this stuff is @ 60 degrees, and said they don't even try to make it in the warm months because of this? As always, results vary.

 

[ubnserved]

Hahaha!

I just got some inspiration: Cajun dirty rice wine!

And, maybe, pork fried rice wine? Perfect in a snifter with a splash of soy sauce.

I wonder what this would be like with a little spice added

 

[sonofgrok]

First batch initiated, 5 cups dry Thai jasmine rice added 2.5 oz sugar for some reason. It is now in an improvised fermentation chamber at around 80F. Sound good?
Want to start another batch tomorrow with RYR, How much should I use for the same size batch?
Thanks in advance and thanks again jac1010!

I've had trouble with batches that warm getting sour. Chinese friends told me the best temps for this stuff is @ 60 degrees, and said they don't even try to make it in the warm months because of this? As always, results vary.

Ditto. I find my cool batches take longer to produce but result in a better tasting product. The original recipe states to "stick someplace warm" but I have always done mine in the 65-75 range. I don't think you will have any issues with 80 but I certainly wouldn't go like 90 or above.

 

[ChefRex]

I figured on starting at 80 and then ramp it down a bit once it got started.

 

[trbig]

Something a bit odd...

Didn't get around to cooking my rice last night, so came home for a long lunch today and cooked up 10 lbs of sweet rice. I have a gallon cider jug that I smashed 10 yeast balls down through the neck and into 1 qt of 75 degree water with a couple tablespoons full of corn sugar in it. I kept shaking and agitating the water to break up the yeast balls.

By the time lunch was over, the rice was still too hot to add the yeast balls, so I left it to work on the counter while I went back to work. 4 hrs later, there still didn't seem to be a bit of yeast activity going on.

So... is the yeast in these yeast balls targeted specifically to the simple sugar the starch is converted to and doesn't eat other forms somehow? I wanted this batch to take off early and avoid any chances of mold starting, but it didn't look like that was going to happen here. Anyone else try theirs? Mine have been out in the garage for a while, but they're sealed and in the cold, not hot.

Maybe next time, I'll add a bit of regular brewing yeast to it to at least get a layer of CO2 in there before the mold/yeast balls take off.I'd just hate for that yeast to take off on the converted starch and ruin the flavor. I wonder if it would kick it off any faster if you added some of the remaining rice material from the previous batch?

 

[OG_IBU_Bunghole]

It is now in an improvised fermentation chamber at around 80F. Sound good?

I've had trouble with batches that warm getting sour. Chinese friends told me the best temps for this stuff is @ 60 degrees, and said they don't even try to make it in the warm months because of this? As always, results vary.

Ditto. I find my cool batches take longer to produce but result in a better tasting product. The original recipe states to "stick someplace warm" but I have always done mine in the 65-75 range. I don't think you will have any issues with 80 but I certainly wouldn't go like 90 or above.

Anyway, regardless of the source of the amylase, amylase doubles it's rate of conversion of starch to sugar that is available to the yeast every 10 degrees C. Traditionally rice wine was made in the summer and aged over the winter.

My experimental 2 cup batches ferment above the stove at a fairly consistent 72-75F all four seasons and to my taste turn out better than the scaled up batches that have lately been fermenting in the 60's. Perhaps this is just a function of personal preference in the way that some beer styles ferment at higher temps to get esters while others ferment at low temps to get more subtle flavors (I'm looking at you, Light American Lager). Perhaps it's because I haven't bothered to "puncture the cap" in the 8-12 cup batches.

 

[sonofgrok]

Something a bit odd...

Someone at some point in time was going to try to brew beer with with these yeast balls but I don't think it ever happened.

 

[Gar]

Someone at some point in time was going to try to brew beer with with these yeast balls but I don't think it ever happened.

I thought someone tried and said it didn't turn out well. i could be wrong

 

[troy2000]

I'm almost disappointed by the lack of drama in my jar. There's no funky fuzz, spots, black threads, or anything like that. The white rice just keeps on shrinking, and the clear liquid just keeps growing.

I took the lid off for the first time to get a good whiff of it last night. Wow. It was like sniffing a bottle of Everclear.....

 

[trbig]

Congrats, Troy. We could all deal with a little less drama in life. Sounds like yours is going according to plan.

 

[troy2000]

I googled Chinese rice wine, to learn a little more about making it. One of the sites had 'Chinese wine biscuits' as an ingredient. Judging by the picture, they're just a somewhat flattened version of the balls we've been using....

The wine biscuits are usually a small ball of lees left over from the previous batch of rice wine making
which have been dried and resold as “Jiu-Bing” at the traditional Chinese medical stores.
According to some sources, the original Jiu-Bing was actually balls of rice flour, ginger and some other ingredients, left outside to attract the desired molds and yeast.

http://www.recipies.50webs.com/Making Chinese Wine.htm

Sounds like it might be fun to try making my own yeast balls/biscuits, using the lees from my own batch.

The site also has a picture of a brown ceramic wine jar. It looks suspiciously like a plain old New England bean pot to me... maybe they sell them there for wine, and here for beans.

One other thing: they say fermenting the wine for more than 20 days can result in it tasting sour. If that's true, I'll be drinking mine this weekend; the timing's about right.

 

[trbig]

The first ones I bought looked like that and had ginger and other things in them. They worked fine as well.




Most people let the wine go out to 28 days. I've left it in for several months before (Forgot about it with all my other brewing going on) and it was just as good as ever. Harvesting that early, you're not going to get all you can out, but you wouldn't be the first one to impatiently break into a batch.

 

[chalkdust41485]

Wow! Just harvested my first batch using ARL. I did a small batch just to see if my wife and I would like it. It is a hit! I only filled a 12oz bottle and a little left over that my wife and I had. I've got to say that it tastes a lot better than it smells! It's sweet and little fruity but is a little funky on the nose. I sampled it straight and mixed with a splash of cranberry/pomegranate juice at varying levels. I prefer it with a light splash of the juice. My wife didn't mind it straight! My wife doesn't drink beer so Ive tried experimenting with fermenting mead, apfelwine, Skeeter Pee, and now rice wine so she has something to drink. When I told her that I only made enough to fill a 12oz, she asked me why I didn't make more! Thanks to all for this new and interesting drink!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[ChefRex]

3 days in and I'm starting to see liquefaction.
I had dropped it down to 70F and just now back down to 65F.

 

[troy2000]

The Chinese wine jar I was looking at the other day reminded me so much of a New England-style bean pot, that I ordered a 4.5 qt bean pot from Amazon yesterday afternoon. $23.99 plus CA sales tax - plus free overnight shipping with my Prime account, so it's here already. And I wasn't surprised to see the little 'Made in China' sticker on the bottom....

I think if I just place a layer of sanitized cheesecloth under the lid, it's going to work just fine.... I'll start a batch in it this weekend.

The attachment is a stock picture, by the way; the lid on mine doesn't set crooked like that.

 

[jak1010]

I'm digging the traditional nature of that pot. Please post pics when in progress.

 

[trbig]

It'll dang sure keep the light out and keep any mold growth to a minimum.

Do you think they make those in a 7 gallon size?

 

[Leadgolem]

Someone at some point in time was going to try to brew beer with with these yeast balls but I don't think it ever happened.

I remember that. I think the person doing it said it didn't go well. They had a blowout and ended with a beer they didn't like.

In another thread, I remember somebody trying to make a red beer with red yeast rice. The first attempt was with just a basic beer recipe, including yeast, plus the red yeast rice. No substantial color was observed. I suggested adding some unconverted starch, IE cooked rice, to the next batch. That batch produced much more color and a substantially fruitier beer.

I didn't see pictures or taste either, so I can't verify the results. I also don't have any inclination to run an experiment in that direction as I'm not that wild about beer.

Happy brewing!

 

[troy2000]

I remember that. I think the person doing it said it didn't go well. They had a blowout and ended with a beer they didn't like.

In another thread, I remember somebody trying to make a red beer with red yeast rice. The first attempt was with just a basic beer recipe, including yeast, plus the red yeast rice. No substantial color was observed. I suggested adding some unconverted starch, IE cooked rice, to the next batch. That batch produced much more color and a substantially fruitier beer.

I didn't see pictures or taste either, so I can't verify the results. I also don't have any inclination to run an experiment in that direction as I'm not that wild about beer.

Happy brewing!

My first reaction to that was, "say WHAT??"

Being mostly into the beer end of it myself, I tend to forget how many people on HBT are busy making other stuff, instead of (or along with) beer....

 

[trbig]

Has anyone tried using the leftover starch mass from one batch to start another? Wondering if it takes off any faster. Maybe an experiment with a normal batch with just rice and yeastballs, one with some yeastballs and some starch mass from a previous batch, and one with the starch mass and no yeastballs?

 

[troy2000]

Has anyone tried using the leftover starch mass from one batch to start another? Wondering if it takes off any faster. Maybe an experiment with a normal batch with just rice and yeastballs, one with some yeastballs and some starch mass from a previous batch, and one with the starch mass and no yeastballs?

If I understand properly, that's basically what yeast balls are: the dried leftovers from making wine. So I'm going to try making my own yeast balls, when my first batch gets done.

 

[Leadgolem]

Has anyone tried using the leftover starch mass from one batch to start another? Wondering if it takes off any faster. Maybe an experiment with a normal batch with just rice and yeastballs, one with some yeastballs and some starch mass from a previous batch, and one with the starch mass and no yeastballs?

I did a similar experiment, though it was aimed at red rice wine. Here are the links.

I've also done just straight reuse of the lees for both red rice wine and white rice wine. That works fairly well, but the white rice wine tends to get infected after a few reuses. Doing successive batches with the fresh red did not have any down side I could see. The process does not appear to be much faster using the lees then with a fresh batch though.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/m...un-different-361095/index230.html#post5283477

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/m...un-different-361095/index238.html#post5299144

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/m...un-different-361095/index242.html#post5318815

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/m...un-different-361095/index246.html#post5334547

 

[mjwj12]

Bottled mind yesterday. A sweet flavor. Also noticed that it is carbonated too.