Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[ThatVideoKid]

And I mean just taking abv into account, like a pint of 5% cider contains the exact same toxins as 4oz of 20% applejack.

 

[Zymomancer]

I'm about two weeks into my first batch and it's already quite alcoholic so now I'm thinking about how exactly I'm going to decide to bottle it. I see in some other threads that some people prefer to strain out the wine from the solids and let the wine sit for a week or more to settle out the remaining solids, siphoning the clear liquor from the top.

Anyone have any preferences for cloudy vs. clear? I've seen cloudy sake in the store but I've never actually tried it so I have no idea what the difference might end up being.

 

[ChefRex]

I'm about two weeks into my first batch and it's already quite alcoholic so now I'm thinking about how exactly I'm going to decide to bottle it. I see in some other threads that some people prefer to strain out the wine from the solids and let the wine sit for a week or more to settle out the remaining solids, siphoning the clear liquor from the top.

Anyone have any preferences for cloudy vs. clear? I've seen cloudy sake in the store but I've never actually tried it so I have no idea what the difference might end up being.

I prefer it when it clears, the cloudy is a bit sweeter, I let it separate pour off the clear, but I don't waste the cloudy part.
I keep playing with it, it's cheap and you really can't screw it up

 

[Evilgrin]

The cloudy part also makes an excellent marinade especially for pork.

 

[z-bob]

I made a batch using broken Jasmine rice, where I added extra water after the first week to hopefully have it finish dryer. I let sit maybe 2 months before I strained it. It's just as syrupy as the previous batches made with kind-of dry sweet rice. The taste is good, if it just wasn't so sweet.

 

[Evilgrin]

Couldn't you pasteurize it then ferment it again using a wine yeast if you really want dry rice wine? I made one batch using a Lalvin yeast with nuruk and it came out dry. I still need to try it with some rice koji instead of nuruk but im sure it would work.

 

[z-bob]

It's in a jar in the fridge, where it'll be left alone until Easter. Maybe when the solids settle out the clear stuff won't be so sweet. Maybe I can use the solids to sweeten my breakfast cereal

 

[nickwoo]

Clear and aged is the best for me. 6 months + is good you just have to wait that long.

 

[MasterCrook]

The longer you age it after bottling the better, i sometimes let mine age 2 months and it's the best

 

[MasterCrook]

I made a batch using broken Jasmine rice, where I added extra water after the first week to hopefully have it finish dryer. I let sit maybe 2 months before I strained it. It's just as syrupy as the previous batches made with kind-of dry sweet rice. The taste is good, if it just wasn't so sweet.

Try pasturize and aging, that should help with the sweetness. I usually make 10 bottles at once so by the time i get to the last few they're nicely aged, dry and strong

 

[hornetd12]

 

[hornetd12]

I made a batch using broken Jasmine rice, where I added extra water after the first week to hopefully have it finish dryer. I let sit maybe 2 months before I strained it. It's just as syrupy as the previous batches made with kind-of dry sweet rice. The taste is good, if it just wasn't so sweet.

It may be the yeast balls you are using, the yeast is dying off before all the starch is consumed. I would use less rice per grams of yeast. I use onto yeast balls(xxx.ontoyeast.ca) and my wine turns out very dry. I use 35g of crushed yeast per 2.2lbs of dry rice. To get a good consistant product you should weigh your yeast balls. Most people say just add 3-4 yeast balls or whatever but not all yeast balls are the same size. I have seen small ones and some larger ones, so just weigh them and go from there. Also remember this yeast likes to be kept warm around 86F, any cooler than this will affect your wine. They have a recipe on the site but I just add the yeast balls and rice, keep it warm and let it ferment for about 30 days.

 

[SeraW]

Mine was neither too sweet nor syrupy but I used the "add water" advice intentionally to avoid that.

 

[Zymomancer]

Thanks for the input re: cloudiness, I was also curious about the dryness. I think what I'll do is a normal cloudy batch, pasteurize and bottle it, and let some of the sediment settle in one bottle while I drink the other. If it's too sweet I'll water it down a bit, so I'll have some idea of what I want to aim for in the next batch.

edit:
It's been three weeks now, it seems to be finished up because there don't seem to be any CO2 pockets forming in the "cap". There's not really a cap at all anymore because stirring once every two days has mixed it all up into a homogeneous mass. I was also just getting impatient even though another week wouldn't have hurt.

It came out a lot cloudier than in the pictures I've been seeing here, probably because of the stirring I did during the process and the squeezing when straining it into bottles. It's only a little bit clearer than milk. I came out with almost 1L from 5 cups of uncooked glutinous rice.

The taste is a lot more sour than I was anticipating, kind of like alcoholic yogurt. Otherwise it's actually not too sweet, but also doesn't have any sort of subtlety, it's just thick, tangy alcohol. I didn't do any temperature control and put it in a room that keeps roughly 72*F at all times during the winter but I suspect if I chilled it a little there might be less lactic acid bacteria activity. It could also just be the particular yeast ball brand (E&B). If this is like anything else I've brewed, though, a lot of the unpleasantness will age out in as little as a week to a month. Not as much fusel character as I expected from being so young!

 

[CanadianJesus]

Very excited about this!

I have read 83 pages into this thread so far. No way I could hold out and read the entirety of it before making a first attempt!

What I have done is, I used a wok/steamer combo I have and steamed up 10 cups of Walmart Calrose sushi rice. I added 10 balls of Onto Yeast that I purchased online (It's actually fairly local to me). All of this went into two 1-gallon jars that I sanitized with bleach/vinegar/water mix and rinsed very well. (I do not have any StarSan yet).

My sushi rice came out of the steamer pretty darn dry. I read that too moist is not good, but too dry is also not good. I guess I'm hoping for the best here in that regard since this is my first time actually steaming rice and don't have anything to compare it to. I saw a small amount of condensation in the jars about an hour after filling them, so I might be good there.

What I'm wondering is if 1 yeast ball per 1 cup of rice is the appropriate mix for Onto Yeast brand. The bag they came in says the whole shebang is good for 17Kg of rice, which is a heck-of-alot. I haven't bothered to count the yeast balls in the bag, but I am somehow getting the feeling that 1 ball per 1 cup is a little much on the yeast side.

I'll try and get some pictures posted up in a few days here when I start to notice some results in my little project here. For good or worse.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I soaked the rice for 3 hours and rinsed it well.

 

[MasterCrook]

Very excited about this!

I have read 83 pages into this thread so far. No way I could hold out and read the entirety of it before making a first attempt!

What I have done is, I used a wok/steamer combo I have and steamed up 10 cups of Walmart Calrose sushi rice. I added 10 balls of Onto Yeast that I purchased online (It's actually fairly local to me). All of this went into two 1-gallon jars that I sanitized with bleach/vinegar/water mix and rinsed very well. (I do not have any StarSan yet).

My sushi rice came out of the steamer pretty darn dry. I read that too moist is not good, but too dry is also not good. I guess I'm hoping for the best here in that regard since this is my first time actually steaming rice and don't have anything to compare it to. I saw a small amount of condensation in the jars about an hour after filling them, so I might be good there.

What I'm wondering is if 1 yeast ball per 1 cup of rice is the appropriate mix for Onto Yeast brand. The bag they came in says the whole shebang is good for 17Kg of rice, which is a heck-of-alot. I haven't bothered to count the yeast balls in the bag, but I am somehow getting the feeling that 1 ball per 1 cup is a little much on the yeast side.

I'll try and get some pictures posted up in a few days here when I start to notice some results in my little project here. For good or worse.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I soaked the rice for 3 hours and rinsed it well.

1 ball per cup isn't enough for onto yeast, the website has a recipe but it looks like it's down now

 

[Evilgrin]

Google has neat feature called "cached". I was able to get to the Onto recipe using it.

Preparation:

1.Cook 1kg of rice with a steam cooker

2. Once rice is cooked, wait for the rice to cool down to room temperature approx 23 degrees

3. Once cooled, add 35g of crushed ontoyeast (powder) and mix it in with the rice

4. Place the rice mixed with ontoyeast into a container, with a breathable pin hole.

5. Store the container in 30 degrees temperature (you can wrap it up with a blanket)

6. After 5 days add 2ltrs of warm to hot water into the container. Relocate the container in room temperature and wait another 25 days

7. Results is 3.5 ltres of 12% alcohol

 

[CanadianJesus]

My Onto yeast balls weight 6.36g per ball. I didn't scale out my rice when I cooked it. I don't want to add water to my batch and I'd like a higher ABV than 12% so I'm just going to wait it out and see how my batch turns out.

It's showing some nice (good) white mold growth on day 1. I think I'm going to have something nice when it's finished. I plan to harvest on day 21-24.

 

[MasterCrook]

Google has neat feature called "cached". I was able to get to the Onto recipe using it.

Preparation:

1.Cook 1kg of rice with a steam cooker

2. Once rice is cooked, wait for the rice to cool down to room temperature approx 23 degrees

3. Once cooled, add 35g of crushed ontoyeast (powder) and mix it in with the rice

4. Place the rice mixed with ontoyeast into a container, with a breathable pin hole.

5. Store the container in 30 degrees temperature (you can wrap it up with a blanket)

6. After 5 days add 2ltrs of warm to hot water into the container. Relocate the container in room temperature and wait another 25 days

7. Results is 3.5 ltres of 12% alcohol

Thanks for adding the recipe, I'm unable to get the cached site from my phone

 

[Evilgrin]

Roughly 5 cups of rice=1kg of rice. So their recipe calls for almost 1.5 balls per cup.

 

[CanadianJesus]

Darn. Next batch I'll just add more. I'll try and get a photo up in a few days when I see significant changes.

 

[Lebl468]

Darn. Next batch I'll just add more. I'll try and get a photo up in a few days when I see significant changes.

I've been using 1 ball per 1 uncooked cup of rice. Been working good for me.

 

[Evilgrin]

I would like to find some Onto yeast in the USA. Its over $18 just in shipping if i order directly. Chinese made yeast balls are cheap around here. About $1.60 for 4ozs. I think used 1 ball per 2 cups of rice and they work fine with a little RYR added.

 

[CanadianJesus]

I've been using 1 ball per 1 uncooked cup of rice. Been working good for me.

Yea, mine seems to be doing pretty good too. There is a nice sweet smell coming from the cheese cloth. No liquid yet, but I've read that it can take a week to start seeing any.

I would like to find some Onto yeast in the USA. Its over $18 just in shipping if i order directly. Chinese made yeast balls are cheap around here. About $1.60 for 4ozs. I think used 1 ball per 2 cups of rice and they work fine with a little RYR added.

It costs about the same for me. The closest Asian market is a 45 minute drive to another town so I just ordered mine online. Next time I'm close by I plan on checking it out. I payed almost $40 total for a bag from Onto yeast. Go figure, they charge up the ass for shipping and it only took two days to get here regular mail.

I think the best thing to do concerning Onto Yeast is to order multiple bags and just make a lot of wine!

 

[mrkrausen]

So I'm on my 5th batch or so and I think I may have gotten my first infection. I wasn't terribly anal about sanitation like previous batches or with my beer brewing. I don't think I sanitized my hands when I was mixing the yeast ball dust into the rice. I'm leaning towards tossing this batch. Just thought I'd post and ask your opinions. It smells like it normally does, just with some added color. Also, I made this batch in a large glass jar with cheese cloth over it that just has a glass lid sitting on top. Is it possible that could be the source of the infection as well? I also didn't mix in the top portion of rice once fermentation had made a good amount of liquid to do so.

 

[Zymomancer]

I would toss it. From what I read here and my own single batch, the only mold you should see is white. Rice and yeast balls aren't expensive.

The taste is a lot more sour than I was anticipating, kind of like alcoholic yogurt. Otherwise it's actually not too sweet, but also doesn't have any sort of subtlety, it's just thick, tangy alcohol.

This has aged for just a little over a week and the solids have almost entirely settled to the bottom, leaving a murky yellow liquid on top. I poured some of it WITHOUT shaking things up and the taste has already improved a lot. I get a strong hit of sake flavour with a tangy-sweet-buttery flavour as a side note. It's certainly not too sweet, but the tangy-buttery part still bothers me a bit. There is a bit of fusel character still that needs to age out, I got a minor headache from the taste. Good news is that's it's been upgraded from "do I have to drink this?" to "I would make this again." I will try it again after shaking up the solids but I don't think I'm going to like it as much.

 

[Accidic]

Couldn't you pasteurize it then ferment it again using a wine yeast if you really want dry rice wine? I made one batch using a Lalvin yeast with nuruk and it came out dry. I still need to try it with some rice koji instead of nuruk but im sure it would work.

I didn't pasteurize but did combine a small high abv yeast to the mix later in the process previously. I didn't like the results but YMMV. It was a bit "hot" if that makes sense. It also had noticeable lacto which may have been my fault and was a bit sour.

 

[CanadianJesus]

Update, (sorry no pics yet) : Day 11.

One jar has about an inch of liquid around the bottom, the rice isn't floating on it, not enough liquid yet I think. Seems to be doing alright, but I expected liquefaction to happen a fair bit earlier. It definitely smells like good wine.

Jar two has some 'sweat' coming off a fair bit of the rice, but no liquid buildup to be seen yet. From the way it looks, I expect to see some within a few days. This jar smells 'sweet' no wine/alcohol smell to be noticed yet.

From the progress that I see, I expect to harvest on day 25-30 unless I see some exponential liquefaction. I'm thinking that I probably under cooked my rice seeing as how it wasn't all that soft when I ate some after I steamed it. I don't know yet whether or not 1 ball Onto yeast / 1 cup rice was insufficient or not. I'll report my findings regarding that after I harvest.

My next batch which I plan to do in some 1.5L pickle jars that I have accumulated will be boiled in bottled spring water (1.25water:1rice). I purchased some sweet rice especially for that batch.

 

[amor_fati]

Hello everyone! Having gleaned some basics from earlier posts in this thread & the brief "rice beer" section in Sandor Katz's Art of Fermentation, I've begun my foray into making rice wine.

Four cups of sweet, short grain rice were soaked for an hour, rinsed, and summarily prepared in a rice cooker. (One mistake was made, however; a overly gratuitous amount of water [8 cups] was used, and some 3 cups of excess water were removed after the rice had been cooking for 30 minutes.) After cooling, the rice was thoroughly mixed with six finely pulverized qu balls, scooped into a mason jar, and left to incubate in an oven with the interior light on.

---

Within 6 hours, the scent had started to change quite markedly-- floral, earthy, slightly sweet.

By the 20 hour mark, a great deal of liquefaction had occurred.

Now, approaching the 72 hour mark, the liquefaction has proceeded a great deal further; it's a slurry, really. Smelling quite sweet and boozy, too. I have stirred it a couple times (not sure how necessary/beneficial this was).

---

How typical is this? As quickly as this has proceeded, how long will I let it continue to ferment? I'd really appreciate any insights into what I'm experiencing. Thanks.

The pictures I've attached are at ~20 and ~72 hours.

 

[brooklynkayak]

Re: "How typical is this?"

This is somewhat typical. But be aware that at this point it will have a very low alcohol content and will be very sweet. It is common in China to harvest only after two 2 to 5 days and consume as a low alcohol food.

It generally takes over 3 weeks to reach a higher alcohol content and much longer for a drier wine.

Regarding the extra water, many of us use more water than is often recommended and ferment for 5 or more weeks to produce a drier wine. But it is not typical do do this when making traditional Chinese rice.

 

[brooklynkayak]

I recently moved to a house that has a closet that I can dedicate to fermenting rice wine. So I moved up to larger scale production. No more cookie jar quantities for me

I now have a real 20 liter fermenter and Grolsch cap style wine bottles to store the finished product. This allows for less work and more product.

Attached is a picture showing ten pounds of glutinous(sweet) rice fermenting with examples of the Grolsch style bottles(minus caps), rice and yeast balls used.

The yeast balls were purchased in Brooklyn, NY, before moving to Tucson. They can be found at almost any larger Asian market that I've ever been to.
The rice was purchased at a nearby Asian market in Tucson, AZ and the fermenter and bottles purchased at the local brewers "Brewers Connection" in Tucson, AZ.

 

[CanadianJesus]

Day 20: I've decided my first attempt is a failure. Under cooking of the rice is the primary factor. In my first jar there is about 4cm of liquid built up around the rice, nothing is floating. The rice in the top half of the jar looks completely dried out while the bottom remains moist.

The second jar has absolutely zero liquid build up while at the same time does not appear to have dried out in the way the first jar has. I see lots of 'sweat' on the rice towards the bottom of the jar.

I am attempting another batch today, this time I will use 1.5:1 yeast balls to rice and I am going to boil the rice. I am using sweet rice rather than sushi this time as well.

I purchased some StarSan online so I will not be using bleach this time around.

Note: I have also ordered 10 packets of ARL which should arrive towards the end of the month. I have read a lot of conflicting information whether or not I need to add additional yeast when using ARL. I have access to Lalvin ec-1118 as well as baker's yeast. I was told in another post that I need extra yeast but I would still appreciate some more input. From what I have read in this thread (I am on pg 364) it seems that nobody else pitches any additional yeast on top of ARL.

 

[CanadianJesus]

I put together a batch using 10 cups water and 8 cups sticky rice. I rinsed the rice and let it soak for 1 hour while I was sanitizing.

Boiled the rice on the stovetop for 15mins and then let it sit and cool for 3 hours in the pots. After that I allowed the rice to cool to room temperature in a baking pan for another 2 hours.

I crushed up 13 Onto Yeast balls (12 + 1 for good luck) with a little yeast energizer and nutrient and mixed it into my rice by hand. (what a sticky frickin' mess). I tried to roll it into balls, but once it made it's way into my jars it seemed to just all clump together anyways.

I will report back once I start to see changes.

 

[Evilgrin]

Keep a faucet lightly running when handling rice. Get you hands wet and then handle the rice. Wet them each time rice starts sticking to your hands too much.

Giving COOKED rice a quick rinse in cold water and a good drain will also help.

 

[mrkrausen]

So I'm on my 5th batch or so and I think I may have gotten my first infection. I wasn't terribly anal about sanitation like previous batches or with my beer brewing. I don't think I sanitized my hands when I was mixing the yeast ball dust into the rice. I'm leaning towards tossing this batch. Just thought I'd post and ask your opinions. It smells like it normally does, just with some added color. Also, I made this batch in a large glass jar with cheese cloth over it that just has a glass lid sitting on top. Is it possible that could be the source of the infection as well? I also didn't mix in the top portion of rice once fermentation had made a good amount of liquid to do so.

So I did start another couple of batches, but I also used a serving spoon to to remove the rice on top that was containing the bad mold and a little more to make sure I got it all. It's been just over two weeks and there's been no sign of return of the bad mold. Part of me wants to sample some of it. Would it be inadvisable to do so? I know it's cheap to make, but if there's not much danger in trying it I figured why not? The pictures didn't repost from the quote but they are on the previous page.

 

[brooklynkayak]

So I did start another couple of batches, but I also used a serving spoon to to remove the rice on top that was containing the bad mold .

How did you know it was bad mold?

I would think if it was bad you would have been able to smell something wrong.

 

[mrkrausen]

I don't know for sure. Just going on what I've read that white mold is good. The couple of posts that I've read about green or black mold said they were bad. Also that this is the first time saving this in the 5 batches that I've made.

 

[Darthbrewder]

Day 20: I've decided my first attempt is a failure. Under cooking of the rice is the primary factor. In my first jar there is about 4cm of liquid built up around the rice, nothing is floating. The rice in the top half of the jar looks completely dried out while the bottom remains moist.



The second jar has absolutely zero liquid build up while at the same time does not appear to have dried out in the way the first jar has. I see lots of 'sweat' on the rice towards the bottom of the jar.



I am attempting another batch today, this time I will use 1.5:1 yeast balls to rice and I am going to boil the rice. I am using sweet rice rather than sushi this time as well.



I purchased some StarSan online so I will not be using bleach this time around.



Note: I have also ordered 10 packets of ARL which should arrive towards the end of the month. I have read a lot of conflicting information whether or not I need to add additional yeast when using ARL. I have access to Lalvin ec-1118 as well as baker's yeast. I was told in another post that I need extra yeast but I would still appreciate some more input. From what I have read in this thread (I am on pg 364) it seems that nobody else pitches any additional yeast on top of ARL.

Fix up a small batch of rice and add your ARL. Make sure to keep everything sanitized. Make note however before you "pitch" the rice flour and mold mixture,the ingredients on the packet. Cheers.

 

[CanadianJesus]

Whew, I finally read my way through the entire thread!

My current batch seems to be going along just fine. My rice is floating on top of two inches of liquid on day 4! It seems the 1.5:1 yeast ball ratio is the ticket for Onto Yeast. I think boiling my rice rather than steaming worked out for me considering my utter lack of steaming experience.

 

[forgeman]

I have made several batches and seem pretty good. my latest batch (4 cups rice 2 balls) and one other one had purple splotches on top. the other batch tasted fine, just wondering if I applied the yeast at too high a temp, or some contamination?
at least my friends seem to like the taste so far.