I've been reading this thread too much and have confused my self. So my first batch now being properly flushed down the toilet I'm ready to attempt number two. I don't have a rice cooker, can someone please share a success story on what they did? For example I'm going to use four cups of dry jasmine rice, soak or not soak? How much water to add 1 water per cup rice, 1.25? Boil for how long? Sorry for asking what has probably been covered a hundred times, but every time I find an answer I find someone who did it a different way and I lost track of whos worked and who's didn't.
Cheers all.
Rinse the dry rice until water runs clear, then soak the rice in water until the volume increases by 1/3, then strain and rinse rice until runs clear again. For jasmine rice... add 1.5 times the amount of original dry rice (the rice has absorbed some water during soaking)...prepare by boiling or steaming. You want the rice cooked so the external grain is soft yet the center is lightly firm. You do not want rice mush.
This may help:
1. Place in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. You should choose a pan which allows at least 1" of dry rice to fill bottom of pan.
2. Bring the water to a boil, add soaked/rinsed rice and stir once with a fork. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cover the pan with lid.
3. Leave at low simmer for 25 minutes and do not remove the lid or stir, no peeking.
4. At the end of 25 minutes, remove from heat source & allow to stand, still covered, don't peek, for 10 - 15 minutes.
5. You can now remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork and transfer to cookie sheet so it can start cooling down for yeast innoculation. Turn the rice periodically to help ensure consistent cooling.
If you absolutely want to watch the rice cook, add 2x the amount of water compared to original dry rice amount, and simply do not apply lid. The rice will cook at a low simmer as outlined above but you can watch it, continue with steps 4&5 of course.
I searched this thread and I'm sure it's been discussed but I couldn't bring myself to go through all ninety something pages. I'm on my third batch and am having some trouble straining the final product. The last batch I ended up with a few chunks when I bottled. I tried a hop sack at first but that held too much liquid and was a pain to get it all strained. I can't recall exactly what I used the second time but it didn't get all the chunks out. How do you all go about straining?
My batches are small, just 4-6 cups of dry rice, and I have had success using a gallon sized medium mesh nylon straining bag tucked inside a fine mesh nylon straining bag. The bags are placed inside a 2-3 gallon bucket and secured with bungee type cord. As the rice volume compacts I simply roll up the sides of the bag so the straining fermented rice mass is further from the bottom of the bucket. I choose NOT to squeeze this first run, but I later switch to a different container like a one gallon wide mouth pitcher/jar and use that to collect the pressed/squeezed 'rice beer'. I just stash the first run in cold spot overnight and by the next morning it is pretty dry and compacted. I may check it in a few hours so I can roll up the material, raise the level of the dripping mass. Works for me and actually takes little effort.