Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[choosybeggar]

Been lurking in this thread. Tried it with panda balls and jasmine rice. Harvested today. Got about 2.5 L of lovely rice wine. Now pasteurized and cooling. Next the big test; will my wife like it?

 

[choosybeggar]

I also tried a similar approach with two-row plus crystal malt. Twas a complete flop. I think the hulls absorbstoo much liquid severely limiting yield. On tasting, the bit of liquid I could get didn't seem very alcoholic, if at all.

 

[sonofgrok]

Been lurking in this thread. Tried it with panda balls and jasmine rice. Harvested today. Got about 2.5 L of lovely rice wine. Now pasteurized and cooling. Next the big test; will my wife like it?

How do you like it?

 

[Spinrathen]

What would be the harm in rinsing cooked rice with cold water to cool it I wonder? I think I'll try it next time.

 

[bottlebomber]

I also tried a similar approach with two-row plus crystal malt. Twas a complete flop. I think the hulls absorbstoo much liquid severely limiting yield. On tasting, the bit of liquid I could get didn't seem very alcoholic, if at all.

I wonder how it would work with wheat malt, or heck, quinoa for that matter.

 

[Drunken0ne]

I am always impatient for some unknown reason. I followed the directions from what sono originally posted. I used the 1:1 ratio rice to water . Maybe the only difference is a 1 gallon jar that was about half full. I made 2 batches one that wasn't soaked for an hour and one that was soaked, both were rinsed. Found ingredients at local Chinese market, 53ave and Bell in Az. I asked and the lady, she said ask him he knows everything, guy said down aisle 7. Found it below extracts. I pitched my yeast when the rice was hot to the touch, it was hard to hold due to heat. There was condensation that was creating in the bottle that I used so rice was warm. I keep it in my laundry room, please no debates on germs. In a hopslam box 12 pack box, that has a black towel covering it. Temperature is about 70 degrees. I will report in in about 2 weeks, if I get black mold. Rice seems to be really dried out at the top. This is a peek after 1 week, well actually the daily peak as I want to see if and when the black mold grows.

 

[choosybeggar]

How do you like it?

I likes it real fine. Nice sweetness with a hint of sour. Clean alcoholic burn. Super-good.

 

[zeapo]

Okay, so after following this thread for a few days I went out and found the yeast balls. The ones I found are the same as battlegoat found. Tomorrow, sunday, will be 7 days fermenting. I haven't opened or stirred or anything since I closed the lid. Everything seems to be going fine. I used two yeast balls to 4 cups dry measured rice, in half gallon mason jars. 2 batches.
I also found a pack of yeast balls that were larger, about an inch in diameter. So I made a batch with the same weight of yeast as the smaller two balls, just to see which yeast would work better.
The 1 thats with the larger yeast balls in it has bright yellow goo with green fuzzy mold spots on it, but only on the top of the rice not on the sides. Is it just me or would you say that this batch is a loss? Other than the green spots on top, everything else seems to be going normal. In fact it seems to be going faster...
Should I let it ride?

This is my only experience with anything other than all grain brewing.

Oh and its my first post!

 

[Ostomo517]

Okay, so after following this thread for a few days I went out and found the yeast balls. The ones I found are the same as battlegoat found. Tomorrow, sunday, will be 7 days fermenting. I haven't opened or stirred or anything since I closed the lid. Everything seems to be going fine. I used two yeast balls to 4 cups dry measured rice, in half gallon mason jars. 2 batches.
I also found a pack of yeast balls that were larger, about an inch in diameter. So I made a batch with the same weight of yeast as the smaller two balls, just to see which yeast would work better.
The 1 thats with the larger yeast balls in it has bright yellow goo with green fuzzy mold spots on it, but only on the top of the rice not on the sides. Is it just me or would you say that this batch is a loss? Other than the green spots on top, everything else seems to be going normal. In fact it seems to be going faster...
Should I let it ride?

This is my only experience with anything other than all grain brewing.

Oh and its my first post!

First off welcome to the best homebrewing forum there is! As far as your rice goes, the mold sounds.kinds strange, any pics? But I would advise as Im sure most here would, let it go to the end and see what happens. It aint like its gonna break outta the jar and get you in your sleep........probably.

 

[zeapo]

I'm at work right now, but I will take some pictures as soon as I get a chance and post em

 

[mpride1911]

I keep seeing people talk about pasteurizing this. How are they doing that, and is it required?

 

[bottlebomber]

I keep seeing people talk about pasteurizing this. How are they doing that, and is it required?

Go to the cider part of the forum and read the bottle pasteurization sticky. As far as if it is necessary, I would say no, unless you think it is going to be around a long time. Mine is stored at room temperature, non pasteurized, and while it has definitely developed over the last couple weeks it actually seems pretty stable.

 

[saramc]

The 1 thats with the larger yeast balls in it has bright yellow goo with green fuzzy mold spots on it, but only on the top of the rice not on the sides. Is it just me or would you say that this batch is a loss? Other than the green spots on top, everything else seems to be going normal. In fact it seems to be going faster...
Should I let it ride?

This is my only experience with anything other than all grain brewing.

Oh and its my first post!

Congrats on first post! My suggestion about the yellow goo/mold would be just remove the upper most part. I had dark green mold appear in spots on one batch and I just scooped them away. They did not redevelop.

I keep seeing people talk about pasteurizing this. How are they doing that, and is it required?

The reason pasteurization is recommended is because this wine is prone to develop lactobacillus. It takes so little time to pasteurize and you can do it by bottle, by jar or even in bulk by filling nonreactive pan on stovetop(cover with lid).

 

[mpride1911]

The jar on the left started last Saturday and has the fuzzy mold. The one on the right was started last Sunday and never exhibited any mold. Clearly there's a difference in the fluid.

 

[Tinhorn]

First batch I did at ratio of 2 to 1 on water and I think I pitched the yeast balls before the rice was cool enough and it developed a little black mold but was drinkable and tasty actually and is gone !
The black mold developed at 14 days but never grew beyond the initial amount and I harvested at 21 days
I have started two new batches a week apart at a 1 to 1 ratio and have passed the 14 day mark on the first with no black mold
My advice for what it's worth is reduce the water and let it cool to just warm to touch

I also strained thru double colander with cheese cloth doubled over and it took forever to drain and ended up having to squeeze most of the liquid out so will try single layer of cheese cloth next time

Enjoy!

 

[Arrheinous]

Bottled after 3 weeks. It was pretty much three weeks to the day that the rice separated out of the liquid like it knew it was ready. The volume was small enough that I could do a double-pan pasteurization (float a metal bowl in a pot of boiling water and wait for the wine to hit the right temp). I pasteurized at 130F but I figure the point is to kill the yeast and not boil any nasties to death.

4 cups rice ended up with a full 1L bottle and a full small mason jar. Prepping a double batch today since it's so cheap and easy to make.

 

[Ostomo517]

Bottled after 3 weeks. It was pretty much three weeks to the day that the rice separated out of the liquid like it knew it was ready. The volume was small enough that I could do a double-pan pasteurization (float a metal bowl in a pot of boiling water and wait for the wine to hit the right temp). I pasteurized at 130F but I figure the point is to kill the yeast and not boil any nasties to death.

4 cups rice ended up with a full 1L bottle and a full small mason jar. Prepping a double batch today since it's so cheap and easy to make.

Looks great! I store mine in the same bottle, it definately attracts attention when I have friends over and they notice it on my bar.

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

Well, bad news for me.

I just dumped my 3 large jars, the 1 batch that I had. To refresh, I had made a batch using both sweet and Jasmine rice. One jar of each rice, and another was a combo of the two. I kept them on the kitchen counter, and mixed 1 yeast ball per cup of rice used.

Today was day 21. I opened them all to find a very strong acetone smell. The jasmine only jar was the worst. It had a SUPER strong acetone smell, nothing else. I strained the liquid from the rice, and smelled it. Still all acetone. So bad it was hard to dump down the sink and filled the room with the smell. Really bad. Dumped it.

The sweet/ jasmine jar was pretty strong with the acetone smell, but it had a very slight rice/ fruit undertone. Strained it from the rice, and tasted a very very small amount. Terrible. Dumped it.

The sweet only jar was actually not that strong on the acetone smell. It was more of an undertone. It had a slightly I guess bready/ yeasty smell to it as well, with acetone coming through last. This is after my nose being assaulted by the horrible smells from the other two jars. I tasted a very very small sip. Taste had a slight burn, with almost a chemical taste. Didnt want to taste any more if it. Dumped it.

Well, I am not sure at all how the acetone smell/ flavor got into there. Not sure if its the yeast balls I used, or if its the procedure of making it (everything sanitized with starsan), or the way I kept it. It was on my kitchen counter, close to a window, and the lids were very loose on the jars. I decided to let it go the full 21 dyas to see if maybe the acetone smell was a "stage" of the process. Guess not.

Good news is I already have more rice soaking right now to give it another go. I am using only Jasmine this time, as thats what the original recipe had called for. Any suggestions or tips or thoughts, please share.

Tips I learned for the next batch: tighter lids, maybe better sanitation, dont keep in direct light, let it sit the 3 weeks, be patient, and dont mess with it!

 

[HopHeaven]

Yeah, definitely tighten up those lids and keep it in the dark

 

[Leadgolem]

My next experiment will be an interesting one. I'm running 5 parallel batches. Each one is being handled the same, but is made with a different grain. They are currently soaking for an hour. Then I will rinse and cook them in my rice cooker with a 1:1 ratio of dry grain to water in the cooker. Each jar has 1.5 cups of dry grain in it. I will let them cool overnight, and mix the cooked rice with 1 crushed rice yeast ball each.

I expect the wheat berries and brown rice to be complete disasters.

 

[malweth]

Been lurking in this thread. Tried it with panda balls and jasmine rice. Harvested today. Got about 2.5 L of lovely rice wine. Now pasteurized and cooling. Next the big test; will my wife like it?

No wonder they have such trouble reproducing!


I've finally finished reading through this thread (started Friday evening). I picked up all the ingredients except the yeast balls (ordered them). I'm also going to look for Thai jasmine rice . . . when I bought supplies I'd only gotten as far as a recommendation for Sushi rice. It sounds like that's a plan to can.

I'll put it in the fermentation chamber between brews. If this works out, I'll get some Goya nectar or berry juice to mix in and pasteurize.

 

[Leadgolem]

Ah! I forgot, I've got sushi rice too. I'll start some of that going.

EDIT: Correction, Japanese sweet rice not sushi rice.

 

[choosybeggar]

Served my new rice wine to guests last night. Nobody stopped at one glass :rockin:

 

[00radio]

So figured I should report back. I used half sushi rice and half "wild purple sweet rice." The purple rice gave it this really nice color, but unfortunately the rice itself didn't really break down. Had quite a bit of pulp leftover to strain at the end. Pretty good stuff with just a hint of sourness to it.

I got bored a week ago so I went digging through my pantry and found a couple of sweet potatoes. So I cooked them up, peeled em, and then stuffed it in a jar with some of the yeast balls. Interesting stuff. Had a good inch of white mold growing on top. WAY more than I ever saw with the rice. Smell was a bit sour for a while, but has mostly faded. They're starting to break down and the jar is about half full with liquid at the bottom. Another week or two and I'll sample it. I'll put up some pics if I can find my camera later tonight.

 

[bottlebomber]

So figured I should report back. I used half sushi rice and half "wild purple sweet rice." The purple rice gave it this really nice color, but unfortunately the rice itself didn't really break down. Had quite a bit of pulp leftover to strain at the end. Pretty good stuff with just a hint of sourness to it.

I got bored a week ago so I went digging through my pantry and found a couple of sweet potatoes. So I cooked them up, peeled em, and then stuffed it in a jar with some of the yeast balls. Interesting stuff. Had a good inch of white mold growing on top. WAY more than I ever saw with the rice. Smell was a bit sour for a while, but has mostly faded. They're starting to break down and the jar is about half full with liquid at the bottom. Another week or two and I'll sample it. I'll put up some pics if I can find my camera later tonight.

Funny, I was thinking of doing just what you did with the sweet potatoes. I may put a small layer of rice wine over the top to discourage fungus. This is probably how shōchu is made, only it is distilled.

 

[WesleyS]

I got bored a week ago so I went digging through my pantry and found a couple of sweet potatoes. So I cooked them up, peeled em, and then stuffed it in a jar with some of the yeast balls. Interesting stuff. Had a good inch of white mold growing on top. WAY more than I ever saw with the rice. Smell was a bit sour for a while, but has mostly faded. They're starting to break down and the jar is about half full with liquid at the bottom. Another week or two and I'll sample it. I'll put up some pics if I can find my camera later tonight.

Sounds like an interesting experiment. I'm interested in how this turns out.

 

[user 83772]

This is probably how shōchu is made, only it is distilled.

I'm not familiar with shochu, but it'd be interesting to take the results of a sweet potato/yeast ball ferment and freeze concentrate it like you would applejack to see if the end product was similar.

 

[bottlebomber]

I'm not familiar with shochu, but it'd be interesting to take the results of a sweet potato/yeast ball ferment and freeze concentrate it like you would applejack to see if the end product was similar.

It's a lot like vodka but more aromatic and not as sweet at ~30%. They make it traditionally from barley, sweet potatoes or rice.

 

[choosybeggar]

I started my second batch yesterday and tasted a little of the early fermentation today. Just a tinge of sourness and sweetness to the rice. Which makes me wonder, what about this method of brewing rice wine leads to the sourness, a flavor I rather like but never detect in commercial sake?

 

[sonofgrok]

I started my second batch yesterday and tasted a little of the early fermentation today. Just a tinge of sourness and sweetness to the rice. Which makes me wonder, what about this method of brewing rice wine leads to the sourness, a flavor I rather like but never detect in commercial sake?

Commercial sake is made differently than this. This is really "rice wine". Arapolis did a thread on SAKE sake that I think I linked on post #1. "Sake" is just the easiest way to describe this to someone.