Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[Tinhorn]

Green mold. Like one would get on food that had been left out a few days.

I had black or brownish mold on my very first batch that I suspect was from too much water 2/1 ratio and not letting cool enough as it hasn't happened again

All that being said it didn't grow much from when it formed initially and I harvested with removing the mold and consumed

It was good enough as I am now on my 12th gallon batch I believe

 

[Tinhorn]

Well just great ! I jinxed myself just checked on 3 gallon jar and one had brownish black mold on top and no clue what I did different lol

 

[CooperBrew]

Just bottled up my first batches a few moments ago. One was made with Sushi rice and one with Jasmine rice. The Sushi rice had a different aroma, a bit stronger smelling. I added raspberries to the Sushi Rice (pink color) and blueberries to the Jasmine (purplish). I have them in the fridge to chill, going to try them tonight. These were made in 1 gal jars, with 6 cups of rice and 2 yeast balls each. The bottles are 1 liter in size.

 

[jak1010]

Just bottled up my first batches a few moments ago. One was made with Sushi rice and one with Jasmine rice. The Sushi rice had a different aroma, a bit stronger smelling. I added raspberries to the Sushi Rice (pink color) and blueberries to the Jasmine (purplish). I have them in the fridge to chill, going to try them tonight. These were made in 1 gal jars, with 6 cups of rice and 2 yeast balls each. The bottles are 1 liter in size.

Great idea with the raspberry. I'd open them every few hours to release some pressure while it's getting cold. Although I haven't had any bad experiences, I do believe it came close judging by the amount of"pop" I got when opening a few.

 

[saramc]

Oh the raspberry/blueberry look great. Mulberries will be ripe when my batch is harvested!!

 

[Newsman]

So I was in Atlanta today and came across the "Hong Kong Supermarket" and had to stop and see if they had yeast balls and RYR. They didn't have any RYR that I could see and none of the stock "boys" spoke English, so I couldn't ask them.
However, I did pick up some new types of yeast balls to try (as well as a big bag of the main ones I use.) Posting some pics with this. (note, these are actually PNG files, not sure why they're being renamed to JPG when I upload 'em...)

There are 14 individual packages in the big bag of "Hapy Panda" yeast balls. Got that for about $6.

 

[jak1010]

Are any of those refrigerated?

 

[Ostomo517]

Brewing right now Thai Jasmine/Thai Black batch, black must soak for 6 hrs so be forewarned!!! Look should be interesting in the final wine as the pic below is what the black did to the soak water. Its more the color of grape Koolaid

 

[Newsman]

Here's a link on how to make your own RYR. I suspect that if you grind up a couple tablespoons of RYR, and mix it with some cooked rice, then dry it in the oven after a week or so of fermenting, you'd have your own RYR supply. Of course, you risk contaminating it with wild yeasties...

 

[jak1010]

Did you get the package?

 

[Leadgolem]

So I was in Atlanta today and came across the "Hong Kong Supermarket" and had to stop and see if they had yeast balls and RYR. They didn't have any RYR that I could see and none of the stock "boys" spoke English, so I couldn't ask them.
However, I did pick up some new types of yeast balls to try (as well as a big bag of the main ones I use.) Posting some pics with this. (note, these are actually PNG files, not sure why they're being renamed to JPG when I upload 'em...)

There are 14 individual packages in the big bag of "Hapy Panda" yeast balls. Got that for about $6.

Not all browsers will display embedded .png files, so the HBT server turned them into .jpg files. It probably also resized them for you.

Here's a link on how to make your own RYR. I suspect that if you grind up a couple tablespoons of RYR, and mix it with some cooked rice, then dry it in the oven after a week or so of fermenting, you'd have your own RYR supply. Of course, you risk contaminating it with wild yeasties...

Hmm, I think I will try drying the leftover starch mass from my current batch of red rice wine in my food dehydrator. It should be interesting to try some of that in a small batch and see what it does. I'm fairly confident that will murder the amylase producing mold, but the yeast from the yeast balls and the monascus purpureus might survive it.

 

[Leadgolem]

An update on the RYR batch made with the leftover starch mass. It appears to be progressing normally. It is now just under two weeks old. I've got about 3 inches of damp mushy rice, followed by a very soupy mixture bellow that. I was checking on it to see if it had formed a starch cap that needed to be punctured. It hadn't. I believe I had that problem with the last batch because the rice was to densely packed in the container. It's got about 8 more days to go before I plan to harvest.

 

[saramc]

Here's a link on how to make your own RYR....

I was reading thru the associated links and found a 'how to make rice wine' link, http://www.ehow.com/how_2059791_make-rice-wine.html
which indiates that for every 4 cups dry glutinous rice you should use just 1/4 of a yeast ball. I guess I will try using 2.5gm of yeast ball per 4c dry rice and see what happens. Eventually.
...Sara

 

[TBBrewer]

Brewing right now Thai Jasmine/Thai Black batch, black must soak for 6 hrs so be forewarned!!! Look should be interesting in the final wine as the pic below is what the black did to the soak water. Its more the color of grape Koolaid

Nice! I am looking forward to the outcome of this batch. I will try to get one started in parallel this week.

 

[TBBrewer]

So I was in Atlanta today and came across the "Hong Kong Supermarket" and had to stop and see if they had yeast balls and RYR. They didn't have any RYR that I could see and none of the stock "boys" spoke English, so I couldn't ask them.
However, I did pick up some new types of yeast balls to try (as well as a big bag of the main ones I use.) Posting some pics with this. (note, these are actually PNG files, not sure why they're being renamed to JPG when I upload 'em...)

There are 14 individual packages in the big bag of "Hapy Panda" yeast balls. Got that for about $6.

Those yeast balls look interesting. The ones in the small blue package are similar to the ones I picked up in a Vietnamese store locally. They worked great and tasted great. The large package is similar to what others have used on here frequently. The small package with red lettering are unique. I wonder how those differ, if at all, from the others. Do you plan to run an experiment with the 3 to get different tasting notes?

 

[Newsman]

Those yeast balls look interesting. The ones in the small blue package are similar to the ones I picked up in a Vietnamese store locally. They worked great and tasted great. The large package is similar to what others have used on here frequently. The small package with red lettering are unique. I wonder how those differ, if at all, from the others. Do you plan to run an experiment with the 3 to get different tasting notes?

Well, sort of. I had planned on mixing/matching more or less at random. I have my first batch going and it's a mixture of RYR and some that look similar in packaging to the "Happy Panda" yeast balls (they're different in that they have a stag on the packaging instead of a panda bear.)
My first ever batch of rice wine has been going a week. It started out in a two-gallon container full of rice. It's now down to about 2" of head space, so something must be working. OTOH, I'm anxious, so I'm tempted to grind up some of the little blue ones and toss them in on top of what's already there, just to see if that would help it work faster/better.

The small packaging with the red writing says they are a product of Vietnam, and I think some other folks here have found some similar yeast balls.

 

[saramc]

Newsman....how many days in are you?

 

[Newsman]

Newsman....how many days in are you?

right about 7 days. Pretty sure I cooked the rice on the day before Memorial Day

 

[TBBrewer]

Well, sort of. I had planned on mixing/matching more or less at random. I have my first batch going and it's a mixture of RYR and some that look similar in packaging to the "Happy Panda" yeast balls (they're different in that they have a stag on the packaging instead of a panda bear.)
My first ever batch of rice wine has been going a week. It started out in a two-gallon container full of rice. It's now down to about 2" of head space, so something must be working. OTOH, I'm anxious, so I'm tempted to grind up some of the little blue ones and toss them in on top of what's already there, just to see if that would help it work faster/better.

The small packaging with the red writing says they are a product of Vietnam, and I think some other folks here have found some similar yeast balls.

It would be interesting if you did 3 batches, cooked exactly the same and see if there are any tasting notes.

 

[CooperBrew]

I tried a drink from both the Sushi rice and the Jasmine rice wines I made and flavored yesterday since they had a chance to chill a bit. I definitely prefer the taste of the Jasmine. It doesn't have as strong of a smell to it and seems a bit mellower. The Sushi rice has a more pungent odor to it that I don't find very pleasing.

 

[Ostomo517]

I tried a drink from both the Sushi rice and the Jasmine rice wines I made and flavored yesterday since they had a chance to chill a bit. I definitely prefer the taste of the Jasmine. It doesn't have as strong of a smell to it and seems a bit mellower. The Sushi rice has a more pungent odor to it that I don't find very pleasing.

As in a hot odor?

 

[Newsman]

It would be interesting if you did 3 batches, cooked exactly the same and see if there are any tasting notes.

I'm sure it would. Wanna provide me with the containers?

I discovered that the "Happy Panda" brand are NOT what I used last time. They look similar in packaging, but aren't the same.

 

[CooperBrew]

As in a hot odor?

Kind of hard to describe as I'm new to all this but as my son put it, "It smells like dirty socks"
It doesn't taste bad really, just the smell that hits before you take a drink isn't very pleasant. The Jasmine rice had a similar order but very much subdued. After sitting in the fridge overnight it mostly disappeared and tastes better IMO.

I have 1 more Jasmine rice currently fermenting with a different brand of yeast ball than I used last time. I'll compare that to these batches and see how they compare in a couple of weeks.

I wish I had someone else close to me making this stuff to compare how they smell and taste.

 

[Gar]

Darn!, I have two huge asian markets nearby, and I know RYR must be there somewhere. My attempts at asking have failed due to my language limitations...I can barely describe what I am looking for in English.

i went to the same asian store at different times the first time i asked the lady behind the checkout no luck the second time was the stock woman and she took me straight to them at the checkout counter. i just figured that the stock woman helps people find stuff all day and put it there anyway.

 

[Leadgolem]

Kind of hard to describe as I'm new to all this but as my son put it, "It smells like dirty socks"
It doesn't taste bad really, just the smell that hits before you take a drink isn't very pleasant. The Jasmine rice had a similar order but very much subdued. After sitting in the fridge overnight it mostly disappeared and tastes better IMO.

I have 1 more Jasmine rice currently fermenting with a different brand of yeast ball than I used last time. I'll compare that to these batches and see how they compare in a couple of weeks.

I wish I had someone else close to me making this stuff to compare how they smell and taste.

I think I described that same aroma as "mushroomy". Sort of an earthy+yeasty smell, but not really in a good way. That happened to every batch I made with regular long grain rice.

Sweetening helped with that a lot. So did aging for a couple months.

 

[Leadgolem]

I'm sure it would. Wanna provide me with the containers?

I discovered that the "Happy Panda" brand are NOT what I used last time. They look similar in packaging, but aren't the same.

Pick up some mason jars. They make good containers for small test batches.

 

[TBBrewer]

I think I described that same aroma as "mushroomy". Sort of an earthy+yeasty smell, but not really in a good way. That happened to every batch I made with regular long grain rice.

Sweetening helped with that a lot. So did aging for a couple months.

I was thinking this was possibly lacto? Is that possible?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Only a little over a week in and we already have liquidification. Im going to give it two more weeks, but I dont forsee there being much "pulpy" matter at all. This is really cool! If I like the finished product I think I am going to take one of the posters here up on his offer of lots of yeast balls and make a giant crock of it.

 

[wooda2008]

Oh dear... I forgot when I started my last batch 0.o
I suppose I'll just have to do daily taste tests until it's just right ^_^

 

[TheDemonSlick]

Big Batch... went down 6/1 easy to remember... 7 lbs dry rice, after cooking 3 gallons by volume. 7 crushed yeast balls, 1 lb red yeast rice. Cooled overnight, mixed by hand in a 6.75 gallon bucket, now covered and airlocked.