Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[jak1010]

We need to remember the yeast balls are made regionally. There are loads of them out there, and we are only getting a small sample. They even come in patty cake shapes, wrapped in colored wax paper, etc. The yeast that is rampant in that area helps contribute to these yeast balls. Or so all the articles I have read tell me. The only one I see being made in a more controlled environment is the Angel Rice Leaven. The yeast balls appear quite primitive, and I recall a photo of the 'curing area' showing bamboo mats on the ground, covered with balls, covered by screens, sitting outside in the sun. So depending upon what yeast you have, you may get sweet, sour, etc. We know now that our water amount when cooking plays a huge roll, as does the rice, the # of days before you harvest and whether you stir the sediment back in or go 'all clear'. Plus many of us are sharing/trading/buying different brands of yeast amongst ourselves to get a better comparison. (I have five different ones now, and need to find time to get things made)

Speaking of...have you had a chance to make anything out of the Angel Rice Leaven you purchased from me? I'm interested in your feedback. How about the yeast balls? I thought they were different too.

 

[UnderThePorchBrewing]

had almost decided to not try again until reading recent posts. I had used glutinous rice from asiansupermarket365.com and their Shanghai Rice Cakes (Yeast Balls)

has a very flowery asian aroma and was sweet. the final product was much too much asian flower taste for my and my wife's palate. has anyone compared these to others and can direct me to a less flowery yeast?

 

[saramc]

Speaking of...have you had a chance to make anything out of the Angel Rice Leaven you purchased from me? I'm interested in your feedback. How about the yeast balls? I thought they were different too.

Have not yet used the ARL or the other yeast balls you sent, yet. Literally just started a batch using jasmine rice and the wee little pea sized yeast balls.

Haunted the asian grocer for 1+ hour today. Walked out with black rice, plantains, dried jujubes/red dates, planks of brown sugar, malt flour and mochi. They fed me a dough ball stuffed with bbq pork or something while I stared really hard at their gigantic plastic frisbee looking mats, thinking 'how much rice could be spread out on one to cool?' I have a defect. (Forgot to buy more jasmine rice, must go back, big sigh)

 

[jak1010]

I love it! I think we all share that defect with you... When I walk around (or haunt) the Asian market by me, I get that look from the cashier like "Here's that guy again who buys the strangest mix of ingredients" wondering what the heck I must be doing?

I often get the feeling that they're dying to ask me but can't speak English well enough to do so.

In the back of my mind I truly believe they have a bet amongst themselves (like an office pool) about when I'll be back and what I'll buy next.

 

[billpaustin]

had almost decided to not try again until reading recent posts. I had used glutinous rice from asiansupermarket365.com and their Shanghai Rice Cakes (Yeast Balls)

has a very flowery asian aroma and was sweet. the final product was much too much asian flower taste for my and my wife's palate. has anyone compared these to others and can direct me to a less flowery yeast?

I also got glutinous rice from them, and a bag of "Dried Yeast" in the form of little white balls. The bag is all in Chinese, I don't see a brand. It has little bags of 4 balls each in it. No flower aroma, and they work really well. I'm using one ball per two cups of rice.

 

[Leadgolem]

had almost decided to not try again until reading recent posts. I had used glutinous rice from asiansupermarket365.com and their Shanghai Rice Cakes (Yeast Balls)

has a very flowery asian aroma and was sweet. the final product was much too much asian flower taste for my and my wife's palate. has anyone compared these to others and can direct me to a less flowery yeast?

How much water did you use?

 

[UnderThePorchBrewing]

How much water did you use?

a little less than 1.5 to 1 cup rice
was in the container for 4 weeks but when sampled at 2 weeks had the same flavor.
alcohol was good level
and it did not sour at all until bottled for a month plus

 

[saramc]

had almost decided to not try again until reading recent posts. I had used glutinous rice from asiansupermarket365.com and their Shanghai Rice Cakes (Yeast Balls)

has a very flowery asian aroma and was sweet. the final product was much too much asian flower taste for my and my wife's palate. has anyone compared these to others and can direct me to a less flowery yeast?

May want to consider:
A. Different rice. I know you used a glutinous rice, but was it jasmine?
B. Harvest sooner than 28 days & pasteurize if you plan to keep bottles hanging around. It will sour due to lacto infection otherwise.
C. jak1010 has items on eBay. Angel Rice Leaven, red yeast rice, etc.

FWIW, I have a batch using jasmine rice, rinsed until ran clear, no soaking, using 1:1 rice:water when cooking. The rice is amazing. Individual kernels, fluffy and moist, soft on the outside with the perfect firmness in center. Cannot wait to see how it turns out as wine. Fingers crossed.

 

[Leadgolem]

Yeah, if it wasn't a water ratio thing then try another kind of rice. Here are my tasting notes from a side by side I did of several kinds of grains. These are from the batches that actually yielding something.

Basmati Rice: Moderately sweet, moderately tangy, nice mouth feel, not to thick, very stongly alcoholic. Not bad, but I think I would serve it chilled to take the edge off the tang and the alcohol.

Long Grain White Rice: Very sweet, kinda tangy, almost gravy thick. The texture makes this a little bit gross.

Jasmine Rice: Moderately sweet, slightly tangy, floral aroma, excellent mouth feel, not to thick. Not as strong as the basmati. Very Good.

Japanese sweet rice: Mildly sweet, very mildly tangy, not overtly alcoholic, nice warmth though. Aroma is more fruity. Exceptionally smooth. This is my favorite.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I thought I asked this earlier, but I can't find it. Is there a way to reduce the milky portion of the wine? I find I enjoy the clear portion more.

 

[Leadgolem]

I thought I asked this earlier, but I can't find it. Is there a way to reduce the milky portion of the wine? I find I enjoy the clear portion more.

Cold crashing helps with separation. So does pasteurization. I tried bentonite powder, that didn't work very well.

I has occured to me that letting it drip through a coffee filter would probably reduce the particulates a great deal, though I haven't tried this.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Cold crashing helps with separation. So does pasteurization. I tried bentonite powder, that didn't work very well.

I has occured to me that letting it drip through a coffee filter would probably reduce the particulates a great deal, though I haven't tried this.

I have two batches that will be ready Sunday, I'll try the coffee filter. Pasteurization does make it separate, I was just hoping to produce more clear and less milk overall somehow.

 

[WMBrews]

5cups black Thai 5 cups Thai Jasmine yield about a gallon. A little more fruity than plain Jasmine. Decided to give it a couple seconds in the microwave ( was thinking of traditional heated sake) it seemed to really smooth and round out the flavors!

 

[Leadgolem]

I have two batches that will be ready Sunday, I'll try the coffee filter. Pasteurization does make it separate, I was just hoping to produce more clear and less milk overall somehow.

I decided to try this with some red rice wine right after posting. I put about 3 cups of red rice wine in a coffee filter inside of a colander. In about two hours only about 1 cup of liquid has made it through. I'll leave it overnight and see how it is in the morning.

 

[jak1010]

If you figure out a faster way with the coffee filter, please share. I don't get it, I can brew a 12cup pot of coffee in 10 mins but rice wine takes hours!!!

 

[WMBrews]

I would be cold crashing mine but no room in the fridge, I may have to try the filter as there is just a small about inch size line at the tip thats cleared

 

[billpaustin]

I started drinking my "Sushi Rice" wine, after just one week. And it is quite a bit less sweet than 1wk old "Thai Glutinous Rice" wine, and much more alcoholic. Perhaps it is room temp; I live in the SW mountains, and room temp is now swinging from 70-80 (no A/C).

They shipped my order of 25lbs of Glutinous Rice. OH BOY!!!!

 

[Leadgolem]

If you figure out a faster way with the coffee filter, please share. I don't get it, I can brew a 12cup pot of coffee in 10 mins but rice wine takes hours!!!

I think the filter just gets clogged with all the particulates. Maybe a filter that doesn't filter down to such a small particulate size, like a course wine filter, would work better.

 

[WMBrews]

I think the filter just gets clogged with all the particulates. Maybe a filter that doesn't filter down to such a small particulate size, like a course wine filter, would work better.

You think a fine sieve is to big?

 

[Leadgolem]

You think a fine sieve is to big?

I suppose it would depend on how you did your harvesting. I squeeze mine through a clean tea towel. That's already a finer filter then a fine sieve.

You know, I do have a white polyester weave pillowcase I don't care about around here someplace. I bet that would be just about right. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: I couldn't find that, but I did find some similar scrap fabric. I'll try that as a filter media and see how it works.

 

[saramc]

I think the filter just gets clogged with all the particulates. Maybe a filter that doesn't filter down to such a small particulate size, like a course wine filter, would work better.

For anyone using cloth, make sure your 'filter' is damp before you start. The filtering process goes much smoother.

I use a medium mesh filter bag tucked inside a fine mesh bag. This is after I transferred it thru the coarse filter mesh bag. I also found that if you chill the entire batch and then harvest, you do not get as much milky wine. But, I really like the milky wine. I wonder if a colder fermentation would impact the clarity of the resulting rice wine?

There are bags used in essential oil/herbal/other extractions, called 'bubble bags, ice bubble bags' and you literally layer the bags inside each other with the extraction getting finer & finer as you go. I bet they would be great to use.

WMBrews--any chance you can post a photo of what the black thai rice, the dry rice, looks like?

Upon reading, it seems that there are two common black rice(s), is rices a word, out there. One is short, smooth, oval, polished & the other is longer, skinny, not as polished. I believe the first is called Chinese Black Rice, aka Forbidden or Emperor's Rice; the other is the black Thai (?jasmine) rice can contain rice kernels that are varying shades, black-dark brown-tan-white. So, if I read all of the black rice info correctly it would seem the black Thai rice would be a good choice, but would Forbidden Rice work? Anyone?? I have Forbidden Rice waiting to be cooked.

 

[saramc]

Very good article "3 Rice Wines in China, Their History, Processes and Products", loads of info.

http://www.jiangnan.edu.cn/zhgjiu/u3-1.htm

 

[aiptasia]

Very good article "3 Rice Wines in China, Their History, Processes and Products", loads of info.

http://www.jiangnan.edu.cn/zhgjiu/u3-1.htm

Wow, that's a great article on the history and manufacture of Rice Wine and distilled spirits in China. Interesting that Aspergillis and Rhyzopus are identified in the wheat koji as being the parallel fermentation agents for converting the long chain starches into glucose for the yeast.

I guess the commercial modern parallel to this would be using alpha-amylase enzyme powder and gluco-amylase enzyme powder to break down the rice to glucose and/or fructose yeast food.

The long, cold, step fermentation with lager-esq yeast is also interesting. Again, presumed to give the cold tolerant yeast a competitive advantage and reduce off flavors, creating a cleaner, less fruity flavor profile.

Very cool article. Can't wait to read more of it.

 

[TBBrewer]

Anybody try the pink sweet rice? I am starting a little batch and will report back.

 

[aiptasia]

Looks like a long grain rice, similar to cargo rice.

 

[zaklee]

This is such a long thread I've become a little overwhelmed with information, and perhaps a little confused. So I need a short answer please:

I just drained my wine into two 1QT mason jars. Should I now be aging this? If so, how and where? Loose lid with more sanitized cheese cloth and leave it on the counter? How long or what are the measurable criteria to determine duration?

Once aged, I don't plan to pasteurize.

 

[JuanMoore]

This is such a long thread I've become a little overwhelmed with information, and perhaps a little confused. So I need a short answer please:

I just drained my wine into two 1QT mason jars. Should I now be aging this? If so, how and where? Loose lid with more sanitized cheese cloth and leave it on the counter? How long or what are the measurable criteria to determine duration?

Once aged, I don't plan to pasteurize.

Don't age it unless you're trying for rice wine vinegar. Put it in the fridge and enjoy it.

 

[sonofgrok]

This is such a long thread I've become a little overwhelmed with information, and perhaps a little confused. So I need a short answer please:

I just drained my wine into two 1QT mason jars. Should I now be aging this? If so, how and where? Loose lid with more sanitized cheese cloth and leave it on the counter? How long or what are the measurable criteria to determine duration?

Once aged, I don't plan to pasteurize.

Don't age it, just drink it!

 

[TBBrewer]

This is such a long thread I've become a little overwhelmed with information, and perhaps a little confused. So I need a short answer please:

I just drained my wine into two 1QT mason jars. Should I now be aging this? If so, how and where? Loose lid with more sanitized cheese cloth and leave it on the counter? How long or what are the measurable criteria to determine duration?

Once aged, I don't plan to pasteurize.

Be careful with sealing it as it still slowly ferments a bit after straining. Burp it or leave the lid a little loose.

 

[zaklee]

Don't age it, just drink it!

I took a share off for a taste and put it in a small desert wine glass so I could see it better. I put that in the fridge to get to about 50F. It separated quite a bit in just a little while. Since it was already in the glass (up to the top) I didn't mix it. The clear liquid at the top was very tart and my wife didn't like it. I was reserving judgement. When I got to the "cream" below it was significantly improved. I take it that this should be stirred prior to serving.