Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[jak1010]

I looked at the first couple pages of the old threads and found that many of the links to what yeast balls they were using didn't work any longer. My local shop has no clue what I am looking for, even after showing them pictures of what I am after. What online stores have people been getting stuff from?

Just shipped a bunch of stuff to Illinois today. I can hook you up!

 

[jak1010]

Or there's always eBay. Some rando sells some stuff on there.

Rando? What's that? Must be a A Texas thing. Sure ain't Jersey.

 

[jak1010]

Someone on this forum has been selling them on Ebay,Name slips me at the moment.

Some of my hundreds of customers should be backing me up here. Most of them just read and they don't post.

Come on people, sign up and share your experiments.

 

[jak1010]

jak1010. Awesome ebayer btw. Just got a bunch from him last week. If you look up 'chinese yeast balls' on ebay you won't be able to avoid running in to him.

Thanks buddy...I appreciate the kind words. By the way, I'm super excited that you bring this stuff to work with and everyone loves it. Awesome of you!

 

[ChefRex]

Some of my hundreds of customers should be backing me up here. Most of them just read and they don't post.

Come on people, sign up and share your experiments.

KIdding, jak1010 is the man!

 

[jak1010]

KIdding, jak1010 is the man!

Ha, that's great. I'm sending you some RYR. :beer:

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Burnt and oddly made an extremely wet mushy rice. (Forgot it was on stove then tried to save it after the smoke cleared) . After multiple *nearly many* batches, I am seeing mold. I guess its the overly wet rice combined with hot ambient temps.

 

[MasterCrook]

One yeast ball per cup? I use one per gallon, about 5 cups dry. I guess no harm in more yeast.


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I brew because I must.

Yeah, I've had good results with that amount. By the end of fermentation everything is mush and the abv is nice and high

 

[MasterCrook]

Burnt and oddly made an extremely wet mushy rice. (Forgot it was on stove then tried to save it after the smoke cleared) . After multiple *nearly many* batches, I am seeing mold. I guess its the overly wet rice combined with hot ambient temps.

My first batch of white was slightly burnt and some of the rice was stained yellow, like yours. The result was much better than what I expected for a first batch, considering it was burned too. The wine had a really nice sweet malt flavour. I haven't made a white batch since then, but I'd like to make a small batch of burnt rice wine just for the flavour. The quality wasn't the best, but I was more surprised by the fact it actually turned into drinkable wine.

 

[MasterCrook]

I've been watching this thread for awhile, trying to read through the whole thing, but it's so long that I'm still only half way through it. I finally signed up and decide to weigh-in.

Last week on 7/24 I started my first batch of RYR wine and so far it's looking great. The smell is phenomenal, it's lighting up the whole dining room. I used 8 lbs of sushi rice, soaked and steamed, 5 yeast balls and 1 cup of RYR. I ground up the RYR and yeast balls, coated the rice nice and evenly and put it all in a black porcelain enameled stock pot I use for brewing and wine making. So far , so good. I have to keep fioghting the urge to snoop and poke around in it.

I also started a large batch of white rice wine Monday 7/28 using 20 pounds of medium grain rice and 10 yeast balls. I've got a little experience with large batches from my experiments with sake. I steamed the rice, ground up the yeast balls and mixed them with a cup of flour to help get a nice even coat over the rice. I put it in a 6 gallon bucket with an air-lock. When I got home from work the next day it was already bubbling away.

I also have an experiment going with pearled barley. I soaked 2 lbs overnight cooked it in just enough water to cover it, let it cool and coated it with 2 yeastballs mixed with flour. The barley is already getting soft and sweet. I've got so many ideas and experiments that I can't wait to try with this technique. I've ordered 10 lbs of milled black rice and 3 lbs of red sorghum. I'm going to do a batch with each. With the sorghum I'm just not sure if it will have to be crushed first.

Welcome! These sound like some nice batches you have going. Please post pictures of the progress. I'm curious to see how mixing with flour affects the end product. I've heard of this recipe before, but I haven't seen any results from it. There are so many recipes and techniques out there, I've even read about one which involves securing a shallot under the lid off the ferment jar!

 

[madwilliamflint]

Burnt and oddly made an extremely wet mushy rice. (Forgot it was on stove then tried to save it after the smoke cleared) . After multiple *nearly many* batches, I am seeing mold. I guess its the overly wet rice combined with hot ambient temps.

That's interesting. Mine doesn't behave like that at ALL.

I use a jasmine rice and it just sorta loses it's structure, gets soupier and soupier until it's so liquid that it stops holding on to fermentation bubbles entirely. The process is kinda amazing to watch. I've wanted to time-lapse it, but I lack the technology to do so at the moment.

Once that happens, I pour it through a strainer, back in to a jar, then let it settle out and bottle.

 

[jak1010]

I'm looking forward to watching this turn into beautiful rice wine, please post pictures

2 days in. Looking good. Lots of air bubbles and smells awesome. Keeping it in 2 Walmart plastic bags and about 72-75 degrees.

 

[MasterCrook]

2 days in. Looking good. Lots of air bubbles and smells awesome. Keeping it in 2 Walmart plastic bags and about 72-75 degrees.

Nice liquid forming, looks good

 

[Newsman]

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Aspergillus and it mentions THREE types of Aspergillus fungus. Anyone know where I can find the other two types? Thinking especially the black might be fun to use.

 

[jak1010]

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Aspergillus and it mentions THREE types of Aspergillus fungus. Anyone know where I can find the other two types? Thinking especially the black might be fun to use.

That's interesting. I wonder if it can be bought or maybe grown. This stuff is fascinating.

 

[brooklynkayak]

Sorry if I posted this already,

I had made a bunch of cooked White Rose long grain rice, 8 cups dry, for an event that cancelled because of weather. So I threw some ground yeast balls in and stashed it away for 4 weeks.

I was very surprised at how well it turned out, almost as good as the batches made with Thai sweet/glutinous rice.
It cost much less than the fancy Asian, jasmin or basmati rice out there.

I think I paid $14 US for 40 lbs at the supermarket near me.

That works out to cost much less than $0.50 US per liter of rice wine, including the cost of the yeast balls.

I might have to scale up my production

 

[sonofgrok]

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Aspergillus and it mentions THREE types of Aspergillus fungus. Anyone know where I can find the other two types? Thinking especially the black might be fun to use.

Not sure if you saw the post I made a while back. I cultured my yeast balls and actually found Rhizopus oryzae, not aspergillus.

 

[jak1010]

Not sure if you saw the post I made a while back. I cultured my yeast balls and actually found Rhizopus oryzae, not aspergillus.

Haha. And you broke my chops when I said there was a difference when using ARL. Guess what you got there?

Just messing with you. I'm jealous that you have the ability to actually culture and determine what you have in the balls you're using.

 

[Newsman]

Not sure if you saw the post I made a while back. I cultured my yeast balls and actually found Rhizopus oryzae, not aspergillus.

So, can we send you samples of the yeast balls we're using so you can culture them and tell us which fungus we're using?

 

[jak1010]

1 week in and here it is. A big soupy mess. Smells fantastic as usual.

 

[MasterCrook]

1 week in and here it is. A big soupy mess. Smells fantastic as usual.

That really turned to mush. Did you stream or boil the rice? My rice doesn't completely turn like that, some grains are less cooked from the steam and stay intact.

 

[ChefRex]

I've been slacking on harvesting, got another three behind this one

 

[jak1010]

Comm Nazis blocked the video.



Don't get me started......

I boiled. Been looking at steamers but boiling works fine and whenever we make rice to eat, we boil. Maybe if I had the counter space, I'd get a steamer.

 

[jak1010]

That last post was supposed to quote MasterCrook. Not sure what the hell it actually quoted.:what:

Edit: It actually quoted a post from 2006 and a completely different thread on this forum. :what:

 

[sonofgrok]

Haha. And you broke my chops when I said there was a difference when using ARL. Guess what you got there?

Just messing with you. I'm jealous that you have the ability to actually culture and determine what you have in the balls you're using.

I apologize. I would offer you a complementary pair of replacement chops but I can't seem to locate any...

 

[MasterCrook]

That last post was supposed to quote MasterCrook. Not sure what the hell it actually quoted.:what:

Edit: It actually quoted a post from 2006 and a completely different thread on this forum. :what:

Lmao, no worries

 

[MasterCrook]

I've been slacking on harvesting, got another three behind this one

Interesting, how old is that batch? Was the rice steamed or boiled? My batches never turn out like that. I get a thin cap on top with all the liquid under it and sediment on the bottom.

 

[jak1010]

I apologize. I would offer you a complementary pair of replacement chops but I can't seem to locate any...

No need. My chops recover quickly. Must be the healing properties of the wine.

 

[ChefRex]

Interesting, how old is that batch? Was the rice steamed or boiled? My batches never turn out like that. I get a thin cap on top with all the liquid under it and sediment on the bottom.

A little over a month, boiled, looks pretty typical of mine.

 

[madwilliamflint]

This is too cheap to make to not play around with. I started a batch with a handful of blueberries in it just to see what would happen (having a surplus of blueberries from a couple meads I kicked off last weekend.)

What I'm wondering is what the difference would be between having them in there as a part of the primary fermentation, as opposed to tossing some in a 'finished' bottle. So I'll do that side-by-side and report back.

I picked up a big lobster pot a couple weeks ago and I'm sorely tempted to just go gangbusters and make a 5 gallon batch of this.