Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

[dwhill]

I sort of agitate as well, but i keep the lid closed and just rotate jars in a fast twist motion to allow trapped co2 to escape and make the slurry more uniform

Maybe that's the ticket. If not agitated, a crust forms upon the rice surface. Whatever the reason, agitating seems to be required.

 

[brooklynkayak]

I have talked to a few Chinese and one Korean who made rice wine the way they traditionally made rice wine in their family and they never stirred theirs.

Most don't know why, it's just the way it has always been done in their families.

One person felt that the crust at the top contained mold that you don't want to mix into the wine, but I suspect that is just an opinion.

I have tried batches with and without stirring and have found very little difference, but one batch that I stirred did have a little bit of an off taste, but still very drinkable.

So I tend to not stir/shake any more.

 

[Zymomancer]

Easy Rice Wine (No Straining)​

Wow, thanks for posting this, for some reason I never thought of doing it all in a bag. Straining everything is indeed pretty annoying and messy. I think when I make this again I'll do the secondary fermentation as well.

 

[z-bob]

@Dwhill: If I use your method with a 5 gallon bucket instead of a 6, do I need to scale it back a little? Thanks.

 

[MasterCrook]

I've tried both agitation and no agitation as well, however, I never stir or even open the lid. I find that with the agitation the fermentation becomes more vigorous and it can be seen by the increased frequency of bubbles rising, even after the mixture has settled again.

 

[Skylark]

Just started my first batch! 4 C Thai Jasmine rice, plus 8 C water, cooked. 2 yeast balls, smashed, mixed into rice in 1 Gal fermenter bucket (fills it about half way up). Airlock installed, off we go!
Update: pretty soupy when I stirred it today. I licked the spoon afterwards, quite sweet.
Update (4/28/2016): my house got cold, so it has slowed down, but there's much more alcohol flavor. Not bad, though: it's still sweet, and I was tempted to just pour myself a glass!! OP wasn't kidding about requiring some willpower to avoid consuming it all at once, haha.

 

[Martincarmelamason]

Thanks for this easy recipe. Would love to try this out.

 

[user 211287]

If you want to use Jasmine and save money look for "broken" Jasmine at an Asian market. Its usually quite a bit cheaper and should be fine for rice wine. It also cooks quicker and water/rice ratio is usually 1 to 1.

 

[eigua]

Here are the tasting notes. Interesting that they are so different.

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.

Given the prices of the different kinds of rice, I think I will continue making rice wine with the originally recommended Jasmine rice. It's been an interesting experiment though.

Leadgolumn's experiment using different types of rice:
Initial post
Results
Tasting notes

I know I'm replying to an ancient message, but I wanted to say thank you for doing the experiment! Sadly, I have 2 batches using long grain rice that I started, one 3-4 days ago and one bigger one yesterday with some red yeast too. I read the first 50 pages of this thread (lots of great information!), and hadn't seen anyone say they tried long grain rice, so I figured it would be worth a shot. Then upon searching for it, I came across your experiment. Depressing results from the long grain! My first batch is just sitting there with a huge dome of white mold on top and the other one hasn't done anything yet. I guess I gotta go buy some jasmine or sticky rice if I want to do this. I was hoping I could just use the giant (and cheap) 25 lb bag of white rice I have sitting here. Ahh well. Live and learn.

Thanks again!

Edit: In an effort to save the bigger batch (4c dry), I've added quite a bit more red rice yeast (only used maybe 1tbl before) because I remember reading some posts describing much more complete liquefaction when using a combination of yeast balls and red rice yeast. I'm hoping the added RRY will provide more amylase to convert the long grain rice quicker so the yeast can do its work. (I'm theorizing that the monascus purpureus in the RRY will also create amylase.)

 

[CanadianJesus]

For an alternative cheap rice, rather than using regular old long grain white rice, I'm having some decent results using Botan Calrose Sushi Rice. It won't be ready to harvest until Monday, but it's created a decent amount of liquid. I used 10 cups of rice and 13 cups of water. I'll report back my total yield when I get around to harvesting.

This rice costs me 12$ for a fairly large bag (Canadian dollars). On the other hand, sweet rice costs me 3.50$-5.50$ for 2Kg depending on which store I get it from. (No local Asian markets, I live in a small town).

 

[user 211287]

Botan is not really a sushi rice or a short grain. Its a hybrid developed in California many years ago. However it does work. Kokuho Rose also sells a cal rose rice. Pink label and yellow label. The Pink label is about the same price as Botan. The yellow label is cheaper.

A excellent cheap rice is Rhee Chun rice. Its a Korean variety hybrid from Cali. It too is almost a short grain but shorter than many medium grain rices.

If price isnt a problem look for:
HITOMEBORE
AKITAKOMACHI
KOSHIHIKARI
AKITA OTOME

These are not brands "per say" but a short grain variety. They are all true short grain rices and also used for making sushi. My next batch is with a short grain (Koshihikari) and sweet rice hybrid called Snow Flake or Milky Queen.

This should make an excellent rice wine but it may end up sweet. Its not super cheap but it is cheaper than good "sushi rice"

 

[CanadianJesus]

Wow, that SnowFlake rice would cost me 55$ for 6.8Kg on Amazon. That's 8$ per Kg of rice .

It looks like I might just have to run a little mission on my next trip to the local city to find an Asian market. I've found one on google but it's a small store.

 

[eigua]

If you want to use Jasmine and save money look for "broken" Jasmine at an Asian market. Its usually quite a bit cheaper and should be fine for rice wine. It also cooks quicker and water/rice ratio is usually 1 to 1.

Thanks for the tip! I just bought some Three Ladies Brand broken jasmine rice today (5 lb bag, not 50 ). It was $3.99 in SF Chinatown. It says 1/1.5 on the rice/water ratio on the bag.

I also picked up a 5 lb bag of Apple Brand sweet rice for $4.50 -- I liked the small roundish grains better than the more common (and slightly cheaper - $3.99) thai sweet rice which looks pretty long-grain to me.

Also got a 1 lb bag of glutenous rice flour for $0.89 (one place had it for $0.79). I'm going to do some experiments with glutenous rice flour. I see no reason why rice flour couldn't work on its own, plus it's cheaper per pound than whole rice. At the very least, maybe adding some glutenous rice flour to the sweet/jasmine rice could give it a boost. I'm also planning to try a few mixed batches to see if adding glutenous rice or rice flour to normal long-grain rice might turn out more successful than long-grain rice alone (this would be cheaper if it worked).

Oddly, none of the shops in Chinatown (I went in probably 20+ today) had the yeast balls which I found surprising. Only one had the red yeast rice. But I didn't need either because I had already bought some elsewhere.

 

[user 211287]

It says 1/1.5 on the rice/water ratio on the bag.

That is most likely because of how broken rice is used and the types of dishes its used to make. It will come out like a gruel. Imagine Cream of Wheat or oatmeal consistency if you use the more common rice to water ratio. When cooked to come out like regular rice you can use less water and a shorter cook time.

Experiment and see what works best for you before doing a large batch.

The SnowFlake rice i just cooked has tiny and i mean tiny grains. Thai sweet rice is a longer grain variety, closer to Jasmine in size. Korean, Chinese and Japanese sweet rice varieties are fairly short.

I use glutenous rice flour when grinding RYR sometimes. Just a little added to the grinder. Mostly i use it for making a type of "porridge" used in Korean cuisine. Kimchi paste is my most common use.

 

[eigua]

That is most likely because of how broken rice is used and the types of dishes its used to make. It will come out like a gruel. Imagine Cream of Wheat or oatmeal consistency if you use the more common rice to water ratio. When cooked to come out like regular rice you can use less water and a shorter cook time.

Experiment and see what works best for you before doing a large batch.

I see. Good to know. I did make a rice cooker full yesterday before your response and I don't think it's soupy. It seemed about right, but maybe it would be more suitable with this recipe with less water. Dunno. I'll try drier if this batch doesn't come out. Edit: After having it in the fridge overnight, it did come out too sticky. Next time I'm doing 1/1 like you said.

The SnowFlake rice i just cooked has tiny and i mean tiny grains. Thai sweet rice is a longer grain variety, closer to Jasmine in size. Korean, Chinese and Japanese sweet rice varieties are fairly short.

Since so many are using jasmine here and getting great results, I guess then the grain length doesn't really matter that much, or at least it can't be relied upon as a guide. The common knowledge seemed to be short is better than long, but it really comes down to the content of easily converted starches. Based on leadgolumn's experiment and my own current batch using Blue Ribbon long grain rice (standard cheap stuff - $9 / 25 lb at Costco), clearly it's tougher for the mold to break it down in to fermentable sugars so you get a very small yield. And the "long grain" rice grains I have are physically shorter than any of the jasmine or Thai sweet rice I saw for sale. It definitely does not liquefy well -- 4 days in and its just barely wet with no liquid layer. Next time I'll buy some Thai sweet rice and compare it to the Apple Brand sweet rice.

I use glutenous rice flour when grinding RYR sometimes. Just a little added to the grinder. Mostly i use it for making a type of "porridge" used in Korean cuisine. Kimchi paste is my most common use.

I have seen people mention using a couple of tbs of it to "kick start" the yeast growth in rice wine. What I haven't seen is anyone trying to use a significant quantity in a batch. My first experiment is 100% raw glutenous rice flour and water. I don't really expect it to work, but we shall see. (I read somewhere that tests done between fermenting cooked and uncooked rice showed that cooking was not required for the starches to be broken down and that the quality of the finished product was better from the uncooked rice vs the cooked. I can't remember where I saw this and it may have been in reference to sake which is a longer, more involved process.) Edit: Here's where I saw it.

Kimchi paste sounds good. I need to try making kimchi sometime. I always loved the gochujang paste used for topokki/teokbokki, which also uses glutenous rice flour. And of course, there's mochi (green tea ice cream mochi is my fav!) Curous... does the "porridge" you mention use the RYR or just the glutenous rice flour?

Before reading about rice wine recently I had no idea the RYR I've had in my cabinet for 10 years contained live yeast/mold or that it could be used for anything but cooking. (No, I threw that out and bought a new bag for the wine.) The only thing I'd ever seen done with it before now a stir-fried red chicken and wine dish a friend from Malaysia made a couple of times ages ago. Even he didn't know the yeast could be used for making rice wine.

 

[user 211287]

Rice has two main starches. Sticky or sweet rice has very little amylose and mostly amylopectin. The amylopectin is the one that easily converts to sugars. Any rice high on the glycemic index should work better than say basmatti which is very low on the GI.

Sticky rice (a.k.a., glutinous, waxy or sweet rice) is very sticky when cooked. It contains the highest amount of amylopectin and no amylose. It’s often used to make sweet dishes in Asia.

Amylose is a long, straight starch molecule that does not gelatinize during cooking. Grains with high amounts of amylose will be fully and separated once cooked. Long grain rice typically has high amounts of amylose (about 22%) and the least amount of amylopectin (ex., long grain varieties, Basmati and Jasmine).

Oddly Jasmine is fairly high on the glycemic index even though its a long grain and makes a really tasty rice wine too. The flavor is quite pleasant.


I rinse the hell out of short grain and sweet rice before cooking, especially when using it for rice wine. It will be far less sticky when done. I just give Jasmine fairly quick 3 rinse. Add enough water to cover the rice by no more than 1/2" and let it soak a few hours minimum before cooking. After soaking the water will just slightly cover the rice.

Let it rest about 15 minute after cooking then "fluffy it" so the rice on the bottom is now mostly on top and allow to cool. Keep your spoon wet and the rice will stick to it far less. Same thing goes for your hands, keep them wet when handling the rice.

I use a microwave cooker so cooking technique will vary a little vs a rice cooker.

No, there is no RYR in the kimchi paste. The "porridge" starts off as water. sugar and sweet rice flour. Its brought upto a soft boil until it thickens. Then when it reaches room temp you mix in your pepper flakes ect ect to make the paste. You don't really need to make the porridge to make kimchi but it is the traditional method.

A puree of little pear juice, fish sauce, water, onion and garlic works fine. Add your pepper flakes to that and mix it with your salted and rinsed cabbage. Pack it all down tight in a fermenter with a crock weight and wait till it smells sour then put it in the fridge for a couple weeks.

Even easier way. Make sauerkraut and toss in some Korean pepper flakes. Pack that all in a fermenting crock. I use Dole Cole Slaw mix when im feeling lazy and put it on hotdogs or sausages. It just taste like semi spicy sauerkraut this way. The HUGE key to kimchi is the Korean COARSE pepper flakes. The bag will usually have a picture of kimchi on it. They are milder than the fine grind powder. The fine powder is for making gochujang.

 

[brooklynkayak]

Oddly, none of the shops in Chinatown (I went in probably 20+ today) had the yeast balls which I found surprising. Only one had the red yeast rice. But I didn't need either because I had already bought some elsewhere.

Did you ask people who were somewhat fluent in English?

I have found it in the smallest of Asian stores, but had to twist arms to find out where it was.

I have seen it hidden in the candy section, behind the counter where they keep the expensive herbs, in the housewares section next to the cleansers, and many other odd places.

There is a a chain of Asian stores in Arizona called "Lee Lee". Very few of the employees speak English.
I looked all over trying to find them without luck. So I went from employee to employees. The only English speaker didn't know what I meant by yeast balls.
So then I asked for wine mother, make fermented rice, make rice wine, etc... and finally she understood and went to a back room and brought a package out.

Yeast balls are very common in Asian stores. They use them for making fermented rice, rice vinegar as well as rice wine. All common in Asian cultures.

The only store that I found that didn't carry them was a really small one that only carried the very basics. Most of their customers only bought beer and wine.

The owner new what yeast balls were and even made her own rice wine, but said she didn't stock them at this time, but was thinking of getting some.

 

[eigua]

Rice has two main starches. Sticky or sweet rice has very little amylose and mostly amylopectin. The amylopectin is the one that easily converts to sugars. Any rice high on the glycemic index should work better than say basmatti which is very low on the GI.

Very interesting information. I did a quick search and found this site:
Identification of a Major Genetic Determinant of Glycaemic Index in Rice

Which has a link to this XLS file:
https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1007%2Fs12284-011-9073-z/MediaObjects/12284_2011_9073_MOESM1_ESM.xls

The rice with the highest glycemic index they tested was "HNN Cooked" with GI of 91/92. Theoretically that should give a very good yield. Now if there were only a way to find out what type that is...

Edit: Found it: http://smta.irri.org/smta/listEntri...0&method=listEntriesData&smtaId=SMTA2008-0474

HOMNANGNOUANE (60-30-30) from Lao People's Democratic Republic.

I rinse the hell out of short grain and sweet rice before cooking...

Thanks for the tips! I didn't wash the long grain rice (interestingly, enriched rice shouldn't be washed to retain the added vitamins), but I did wash the sticky and jasmine.

No, there is no RYR in the kimchi paste. The "porridge" starts off as water. sugar and sweet rice flour. Its brought upto a soft boil until it thickens. Then when it reaches room temp you mix in your pepper flakes ect ect to make the paste. You don't really need to make the porridge to make kimchi but it is the traditional method.

A puree of little pear juice, fish sauce, water, onion and garlic works fine. Add your pepper flakes to that and mix it with your salted and rinsed cabbage. Pack it all down tight in a fermenter with a crock weight and wait till it smells sour then put it in the fridge for a couple weeks.

Even easier way. Make sauerkraut and toss in some Korean pepper flakes. Pack that all in a fermenting crock. I use Dole Cole Slaw mix when im feeling lazy and put it on hotdogs or sausages. It just taste like semi spicy sauerkraut this way. The HUGE key to kimchi is the Korean COARSE pepper flakes. The bag will usually have a picture of kimchi on it. They are milder than the fine grind powder. The fine powder is for making gochujang.

Ahh, I see. Thanks for the recipes! I will make a point to get the Korean pepper flakes next time I go to the Asian supermarket. If it's fermented, it has to be good!

 

[eigua]

Did you ask people who were somewhat fluent in English?

I have found it in the smallest of Asian stores, but had to twist arms to find out where it was.

No, I didn't ask anyone but I thoroughly looked over every visible shelf in the stores. (I was also just browsing -- it's been a while since I've been to Chinatown and I always like discovering new things.) If they had them out, I would most likely have seen them, but if they were behind a counter, that would make sense. I wasn't particularly looking to buy them, just compare prices. But if I go again I'll ask.

 

[wallybangbang]

I get mine at Country Market in Vacaville. FYI

 

[eigua]

I get mine at Country Market in Vacaville. FYI

I did get some before going to Chinatown at Richmond New May Wah Supermarket on Clement Street in SF. They have the balls and the red yeast rice and a lot of other cool stuff.

 

[CanadianJesus]

I harvested my 10 cup batch of Botan Calrose rice.

The total yield was 3 full 750ml bottles and 1 bottle filled 3/4 of the way up. On my last batch using sweet rice I only used 8 cups of rice and I had 4 full bottles and a little extra that made for about 4 glasses full.

I pasteurized it all at 160* for 10 minutes.

Not as good of a yield as with Sweet rice, but on the other hand this stuff does taste pretty darn good.

Tasting notes: The taste is sweeter than my last batch. It has more of a taste of higher alcohols than my batch with sweet rice, but the warmth that results is actually pretty nice on the way down. All in all I like it, but I think I'll stick with sweet/glutinous rice on future batches mostly due to yield and the cheap price of rice.

This wine is definitely better shaken up and drank cloudy. I like it sweet.

 

[CanadianJesus]

Yeah. I'm definitely going to start making this every week. I want some to share with friends. A 3 week wait is a looong time between batches

 

[user 211287]

Im testing a batch made with koji and EC-1118 today. Pitching the yeast starter in another hour or so. Cooked rice and koji were mixed almost 48 hours ago.

200grams koji
5 cups (dry) Milky Queen aka Snow Flake rice (Sweet rice and Koshihikari hybrid)
8 cups spring water
1/4tsp FermaidK
EC-1118 yeast starter made with rice syrup and 4 of the cups of water

 

[Pyra]

So how strong is this rice wine prepared the way you've shown in this thread?

 

[eigua]

So how strong is this rice wine prepared the way you've shown in this thread?

Most people say around 20%.

 

[CanadianJesus]

A 20% is a good estimate for the last batch I made. It's pretty strong stuff

 

[Skylark]

I served a bottle of my wine from jasmine rice to a Japanese man I know. He said it was pretty good, but recommended I find the glutinous rice. I had chilled the wine but not filtered it, and it was still pretty sweet, less than two weeks old. I didn't pasteurize it; I added Campden tablet and sorbate, but I keep having to 'burp' the bottles in the refrigerator. Watch out for bottle bombs with this stuff!

 

[Pyra]

Im testing a batch made with koji and EC-1118 today. Pitching the yeast starter in another hour or so. Cooked rice and koji were mixed almost 48 hours ago.

200grams koji
5 cups (dry) Milky Queen aka Snow Flake rice (Sweet rice and Koshihikari hybrid)
8 cups spring water
1/4tsp FermaidK
EC-1118 yeast starter made with rice syrup and 4 of the cups of water

I had no idea what 'koji' was so I had to look it up. Apparently it is "aspergillus oryzae" that gives rice fermented drinks their...particular sass. So my question is: why the EC-1118 if you are using koji? Are you looking for a snappier ferment time? OR, are you trying to develop two separate ferment profiles one from a yeast and one from a bacteria?
(BTW, EC-1118 is awesome yeast for making real fruit berry melomels. Just saying, that and K1V-1116)

 

[user 211287]

Koji contains no yeast. It contains a fungus and only produces an enzyme which converts starch to sugar.

Yeast alone will do nothing with cooked rice because there are no fermentable sugars. A source of amylase enzyme/s is required for the conversion. Angel Rice Leaven, Nuruk, RYR or Koji can be used for the conversion. Koji is a bit more refined of the bunch and costs far more.

I am however looking for a quick ferment time too. When adding water to a rice wine mash it can sour easily. After the fermentation has started the "mash" was moved into a cooler and fermented cold. EC-1118 is fairly cold tolerant.