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So, as my first large batch continues to ferment (5 gal bucket, 10 lbs rice) it has s very tart flavor. When I have made smaller batches, it has been sweeter at this stage. I did have challenges cooking 10 lbs of rice. The water did not 100% absorb into the rice, could my tartness issue be related to this?
 
Extra water and higher temps encourage lactobacillus to multiply and produce lactic acid. The yeast and the bacteria both compete for the same food source...sugar. Yeast balls also contain wheat and the production process could easily have varying amounts of lactobacillus and even different strains.
 
ChefRex said:
Hi, welcome to HBT, nice introduction, first post and you're pitching a film?
You have any connection?:p
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That film is what got me interested in Saké and making my own. I think you would enjoy it. I have 3 batches going right now. I've probably made some mistakes with mine. But I'm having fun learning. I'm trying to read every post in this thread. I'm up to 155.

I'm using sweet sushi type rice. I used the Chinese rice yeast balls. I think I used to many but won't know for 2 more weeks. I started my first batch on 5/14/2016. I found someone on Craig's list giving away a case of 12 wine bottles. I'm so excited abou this project. The funny thing is, I'm really not a big drinker. I like the process and hope to give the rice beer away as a gift.

I'll keep y'all posted.

SAM
 
Evilgrin said:
Extra water and higher temps encourage lactobacillus to multiply and produce lactic acid.
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Yep. I'm pretty sure my rice was too wet. I like the idea of the larger batches, just need to come up with a way for me to cook 10 lbs of rice. The pot won't fit into my oven to do the 300° thing.
 
Ive got a semi large pressure cooker. I think it cost around $60. Ive never used it for rice but i imagine it would hold 10lbs of dry rice no problem.

Rinse your rice until the water runs clear. When using "sticky" or sweet rice this helps a lot. Soak the rice for 4 hours before cooking. "Broken" rice needs much less soaking time.

During the really cold/dry part of the winter its simple to dry out the rice. Fluff the rice and put it in a large bowl or pot. Cover it with a cheese cloth and put it out in the cold. Let it set in the cold for a couple days. It will lose a lot of moisture.

I freeze smaller batches of rice in a floor freezer for use in fried rice. Ive got enough for a 2 quart mason jar atm i will be testing for rice wine. Im going to heat it back up in the microwave cooker and add some ARL and/or RYR with some lalvin yeast.
 
Progress pics. On the right is a batch from 3 weeks ago. On the left a batch from (oddly enough, considering it seems to have yielded more liquid) 2 weeks ago. Both jars have a lovely, melon scent and the black spots have all but disappeared.

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I just started my 4th batch today. I used half Thai Jasmine and half Japanese Nishiki brand sweet rice. Batch #1 will be ready in 2 weeks. It seems to be doing well. Batches 2-3 will be ready in 3 weeks. All are progressing well. I'm so excited for the taste test.

SAM
 
When you get it right it tastes really good.

My most recent batch which I harvested tonight turned out good, but that's it, just good. It's slightly sour, not like vinegar and certainly not like my last batch which I did end up dumping.

What juices would you guys recommend mixing with a slightly sour wine? This batch isn't the best for drinking straight, but it is drinkable.
 
CanadianJesus said:
When you get it right it tastes really good.

My most recent batch which I harvested tonight turned out good, but that's it, just good. It's slightly sour, not like vinegar and certainly not like my last batch which I did end up dumping.

What juices would you guys recommend mixing with a slightly sour wine? This batch isn't the best for drinking straight, but it is drinkable.
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I wonder if calcium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate would help.

Offhand, I'd say lemon + sugar. At least you'd be expecting the sourness then. Lemonade soju is pretty good. I also used to drink sake and orange juice sometimes.
 
eigua said:
Has anyone ever done a PH test on the resulting rice wine? I'm curious about long-term storage safety after pasteurization and would like to know if the PH is < 4.5 which would make it inhospitable to Clostridium botulinum bacteria.
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To answer my own question, I got some PH strips and tested and both of my first two batches came out to PH 4.0 or less. Woot!
 
Well, four weeks are up. With five scoops of rice, it yielded about 200 ml of liquid. It's been pasteurized and is chilling in the fridge.
 
SaucedBrews said:
Well, four weeks are up. With five scoops of rice, it yielded about 200 ml of liquid. It's been pasteurized and is chilling in the fridge.
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5 scoops of dry rice? Rice cooker scoops?
I generally get 1 cup of rice wine per cup of dry/uncooked rice.
Jasmine rice, cooked in rice cooker, Chinese yeast balls.
 
pdxal said:
5 scoops of dry rice? Rice cooker scoops?
I generally get 1 cup of rice wine per cup of dry/uncooked rice.
Jasmine rice, cooked in rice cooker, Chinese yeast balls.
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Rice cooker scoops, yes.

My measurement is not right. There are no lines on the mason jar I strained the batch into.

5 scoops of rice, after they were cooked, nearly filled a half-gallon mason jar. I then strained it into a quart jar. That fills up about 40% of the way up. Sorry for the sideways pic, but HBT doesn't seem to like it being vertical.

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To flavor a tart rice wine definitely look into citrus flavors. A traditional type fruit called Yuzu (in Japanese) or Yuja (in Korean) is used in some of the distilled rice/grain wines such as Soju /Sochu. Its similar to a lemon with a bit of Mandarin orange flavor too.

Ive used Aldriatic Sun orange syrup in a couple. Its around $4 for a liter. They also sell a lemon syrup and a few others.
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That is a top shelf sake at least compared to what we can get here in the USA.

One of the most famous of these springs is the Shikomimizo spring that emerges from Mt. Taisetsu near the town of Asahikawa. And from this spring water, a sake brewery named Otokoyama (literally translated as "Man's Mountain") has been making sake for more than 340 years. Apparently it was the drink of choice for the Shoguns of the Tokugawa family in Japan's Edo period.
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Evilgrin said:
Aldi had a great deal on a sparkling lemonade ...../

042716_SEA_50000_JT_SparklingFrenchLemonade_Group__656f4d9481.jpg
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I have seen other variations of these lemonades in 750ml (Grolch style bottles) here and there. They seem to be sold by many supermarket chains under different brand names,

I picked up some from Sprouts, a supermarket chain here in Tucson AZ US, $2.50 US a bottle, including the lemonade.

Some brewery supplies sell similar bottles for even less if you purchase by the case.
I got some brown tinted 750ml online for just over $2 a bottle when I bought two cases. The shipping can be a big expense. So compare shipping costs before you commit.
 
Its made by Victor Geyer. Geyer Freres is molded right in the glass but it may have various labels on the bottle. Lorina is one of the bigger and more expensive names. It cost around double the Aldi version.
 
View attachment 357359 "I'm so excited. I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control but I think I like it." My first batch is done. It took some time to move and filter it. It was 10 cups of Nishiki Sweet Rice and 12 Happy Panda Rice Yeast Balls. I got all of my supplies from a local Vietnamese Market here in Madison Alabama.

I used 1/2 gallon Ball Mason jars. The first 3 jars my rice was cooked. The last jar was steamed. The wine bottle on the right was from the steamed rice batch. I did add 1 pint of warm water to each of mine on the 7th day.

So far it has a nice subtle sweetness with a slight tang and good warmth going down. I can taste the flavor of the rice and it's actually pretty good. I'm not a big drinker so my taste buds are note as refines as some. I'm cold crashing these and hope it settles more. Just need to ages it a little and then flavor it with blueberries and maybe pomegranate.

I found this forum 1 week after I started. This past week I started a new steamed batch of 2.5 pounds Nishiki Sweet Rice mixed with 2.5 Thai Jasmine Sweet rice and 8 Happy Panda Rice Yeast Balls. I'm not going to add any water to this batch. I'm excited to see where this new hobby takes me. Thanks to all of you who contribute. Special thanks to SonofGork for starting this thread.
 
ChefRex said:
If you don't like it don't drink it, make it or visit/post in this thread. Wow!
I like it and this thread has been going for a bit so I don't think I'm the only one.
Everyone has different tastes, it's an easy recipe, I've come up with a relatively easy way to strain it.
To post two days in a row how much it sucks is really uncalled for.
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What's is your relatively easy way to strain? I'm interested in your method.

Thanks!

SAM

EDIT: I saw your process shortly after I posted this. Thank you.
 
mrsamisme said:
What's is your relatively easy way to strain? I'm interested in your method. EDIT: I saw your process shortly after I posted this. Thank you.
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For anyone like me looking to find it quickly, you can find the process here.

On the left is the first batch that I squeezed through a hop bag. On the right is the process detailed by ChefRex, using this highly complex set of equipment :D and the results show.

WP_20160607_17_36_05_Pro_LI.jpg
 
SaucedBrews said:
For anyone like me looking to find it quickly, you can find the process here.

On the left is the first batch that I squeezed through a hop bag. On the right is the process detailed by ChefRex, using this highly complex set of equipment :D and the results show.
Click to expand...

If you were to follow those directions to get the clear liquid, but instead of tossing the solids, squeeze them out through a paint strainer, I wonder how much more liquid you'd get. I found I got quite a lot of liquid by squeezing, but also a lot of solids. You could make 2 bottles from one: 1 clear bottle (no squeezing) and one cloudy bottle (squeezed).
 
I always pour/scoop out the free flowing wine first into a funnel with a filter bag, connected to an empty sake bottle. I usually get 2 to 3 bottles of unsqueezed pure wine. Then i squeeze the lees to get the rest of the wine. From 16 cups dry rice i get about 10 bottles (750ml), sometimes less. After pasturizing and settling in the basement all bottles are crystal clear. The bottles that were from squeezed lees have between 0.5 to 1.5 inches of sediment on the bottom, depending on if it was the first or last bottle from squeezing. The sediment never gets mixed with the wine if you pour slowly and don't disturb the sediment.
 
eigua said:
If you were to follow those directions to get the clear liquid, but instead of tossing the solids, squeeze them out through a paint strainer, I wonder how much more liquid you'd get. I found I got quite a lot of liquid by squeezing, but also a lot of solids. You could make 2 bottles from one: 1 clear bottle (no squeezing) and one cloudy bottle (squeezed).
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Worth trying. I also wonder if fining with gelatin would be worth trying as well.
 
has Anyone used the rice mush from a previous batch to start a new batch? I would think it would have the mold and yeast in it as well.
 
nickwoo said:
has Anyone used the rice mush from a previous batch to start a new batch? I would think it would have the mold and yeast in it as well.
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Yes, I am currently doing a 7 cup (dry) batch using the remaining solids from my previous 2 cup (dry) batch and a couple of additional dry balls. It's only been about 5 days but every looks and smells great! I remember reading somewhere that the dried yeast balls they sell are made from the remains of industrial rice wine making, so I see no issues with doing this unless you get an obvious infection.

Using the recycled solids was more difficult to get dispersed properly in the new batch because it was moist and could not be crushed into powder like the dry balls. Perhaps blending the solids with a small amount of the new rice and some water might give more volume and something more easily dispersed.
 
I know by reading this thread that it's generally accepted to let this ferment for 21-30 days. Both my batches of glutenous rice and long grain rice completed in 30 days, but my batch of broken jasmine rice has been going now for 41 days and is still bubbling quite vigorously. I hesitated to leave it past 30 days because I've read that it can start to sour into vinegar, but over the last 10 days I have clearly noticed both an increase in liquid volume and a lot more of the floating rice has started hanging down and disintegrating. The liquid is still clear and it seems both more starch conversion and fermentation are taking place. For those that use jasmine rice, do you generally just halt it at 30 days regardless or do you wait until it stops bubbling?
 
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752023.269021.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752040.503173.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752057.872663.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752070.628486.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752092.599550.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465752119.031879.jpg

I just harvested my 3rd batch using 5lbs of Nishiki rice and a bunch of rice yeast balls, maybe 12 in all. 1.5 gallons net. This batch is one that I started with just the rice and yeast balls then added water and more rice every 3 days. This stuff kicked in at 23.5% and smells and tastes s great. I'm breaking them down into test batches of 32oz for flavor infusion. I started with 1 coconut and 1 strawberry. I did one with honey and vanilla bean. Yummy. I'm giving most of this away soon. It makes a great, fun gift. I'm really enjoying this hobby. I also bottled my Banapple Beer too. That stuff is crazy good.
 
Made the rice wine making plunge yesterday after reading this thread for a few days.
5.5 cups rice, 11 cups water (cooked not steamed), made gallon of volume (more than i thought) had to improvise glass container for overflow. yeast balls of hopefully right type from local Asian of some sort store. powdered in clean coffee grinder etc etc.

Question: Its 74F in my house and for the next week its supposed to be in the high 80s low 90s outside. would the rice wine ferment better inside or out on my porch?
high temps in beer are undesirable but this has other organisms needed for the process to progress properly
 
5.5 cups rice, 11 cups water (cooked not steamed)
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Thats a lot of water to cook rice in. Letting it cool uncovered will allow excess moisture to evaporate.

74F should be fine. Too warm and too wet can lead to a tart rice wine although i had great luck with the yeast balls and warmer fermentations.
 
Frame125 said:
Made the rice wine making plunge yesterday after reading this thread for a few days.
5.5 cups rice, 11 cups water (cooked not steamed), made gallon of volume (more than i thought) had to improvise glass container for overflow.
Click to expand...

In my first 3 batches, I used more water and didn't follow the steaming directions either. I also got a better yield than I expected, however I attribute this to all the excess water previously trapped in the sticky rice. I'm sure my batch is more dilute than my next batch will be in which I'm following the directions much more closely. Steaming and air cooling the sticky rice yields a much more dry, not so gluey starting texture with much less water inside.

2:1 (water : rice) when boiling sticky rice is way too much. I also tried cooking in a rice cooker at 1:1.5 (water : rice) and even that yielded a much wetter, stickier rice than the steaming method.
 
mrsamisme said:
I just harvested my 3rd batch using 5lbs of Nishiki rice and a bunch of rice yeast balls, maybe 12 in all. 1.5 gallons net. This batch is one that I started with just the rice and yeast balls then added water and more rice every 3 days.
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Interesting... Were you just experimenting or following a recipe? Your result looks much more opaque and brownish than my results with not a bunch of extra water. It looks a lot like Makgeolli which has much more water than this thread's recipe, but it also only about 5% ABV.

Is the total rice 5lbs or was that the starting amount before adding more rice every 3 days? How long did you ferment in total?

mrsamisme said:
This stuff kicked in at 23.5% and smells and tastes s great.
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How did you measure that when it starts out pretty much as solid rice?
 

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