It has been quite a while! Now, let us talk of the current state of this project.
Despite using different sources for the red yeast rice, I have had no success in isolating Monascus purpureus. It seems the vast majority of distributors are either pasteurizing their products or that they are selling fakes.
The yeast isolation has progressed nicely and, since last time, I have moved from sugar and my poor attempt at malt to making test tubes of cider, which turned out quite well. Then, I happened upon an interesting little shop where they sold the fungus used in producing Chinese rice wine.
I inoculated a combination of black rice and rolled barley. I let it ferment for a few days and then mashed it as I would regular malted grain. The resulting liquid was sweet, purple and pretty interesting. From there, I brought it to a full boil with some puer tea as a bittering agent. My yeast was pitched into the bitter-wort and I set it aside for a few days to ferment.
I have to say that I am very impressed with the results! It is in-fact beer! Well, technically it is an Ale, but you know what I mean. I have it cold-crashing in my refrigerator at the moment to see if it can be cleared of its haze. The fermentation is of-course incomplete and it has had absolutely no time to age, but the point was to see if it could be at all similar to that drink we all love. Now that I see it can, I will buy the hop pellets this Monday when I visit Beijing.
It is all so exciting! This latest fungal find seems to be even better than the Monascus. I can not wait to try this in mass.
Despite using different sources for the red yeast rice, I have had no success in isolating Monascus purpureus. It seems the vast majority of distributors are either pasteurizing their products or that they are selling fakes.
The yeast isolation has progressed nicely and, since last time, I have moved from sugar and my poor attempt at malt to making test tubes of cider, which turned out quite well. Then, I happened upon an interesting little shop where they sold the fungus used in producing Chinese rice wine.
I inoculated a combination of black rice and rolled barley. I let it ferment for a few days and then mashed it as I would regular malted grain. The resulting liquid was sweet, purple and pretty interesting. From there, I brought it to a full boil with some puer tea as a bittering agent. My yeast was pitched into the bitter-wort and I set it aside for a few days to ferment.
I have to say that I am very impressed with the results! It is in-fact beer! Well, technically it is an Ale, but you know what I mean. I have it cold-crashing in my refrigerator at the moment to see if it can be cleared of its haze. The fermentation is of-course incomplete and it has had absolutely no time to age, but the point was to see if it could be at all similar to that drink we all love. Now that I see it can, I will buy the hop pellets this Monday when I visit Beijing.
It is all so exciting! This latest fungal find seems to be even better than the Monascus. I can not wait to try this in mass.
