Substitute for rice leaven or wine starter

[Sezziro]

Hllww. I recently got interested in home brewing specially in rice wine. But the area i live in doesnt have any kinds of wine starters for rice wine. No rice leaven or nuruk or yeast balls. I searched alot but couldnt find any. O searched online stores pf my country too but didnt yeild any result. So please can anyone help me in how can i make rice wine starter or what alternativea can i use for it

 

[nagmay]

Are you specifically looking for koji kin? This is the spores of Aspergillus oryzae - which is used to make the rice fermentable for sake, makgeolli, soy sauce, miso, etc...

I have yet to make sake, but I have had success making koji by starting with the Koji Kin Started from Rice Essence. You can find them on Etsy, Amazon, and other places.

 

[Sezziro]

Thank you alot for your reply but in my country alcohol is illegal. And costs alot for the simplest of things. And everythings not always available and even after buying there is risks of the bar tuning(making fake alcohol with methanol) with the liquor. Thats y i though of making rice wine. I did one batch with bread yeast lots of sugar and rice. It definitely wasnt that bad but there was really slight alcohol in it. And had the bread yeast kinda smell. As i found no starter in my country as ordering from amazon or other online sites will become at hassle as they questions in the customs office that what those are for and wants extra bribe. thats y i was thinking of making my own starter and searching for an easier version of rice wine that will produce more alcohol and be better. I would be really glad if anyone could provide me some advices.

 

[nagmay]

Oh, didn't realize the details of you location. I would never want to encourage anyone to do anything that would get them in trouble... but for anyone else reading this post:

Koji is required to make traditional rice wines. It produces the enzymes required to turn the rice into fermentable sugars.In a rice + sugar mixture, only the sugar will be fermented, resulting in a weak, rice-flavored beverage. Koji, is used many non-alcohol related foods including miso and soy sauce. It should be possible to create a koji starter from naturally fermented miso - though you will have to learn about the lifecycle of the organism to be successful. There are also tutorials out there about growing koji without a starter, but you would need to be very carful about what else might grow.

There are even discussions on this site about skipping the koji and supplying the enzymes to the rice directly. I believe the common product 'beano' contains lots of the required enzymes. It might be interesting experiment.

Due to the required "parallel fermentation" (rice + koji ) + (yeast), rice wines can actually be one of the more complicated beverages to produce. For those without access to koji, it might be easier to stick to fruit wines, where the sugars are immediately fermentable... but please stay safe.

 

[monkeymath]

Reminds me of a wonderful evening in Tehran. A friend's brother had invited us to their home and offered us, besides an abundance of marvelous food, his homebrew, which was essentially malt beer with added table sugar, fermented with bread yeast. He was quite surprised to hear my process was different.
While the beer was not great, it also wasn't the worst homebrew I've had. Or maybe it was: it's hard to bring on your beer-snob game in the face of the heartwarming kindness we experienced during our stay.

For any sort of alcholic beverage, you need simple sugars and yeast. Some people on here have had success using baker's yeast, some others, well, not so much. You can also make a "natural" starter from water, sugar and raisins (but again, the results may vary). To get simple sugar, the easiest way is to start with fruit or juice. Here, in some cases you can even get away without adding any yeast. If you start with rice, you need to convert the starches to sugar first, by the work of enzymes. These enzymes could be artificial or produced by koji, as nagmay has already described. As the latter is also used to make miso and soy sauce, it should be legal in your country, but possibly hard to come by - in Germany, online stores are the best bet, but some Asian grocery stores also carry it.

 

[Sezziro]

I will try the raisins recipe then as i saw it before somewhere too. Thank you alot monkeymath. But i have made a batch by using bread yeast and natural yeast made from the molasses+water mixture. By the view of the things it doesnt seem to be going bad. Gonna knw the real result after a few more
days i guess

 

[amx08]

Hello Nagmay, like to know if I can use Rice Leaven ( Aspergillus oryzae or Koji Starter) to make Corn or Malt fermentable? I am unable to get Amylase Enzyme Powder in my country. Thanks in advance

 

[amx08]

Oh, didn't realize the details of you location. I would never want to encourage anyone to do anything that would get them in trouble... but for anyone else reading this post:

Koji is required to make traditional rice wines. It produces the enzymes required to turn the rice into fermentable sugars.In a rice + sugar mixture, only the sugar will be fermented, resulting in a weak, rice-flavored beverage. Koji, is used many non-alcohol related foods including miso and soy sauce. It should be possible to create a koji starter from naturally fermented miso - though you will have to learn about the lifecycle of the organism to be successful. There are also tutorials out there about growing koji without a starter, but you would need to be very carful about what else might grow.

There are even discussions on this site about skipping the koji and supplying the enzymes to the rice directly. I believe the common product 'beano' contains lots of the required enzymes. It might be interesting experiment.

Due to the required "parallel fermentation" (rice + koji ) + (yeast), rice wines can actually be one of the more complicated beverages to produce. For those without access to koji, it might be easier to stick to fruit wines, where the sugars are immediately fermentable... but please stay safe.

Hello Nagmay, like to know if I can use Rice Leaven ( Aspergillus oryzae or Koji Starter) to make Corn or Malt fermentable? I am unable to get Amylase Enzyme Powder in my country. Thanks in advance