Rice wine/sake

[Yeastfridge]

Anybody made some nice sake? Or some bad stuff?

I know there are some old threads about sake but I just thought I'd see if there are any fresh sake brewers, or if anyone has tried making Chinese rice wine before. I'm a bit of a chemistry nerd and the different fungi and bacteria involved in rice fermentations get me pretty hot under the collar.

For sake brewing I'm roughly following an American guy called Taylor AK's instructions. For the Chinese rice wine I had a look at a few blogs where people make their granny's recipe but am pretty much pulling the process out of my arse. All the recipes I've found are for really sweet cooking wine but I want to make dry, sake-like gear, which I actually did manage to do the first time round by a total fluke.

I've got my first batch of sake on the go at the moment. It's a lot of steps, but fairly straightforward after getting your head around the various additions and timing.

The picture attached is my Chinese rice wine. It does settle and turn completely clear (though I reckon tastes better with a bit of haze. This shot was just after pressing the rice lees.)

 

[Golani51]

Hi:

I made the rice wine too, although people tended to be somewhat not impressed. They said it was like drinking cough mixture.
The recipe was primarily soaking the rice, adding pulvarised chinese yeast balls (they come as a pack of two balls the size of large marbles from a chinese grocery store). Liquid begins to seep out and it becomes like a sludge. Squeeze through cheesecloth and there you have it. Should have some around but never really ended up using it.

Interested int he Sake though. Where are you located?

R

 

[Yeastfridge]

Was your Chinese rice wine sweet?
My recipe was similar - steamed rice, crushed "yeast balls", but after about a week no liquid was coming out so I added a bunch of water and some beer yeast and it started going for it.

 

[Yeastfridge]

Also, I'm in Sydney

 

[bobsantos]

For how many minutes you steam your rice? Because I usually do it 25 mins

 

[Yeastfridge]

45, only because the guide I read said so...

 

[sp0rk]

I was having a chat to the owners of our local Izakaya bar, they reckon you won't get the correct rice (sakamai rice) for making sake easily in Australia
I'm asking them to ask around their suppliers to see if the correct rice can be sourced locally
will report back if I can find anything

 

[coopsomulous]

I have had a few shots at Sake, using Taylor AK's method.

Basically, they all turned out poorly. Ended up like drinking lemon juice probably from one of the complimentary fermentation's taking over and going way too far (i want to say lactobacillus but that might not be correct). Pasteurisation at the correct time is very important to stop this happening.

I hope your Sake turns out better than mine did.

 

[BottloBill]

I have often seen the sake kits pop up in my favourites list on evilbay and wondered if it would be worth a go

 

[professional_drunk]

In Japan at the moment and picked up some bags of koji for $4 each. I've wanted to give sake a shot but the koji at g&g is to expensive.http://imgur.com/dHKzLuC