This years production of Chinese Rice Wine has begun!!

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

I am going for 40 to 60 gallons this year.Once I freeze distill it, that should leave me with 4 to 5 gallons of some pretty strong stuff.

Today I boiled rice untill it became complete goo and put it in one of my 5 gallon fermenters along with 8 Plumbs that were liquefied in an old fashioned blender (the kids call them Juicers today).

That should ferment hard for the next couple of days, and then slowly for the next month or so. Then it will be ready for freezing, and lastly the final clearing before being used to make Jow, and a bunch of other medicines.

[Darthlawyer]

For some reason I thought that, from the title of this thread, that you were explaining Foiling Fist's posts about Qi with recent consumption of rice wine.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

I will attempt to do that, when it's done!

[IronFist]

Wait, are you making medicine or drinky wine?

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Enough for both.

It is a bit late in the season though, and the temps here have cooled down considerably. I will have to find a way to heat the fermenter. It needs to be between 98 and 104 to ferment properly.

If it's hotter than that, the yeast does not perform well. Same if it's colder.

[Lee Chiang Po]

Jow?? That would be a complete waste of good booze. Buy some Cornhuskers Lotion and drink the stuff you make. And quite telling people about it if you live in the US.

[IronFist]

Enough for both.

It is a bit late in the season though, and the temps here have cooled down considerably. I will have to find a way to heat the fermenter. It needs to be between 98 and 104 to ferment properly.

If it's hotter than that, the yeast does not perform well. Same if it's colder.

That's a pretty narrow range of temperatures. How did they manage it back in the day?

[omarthefish]

It still "works" outside of that range, just slower or produces various random byproducts. You get alcohol, just different quality/proof/flavour.

There's a reason why in old Chinese literature you see really strong booze being equated with really good booze. It's not just that everyone was a lush (although that part is probably true too) it's that, back in the days before refrigeration/heating/thermostats./etc. it was actually extremely hard to produce a consitant product and getting a really high alcohol content while still being drinkable was even tougher.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

That's a pretty narrow range of temperatures. How did they manage it back in the day?

They did the primary fermentation in the summer time mostly. The best stuff would have to be made during the hottest part of the summer.

However, it will still ferment at cooler temps too. Some wines are actual done cooler, because they come out sweeter.

Others are warmed by placing a few coals under the fermenting container, and wrapping it in cloth t hold the warmth.

Chinese wedding wines are put in clay pots and buried for years. They ferment really, really slow like that, but after years of sitting, they are supposedly very good.

I am looking for a very fast, and strong ferment because I need it to be strong for medicine making. I need the particular temperature range for that.

Flavor wise, it will give me a stronger, sharper wine, than if I fermented it at cooler temps for longer times.

I have never had any success at all with temps in the 60s, or low 70s though. It seems 75 is the coolest it can be and still ferment at all. Even then, the fermentation does not seem to be complete after 6 months. sometimes it just plain stops. From about 95 to 110, it always works, but is weaker at 110 and 95.

98 to 104 seems to give me perfect results.

[IronFist]

Cool.

I don't know anything about wine making so this is all new to me.

If you need strong alcohol why not just buy some vodka or Everclear or something and use that?

[MightyB]

Why am I having this wierd premonition that we're going to be reading one of those random Gene newspaper quotes about a man being blinded by homemade rice wine?

[Mark13]

This I have to try now!

[Mark13]

It still "works" outside of that range, just slower or produces various random byproducts. You get alcohol, just different quality/proof/flavour.

There's a reason why in old Chinese literature you see really strong booze being equated with really good booze. It's not just that everyone was a lush (although that part is probably true too) it's that, back in the days before refrigeration/heating/thermostats./etc. it was actually extremely hard to produce a consitant product and getting a really high alcohol content while still being drinkable was even tougher.

It taste better with age though

[omarthefish]

That's true.

I know personally, the older I get, the better it tastes.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Cool.

I don't know anything about wine making so this is all new to me.

If you need strong alcohol why not just buy some vodka or Everclear or something and use that?

Because home made rice wine is practically free. 40 gallons of Vodka is a small fortune.

It's costing me $14 for the over sized bag of rice (which will make me like 6 to 8 five gallon batches), and about $4 a bag for the plumbs. I need one plumb per gallon. Each bag has 15 or 16 plumbs in it.

My Glass fermented are 5 gallons each (well, actually 6 if I fill them to the rim)