7 easy recipes for making rice wine at home
Rice sweet wine is made from fermented rice. This drink has an unusual taste. To add sweetness during the wine making process, a little sugar is added to it. True, traditional sake is prepared only from rice, mold (koji) and water. This drink resembles beer in taste and manufacturing technology. In terms of strength, sake is more like wine.
Features of making rice wine
Sake is a low-alcohol drink (7-20 degrees). It is made in many Asian countries. Each nation has its own recipe, but the main ingredients are always rice, water and mold.
Many people call sake vodka, but it is not. The beverage is not made by distillation or distillation. Sake cannot be called wine, because it is not yeast, but molds that are used for fermentation. And these microorganisms work not with sugar, but with starch.
Rice wine is a special kind of fermented drink in which koji mushrooms play a major role. Wine yeast is not suitable for making sake as it cannot process starch. If you add sugar, you get not sake, but rice mash.
For making sake, large, sticky and sweet rice is taken, always polished. First, the rice grains are steamed until cooked. The next step in making sake is fermentation. In order for the rice to ferment, a special mold is added - the koji fungus. To activate the fermentation process, add a little sugar.
Rice infested with fungus is kept at room temperature for about 30 days. After the end of fermentation, the mixture is filtered. The rice itself is pressed to separate the sediment. Sake is pasteurized to stop the activity of fungi, kept for several months in hermetically sealed containers, then bottled.
Types of drink
Sake is the Japanese name for rice wine. True, in Japan itself, this word is called any alcohol.
Japanese
Sake is a Japanese wine made from rice by fermentation. The drink can be cloudy if a white filter cake is added to the filtered liquid. Drink it warm. Sake has a sweetish taste, it contains up to 50 percent sugar. Alcohol in it is only 14 degrees.
Chinese
Huangjiu is a Chinese wine. There are several ways to produce it. The rice drink is made from hot or chilled rice with added fungus.There is a technology of bait, when in the process of fermentation, each time new portions of rice grains are added.
There is a method of making wine, in which alcohol is added at a certain stage to stop the fermentation process. The finished wine is filtered, pasteurized and aged for several months or years. Different production technologies make it possible to obtain different drinks.
To improve the taste, plant extracts can be added to the wine composition. The strength of the Chinese rice drink is 12-20 degrees.
Korean
There are several varieties of rice drinks in Korea. Yakju is a Korean rice wine that is distinguished by its purity. This drink is neutral in taste and smell. Rice wine can be made from several types of rice, even the black variety. McCallley, on the other hand, has a cloudy milky color and a sweet taste. It is made from boiled rice and water by fermentation.
Thai
Sato is a wine made from Thai rice. This drink resembles beer. Glutinous rice, water, sugar, yeast are used for its production. Sato is used for culinary purposes or drunk from a thin bamboo tube.
How to make rice wine at home
You can make your own rice wine at home. There are some simple recipes for making sake.
Classic recipe
Composition:
- 1 kg of rice;
- 3 liters of water;
- 10 g koji yeast.
An easy way to cook:
- rice is washed, soaked for 12 hours;
- soaked grains are boiled until cooked and cooled;
- transfer rice grains to a glass jar, fill with water;
- add fungi;
- the jar is closed with a water seal and taken out to a warm place for fermentation;
- after 30 days, the drink is filtered off;
- the grains are squeezed dry through cheesecloth;
- both liquids can be combined and taken out to a cool place for clarification;
- the finished wine is bottled;
- bottles are pasteurized for 20-30 minutes;
- cooled bottles are taken to the cellar and left for 2-3 months to improve the taste.
Fast option
Composition:
- 1 kg of rice grains;
- 10g koji;
- 3 liters of water;
- 200 g of sugar.
How to cook:
- rice is boiled and cooled;
- fill with water;
- add sugar and fungi;
- leave for 20 days for fermentation;
- filtered, bottled and pasteurized.
Citrus scent
Recipe:
- 1 kg of rice;
- 3 liters of water;
- 10g koji;
- 100 ml lime juice;
- 250 g of sugar.
With spices
Recipe:
- 1 kg of rice grains;
- 3 liters of liquid;
- 205 g sugar;
- 10g koji;
- 10 g ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger.
With apple jam
Composition:
- 1 kg of rice;
- half a liter of jam;
- 10 g wine yeast;
- 3 liters of water.
How to cook:
- cook rice and cool;
- pour into a 3-liter jar;
- add jam;
- to fill with water;
- add yeast;
- leave for a month in a warm place for fermentation;
- filter and bottle the liquid.
With currant jam
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of rice grains;
- half-liter jar of jam;
- 3 liters of water;
- 10 g wine yeast.
Bread maker recipe
You can use a regular bread maker to cook rice. Rice grains are steamed well in it and do not burn. This appliance cooks rice for about one hour. Then the gruel is cooled, transferred to a jar and wine is prepared according to the classic recipe.
Terms and conditions of storage
Usually, rice wine is left in a jar to ferment for a month. After filtering, the sake should be tasted. If its strength is too low, you can add a little sugar and leave for another 2 weeks to ferment. The completely fermented drink is filtered again, then bottled.
Pasteurize before storage.
Half-liter bottles are pasteurized at 60 degrees for 20 minutes, liter bottles - 30 minutes. Pasteurization can be done in an ordinary saucepan. The cooled bottles are tightly closed with a cork and taken to the cellar for storage. They should be kept in the basement for at least 3-6 months.This period is necessary for the sake to be fully prepared.
They drink rice wine cold or heated to 15-30 degrees Celsius. The shelf life of sake is 3 years.
