What do I need to know about making my own rice wine at home? Do I need to put yeast for fermentation?

After the cold dew, it is getting colder and colder every day, the leaves are slowly turning yellow and fading, and the geese are flying to the south in droves. In this cool autumn, when everything is in a state of depression, there is no better way to warm up than with a bowl of fragrant rice wine.

Rice wine, also known as wine, sweet wine, mash, autumn and winter hot drink, summer ice drink, no matter whether it is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, late at night, to a bowl of sweet rice wine, are extremely ironic.

Everyone has a memory of rice wine, which is the flavor of home. I remember when I was a child, the material is not as abundant as it is now, the family talked about supplemental nutrition, nothing more than a bowl of brown sugar rice wine lying on a lotus egg. Although simple, but has remained in the depths of memory.

Today, want to drink rice wine is simple, supermarkets sell a lot of varieties, buy back and cook directly on it. However, I always feel that it lacks the sweetness and mellowness of home-made rice wine, so I started to try it over and over again, and finally found the flavor in my memory.

Rice wine, a folk drink with a long history

When it comes to rice wine, many people's first impression may be glutinous rice wine. Once and friends chat, talking about rice wine, they are very surprised, it is clearly wine wine. Jiangnan region called wine, Sichuan called mash, Hubei people called rice wine, no matter which name, the fermentation process and principles are the same.

Rice wine, called "sweet" in the old days, different names around the country, the main process is to use steamed glutinous rice mixed with wine fermentation, brewing process is simple, sweet and mellow taste. Thousands of years ago, the Chinese people invented the brewing process of rice wine, which has been passed down from generation to generation.

In the south of the Yangtze River, wine is a dessert, usually cooked with glutinous rice balls, called wine dumplings. In the northwest, there is also rice wine boiled in milk and eggs, which was once eaten with great flavor. In Hubei, rice wine can be strong or light according to preference, a bowl of hot noodles with egg rice wine, is the Wuhan people's "morning" standard.

No one can resist the sweetness of a bowl of rice wine. The reason for the popularity of rice wine is that it is an inherited health drink.

When I was a child, I often heard that drinking rice wine was the most nourishing, suitable for both young and old, especially for women in labor, which can activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis, and replenish qi and blood. From a modern nutritional point of view, this fermented drink is rich in vitamins and amino acids, and has the benefits of aiding digestion, warming the cold and tonifying the deficiency, promoting blood circulation, and moisturizing and nourishing the skin.

Traditional handmade rice wine, is there a standard?

Hubei has a long history of home-made rice wine. The brewing of Hubei's nationally renowned Xiaogan rice wine began in the Song Dynasty and has been going on for 1,000 years. Most of the rice wine sold in glass bottles in supermarkets today comes from Xiaogan. Xiaogan rice wine represents the Hubei people's style of homemade rice wine, which should be sweet, soft and alcoholic.

When I was a child, every family made rice wine, but not everyone made a good bowl. My grandmother was the best rice wine maker in the neighborhood. She always washed and spread the glutinous rice in the bamboo plaque in the sun, until the evening, and then poured the glutinous rice in the tank soaked overnight, the next day on the pot steam and then mixed with the wine fermentation. The moment the wine jar is lifted, the faint aroma of wine comes to the nose, and the refreshing juice spreads through the hole where the wine comes out. At this point, she usually picks up a small spoon and takes a sip to see if the fermentation has been successful, and I can't wait to take a spoonful to feel the sweetness and joy.

Sweet, but not old, the juice is clear, slightly wine flavor, is a bowl of homemade rice wine success criteria.

Most of the rice wines available in supermarkets today have insufficient wine flavor and too much sugar water, perhaps due to assembly line production or the addition of preservatives, and the quality varies. After purchasing many brands, finally I began to research on my own, after four or five trials, with some insights, made a bowl of balanced taste of rice wine, my mother-in-law and mother are praised for doing a good job, sweet and refreshing, is the traditional taste.

A comparison of the two fermentation methods, detailing homemade pure rice wine

It is said that interest is the best teacher. The experimentation with rice wine comes from learning about brewing. Returning to Hubei this summer, I was fortunate to meet a friend who brews wine in the ancient way, and his wine is mellow and has a long flower and fruit fragrance, a perfect brewing combination of nature and time. Both the teacher of the brewery and the friend said that the most elementary level of home-brewed fruit (flower) wine is to master the process of saccharification of glutinous rice, that is, the making of wine.

The glutinous rice wine jar at Friend's Winery

After learning the principles and process of winemaking, it's relatively easy to go back to making rice wine. Many people who make rice wine will have rice wine that tastes old, has a heavy wine flavor, or has a hairy surface, and roughly speaking, the problem arises when the fermentation is not well controlled. Summarized three key points: one is the choice of wine quartz, the second is the time and temperature of the next wine quartz, and the third is the temperature of fermentation. As long as you do these three points well with the help of tools, you can easily make a bowl of sweet rice wine at home. I'll share my steps with you first, then I'll explain the points of attention, so if you like it, you can bookmark it first.

Homemade Rice Wine Detailed Edition-Preparation

Materials Preparation: 3 pounds of glutinous rice, 1 packet of wine 8 grams

Specific Methods:

Step 1:Wash and soak the round glutinous rice, the time of 12 hours or so, a little longer does not matter. Until you can crush the grains of rice with a slight force of your hand (Note: The soaking time can be extended appropriately, but not too short)

Step 2: Drain the soaked glutinous rice, put it into a steamer, and evenly spread it out, and then steam it over a high heat

Step 3: Steamed the rice, and then put it into a steamer.

Taste the steamed glutinous rice first to avoid pinching or undercooking. If it's cooked, spread it out naturally to cool, and you can switch to a larger container to spread it out flat to dissipate the heat.

Step 4: Wait for the sticky rice to cool, you can measure the actual temperature with the help of a thermometer, which is more scientific. The temperature at which the glutinous rice should be put into the wine muster is 30 degrees. Many people's fermentation is not successful because the glutinous rice is too hot or too cold to be mixed into the muster, and the muster is scalded to death or the fermentation doesn't take place, which is a very crucial step.

Step 5: Use mineral water or cool white water to dissolve the yeast. There are many choices for sweet wine tunes, and Angie's is of a more consistent quality. I chose a light sweet one.

Sixth step: Pour the water slowly into the glutinous rice, while pouring and stirring, you can add some cool white water or mineral water, so that the rice evenly diluted, the amount of water according to the amount of glutinous rice and the degree of water absorption to master, do not be too dry or too dilute on the right, the middle of the hollow out a small hole, set aside for easy to get out of the wine

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Home-made wine is not only the best choice, but also the most important thing is to make sure that you have the best quality. Homemade Rice Wine Detailed Version - Fermentation Comparison

Step 7: This time, I divided the prepared glutinous rice material into two parts, one was fermented by using the rice cooker's yogurt function, and the other one was fermented by using the traditional quilt wrapping. The best fermentation temperature for glutinous rice wine is also 30 degrees Celsius, and the weather in Beijing is slightly cooler at the moment, so it's better to wrap it in a thin quilt.

Step 8: A copy of the rice cooker, choose the yogurt function. The one in my house can only last up to 6 hours, so after 6 hours choose to continue fermenting a bit more.

Step 9: Another portion wrapped in plastic wrap, wrapped in a thin quilt, daytime test temperature is also 30 degrees, waiting for fermentation.

Step 10: The final fermentation results of the comparison, rice cooker yogurt fermentation function, about 12 hours has a faint flavor of wine, but not yet wine flavor, 24 hours later, out of the wine successfully, taste mellow. Quilt wrapped fermentation, 36 hours after the wine, but the flavor is still poor, continue to ferment for 5 hours after checking, the taste is slightly astringent so stop fermentation. Overall, the operation and stability of the quilt fermentation is not as good as the yogurt functional fermentation. The reason? In fact, it is very simple, rice cooker is a constant temperature fermentation, the temperature of the quilt will change, not good control.

Homemade Rice Wine Detailed Version - Summary of Key Points

I don't know that after reading the steps, do you have an understanding of the whole process and key points? In fact, the central principle is that the three points mentioned above should be grasped, one is that the sake brew determines the flavor of the rice wine, the second is the time to put the yeast, and the third is that the constant temperature fermentation is better controlled. In addition, there are some basic knowledge to be reminded:

① Fermentation is actually a very magical process, first of all, you need to ensure a sterile environment, i.e., no oil, no water, no stains on the selected vessels, to avoid the production of molds in the process of fermentation

② Fermentation process, can I open the lid to check? In fact, it is possible to check the fermentation process without sealing the fermentation completely, and it is better to check the wine output or temperature regularly

3) Use modern tools to grasp the principle of constant temperature fermentation. Many large-scale wineries have constant temperature fermentation workshops, which can be seen in the impact of temperature on fermentation, which is why the two kinds of fermentation comparison, yogurt machine fermentation is better than the quilt. What if you don't have a yogurt maker? Then just be diligent and test the temperature environment more often to ensure that the temperature is relatively stable.