Homemade Glutinous Rice Wine
Making Glutinous Rice Wine at Home - Day 0, Preparations - mixing Yeasts & Red Yeast Rice
The crushed yeast and red yeast rice could be used as they were, but I preferred to mix them by putting them into a blender and make them into mixed powder form. This will increase the contact with the rice and make the fermentation more quickly and more evenly. A little more work but also a little more love into the wine :) *each bow in the pic is good for 5 kg of rice.
Making Glutinous Rice Wine at Home - Day 0, Preparations - Red Yeast Rice
Red Yeast Rice Besides the yeast balls, this is the only other ingredient used that makes the wine the reddish orange color. You can get this from most Chinese medicine halls. For each Kg of rice, use ~10 gram of red yeast rice, or roughly scooped a handful.*Side note: Red Yeast Rice is frequently used in Chinese cooking or in preparations of various food that is red in color. 'Charsiew' is among the most notable one. Also, red yeast rice contains natural occurring Statin, the key ingredient in the cholesterol lowering drugs in the market. So, you can find Red Yeast Rice Extracts in capsule...
Making Glutinous Rice Wine at Home - Day 0, Preparations - Yeasts
Yeasts - there are 2 types of yeasts typically used: this is the "ball" type that yields stronger and "spicier" brew. The other type is like round biscuit, yield sweeter brew and is more typically used. I prefer this ball type. *I used 3 balls per Kg of rice. These type of yeast yiellds stronger and spicier brew. Most of the chinese medicine store sells the round biscuit type that yields sweeter brew... Crush them with a stick, or any heavy object, to break them into small crumbs. I prefer to crush them into powder...
Making Glutinous Rice Wine at Home - Day 0, Preparations - Containers
1. Containers: in this documenting exercise, I used 10 KG of glutinous rice and used a very big plastic container. This is to make it easier for photos taking...
Making Glutinous Rice Wine at Home - Day 0, Preparations - Containers
1. Containers: best containers are grazed ceramic types, with big opening for easy access. For your first attempt, best to use a glass jar so you can see the fermentation progresses over times. I use both depending on volume of rice used.