Strong Waters by Scott Mansfield

Author:Scott Mansfield
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: The Experiment
Published: 2010-08-17T07:00:00+00:00

Rice Wine (But Not Sake)

YOU CAN OFTEN tell how advanced a culture is by noting how much time and trouble it takes to prepare its alcoholic beverages. Using that criteria, Japanese culture is light years ahead of the West.

In Japan there are more than fifteen hundred sake brewers. A particular brand can be made from any of perhaps ten strains of rice and a half dozen strains of yeast. Water is everyone’s secret ingredient, of course, and the beverage can cycle through a total brewing and aging process that can take anywhere from 6 to 9 months and varies according to the skill, opinions, and school of the toji (sake brew master). Unlike commercial beer brewing in the United States, the time of year the sake is made and the climate also affect the final product.

The following recipe will make a beverage that will be unlike any sake consumed in Japan. How can this be? Because the steamed rice used to make sake is first inoculated with a mold called koji, which this recipe doesn’t call for. Aside from adding a chestnut flavor, the koji mold converts much of the rice starch into sugars that the yeast can then ferment. Humility, simplicity, and common sense prevent me from covering the complicated process for making sake. That said, this recipe is a kind of rice wine.

1 gallon water

4 cups (2 pounds) sugar

2 teaspoons acid blend

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

5 cups (2½ pounds) polished rice

1 pound golden raisins, chopped (3 cups)

½ teaspoon pectin enzyme

1 packet yeast: Wyeast Sake #9 or Flor Sherry

1 Campden tablet, crushed

½ teaspoon bentonite

1. Boil the water, add the sugar, acid blend, and yeast nutrient, and stir until dissolved. Turn off the heat.

2. Place the rice and chopped raisins in a nylon straining bag. Tie the top and place it in the boiling liquid for 10 minutes.

3. Transfer the bag to the primary fermenter, then pour in the hot liquid.

4. When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, stir in the pectin enzyme, then add the yeast. Snap on the fermenter lid and attach the airlock.

5. For the next few days, slosh the fermenter around or use a sanitized spoon to flip and moisten the bag. This helps the yeast come into contact with more of the fruit.

6. After 10 days, remove the bag, squeezing it gently to extract as much liquid as possible without pressing out any of the solids. Transfer the liquid to the secondary fermenter.

7. When all fermentation has stopped, usually after another 6 to 8 weeks, add the crushed Campden tablet. The wine will take another 1 to 2 months to clear, even with a fining agent. Boil 1 cup of water and thoroughly mix in ½ teaspoon of bentonite. Then pour this mixture into the fermenter, attach the airlock, and swish the fermenter around to mix the fining agent into the wine.

8. When clear, bottle and age for at least 4 months.

Notes:

• It’s best to use polished rice to make the wine, since the protein-rich germ and husk are removed during polishing.

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