Rice Wine: 7 Easy Homemade Recipes

Rice sweet wine is made from fermented rice. This drink has an unusual taste. To give sweetness in the process of making wine, a little sugar is added to it. True, traditional sake is made only from rice, molds (koji) and water. By taste and manufacturing technology, this drink resembles beer. The strength of 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 molds.

Many people call sake vodka, but it's not. The drink is not made by distillation or distillation. Sake cannot be called wine, because not yeast, but molds are used for fermentation. Yes, and these microorganisms do not work with sugar, but with starch.

Rice wine is a special type of fermented drink in which koji fungi play a major role. Wine yeast is not suitable for making sake, as it cannot process the starch. If you add sugar, you get not sake, but rice mash.

For the preparation of sake, large, sticky and sweet rice is taken, always polished. First, rice grains are steamed until fully cooked. The next step in making sake is fermentation. In order for the rice to ferment, a special mold culture is added - the koji fungus. To activate the fermentation process, add a little sugar.

The rice infested with the 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 fungal activity, aged for several months in hermetically sealed containers, and then bottled.

Types of drink

Sake is the Japanese name for rice wine. True, in Japan itself, this word refers to any alcohol.

Japanese

Sake is a Japanese wine made from fermented rice. The drink may become cloudy if a white precipitate is added to the filtered liquid. Drink it warm. The taste of sake is sweetish, it contains up to 50 percent sugar. It contains only 14 degrees of alcohol.

Chinese

Huangjiu - Chinese wine. There are several ways to produce it. Rice drink is made from hot or chilled rice with the addition of 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 manufacturing technologies allow you to get different drinks.

To improve the taste, plant extracts can be added to the wine. 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. McColley, on the other hand, has a cloudy milky color and a sweet taste. Made from boiled rice and water by fermentation.

Thai

Sato is a wine made from Thai rice. This drink is similar to beer. For its manufacture, glutinous rice, water, sugar, yeast are used. Sato is used for culinary purposes or drunk from a thin bamboo straw.

How to make rice wine at home

You can make rice wine at home by yourself. There are several simple sake recipes.

Classic recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of rice;
• 3 liters of water;
• 10g koji yeast.

Easy cooking method:

• rice is washed, soaked for 12 hours;
• soaked grains are boiled until cooked and cool;
• shift rice grains into a glass jar, fill with water;
• add mushrooms;
• the jar is closed with a water seal and taken out to a warm place for fermentation;
• after 30 days the drink is filtered;
• grains are squeezed dry through gauze;
• both liquids can be combined and taken out to a cool place for clarification;
• ready wine is bottled;
• bottles are pasteurized for 20-30 minutes;
• the cooled bottles are taken out to the cellar and left for 2-3 months to improve the taste.

Quick option

Ingredients:

• 1kg rice grains;
• 10 g koji;
• 3 liters of water;
• 200 g sugar.

How to cook:

• rice is boiled and cooled;
• filled with water;
• add sugar and mushrooms;
• leave for 20 days for fermentation;
• filtered, bottled and pasteurized.

With citrus flavor

Recipe:

• 1 kg of rice;
• 3 liters of water;
• 10 g koji;
• 100 ml lime juice;
• 250 g sugar.

With spices

Recipe:

• 1kg rice grains;
• 3 liters liquid;
• 205g sugar;
• 10 g koji;
• 10 g ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger.

With apple jam

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of rice;
• half a liter of jam;
• 10g wine yeast;
• 3 liters of water.

How to cook:

• rice cook and cool;
• fill in a 3 liter jar;
• add jam;
• fill with water;
• add yeast;
• leave for a month in a warm place to ferment;
• filter the liquid and bottle it.

With currant jam

Ingredients:

• 1kg rice grains;
• half-liter jar of jam;
• 3 liters of water;
• 10g wine yeast.

Bread machine recipe

You can use an ordinary bread maker to cook rice. Rice grains in it are well steamed and do not burn. Rice is cooked in this appliance 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, it is desirable to taste it. If its strength is too low, you can add a little sugar and leave for another 2 weeks to ferment. The fully fermented drink is filtered again, then bottled.

Pasteurization must be done before storage.

Half-liter bottles are pasteurized at 60 degrees for 20 minutes, liter bottles for 30 minutes. Pasteurization can be carried out in an ordinary saucepan. The cooled bottles are tightly closed with a cork and taken out to the cellar for storage. In the basement, they should be at least 3-6 months. Such a period is needed for the full preparation of sake.

Drink rice wine cold or heated to 15-30 degrees Celsius. The shelf life of sake is 3 years.

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