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Rice
Jack experiments again ...
A friend of mine wanted me to try and make for him a traditional Korean
spirit. I'm not sure how traditional this is, but, judging by the info on
ancient Chinese distillation techniques, this stuff would be considered a
high quality drink.
- Go to an asian food store and look in the fridge section for something called
Koji (it's a mold culture used to make soy paste, sake, etc), it typically
comes in a plastic, 20oz container (round, taller rather than wider- I used
Cold Mountain brand rice koji).
- Soak an equal VOLUME of short grain rice in enough water to cover it
overnight (just dump the koji into a bowl and use the container to get an
equal volume of rice/koji), then, steam the rice for 45minutes. After
steaming, add 20fl.oz. of cold water and 1.25teaspoons of Morton Salt
Substitute (no other brand is allowed- this is the only stuff with the right
chemical composition)
(The salt substitute is a mix of potassium chloride, fumaric acid, tri- and
mono- calcium phosphate. It's not essential to the brewing proccess (I've
made 2 batches, one with one without- I couldn't tell the difference) as far
as I can see, but the book on sake brewing I have reccomends it. If you
can't find it- don't worry, for this recipe it's not critical. It's more of
a requirement for plain sake brewing, though. I guess it acts like a
micronutrient source for the yeast and the koji. The sake book also adds a
little winemaker's yeast nutrient, but I ran out while trying out the recipe-
it didn't harm it any.)
- Stir the rice/water until there are no clumps of
grain, then add the koji.
- Cover and let it sit for 2 days, then add a wine
yeast (I used lalvin k1v-1116).
- Allow to ferment at LAGER temperature (50F)
until the rice settles down to the bottom of the fermentor.
- Distill this
sour smelling sake twice in a potstill- that's it- a traditional korean folk
liquor.
If you use sorghum instead of rice, you get a drink highly prized in
China called Mao-Tai. I personally hate sake ( I thought tequila hangovers
were bad!),but this distilled product is pretty good- It has a buttery,
grainy smell/flavor that is really quite good (the sorghum version has the
same taste but with an underlying soy flavor- my personal favorite). Forget
all the sake you have tried- this stuff has none of the sourness of the mash.
It is, in fact, not sweet, but almost malty in texture (like a thick
beer-despite being out of a still), and is definitely the strangest batch
that you can bring to any homebrew tasting. Something grand from those who
brought you Kimchi!!
Wal writes ...
Japanese rice wine or 'Sake' is distilled to make the spirit 'Shochu' ('Soju' in Korean).
Koji mold (Aspergilus ssp.) is traditionally used to make the mash,
but enzymes (amylase) and citric acid are also being used currently
to make shochu. This could be copied by homedistillers. See:
'Sake World'
http://www.sake-world.com
Click on 'How Sake is Made'
'Ingredients of Japanese Sake'
http://www.media-akita.or.jp/akita-sake/materialE.html
'The Chemistry of Sake Brewing'
http://brewery.org/library/sake/techpa15.htm
Click on 'Top' to go to the Index
'Production of Shochu Spirit from Crushed Rice by Non-Cooking Fermentation'
http://ss.jircas.affrc.go.jp/engpage/jarq/33-1/nishimura/nishimura.html
A Japanese experiment by Kenryo Nishimura and others proved that it
is not necessary to cook (to gelatinize) or convert (malting) milled
grain prior to fermentation. Milling, soaking, adding enzymes and
citric acid is sufficient -
"....the product obtained by the non-cooking fermentation method was
superior to that obtained by the cooking fermentation method in terms
of both aroma and flavor components."
The product referred to is 'shochu', a Japanese distilled spirit from
rice.
The non-cooking fermentation did take only one day longer than the
cooking method due to the initial concentration of glucose in the
cooking method.
The method eliminates the messy cooking part of using grain and
should encourage more to try grain-based washes.
Here is a suggested quick moonshine mash for 5 US gals or 20 litres:
Quick Moonshine
5 kg (10 lb) crushed grain (grits)
2 and 1/2 kg (5 lb) sugar
20 L (5 US gals) water
2 tbsp acid (2 g acid/litre)- a pH 4-5 is required.
2 tsp amylase enzymes (alpha-, beta-, gluco-) or 750 g (1 and 1/2 lb)
crushed malted barley grain (15% by weight)
Suitable ale yeast
Yeast nutrient (D.A.P.)
This should produce about 10-12%abv.
No pre-soaking of the crushed grain is required as there is
sufficient sugars for the yeast to begin the fermentation process
while the grain soaks.
Steve explains about Koji ...
Kojiis a type of mould similar
to that which turns bread green and furry. Scientific name:
Aspergillus oryzae. It breaks down starch with an enzyme called
amylase, the same one as in saliva and malted grains (the very same
enzymes we activate when we mash malted barley, wheat etc to produce
wort.)
Koji comes in two forms. First is koji kin, in other words, seed
koji. This is generally in the form of rice grains on which the
mould has been allowed to run rampant and go to spore and then
dried. This is now the inoculum.
The second form is what is more commonly referred to as simply koji,
but to distinguish it from koji kin is referred to as kome koji
(kome means rice in Japanese--it is pronounced as two syllables,
the "o" should be as in of, and the "e" as in egg.) So this koji is
steamed and cooled rice that has been inocculated with some koji kin
and then incubated at 30 to 35 degrees for a few days. The mould
hyphae grow right through the rice. You need to stir it every 6 to
12 hours and stop it by bunging it in the fridge if it starts to go
yellowy green--that means it is trying to form spore. In Japan, it
is possible to pop down to the local supermarket and buy koji in
this form fromm the cool-goods section as it is used for making miso
paste and a few other food-related things.
In sake making, it is this kome koji that is mixed together with a
larger quantity of steamed rice, some water and yeast to get the
fermentation underway. At coolish temperatures (10-15 deg) the koji
chugs away making amylase, the amylase converts the rice starch to
sugar, and the yeast does what yeast does best. And yadda yadda
yadda, eventually you get sake.
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