Uncle Remus Rice Vodka

[HooBilly]

I have been considering freeze concentrating about 3 gallons of this to mix back into the other two to bring the strength and flavor up. Hoping to get 22 to 24 at the end, am shooting for 15 to 16 at end of ferment. Kinda off topic, I have been unemployed for 15 months now (unemployment rate is about 33% in the tri-county area). I have a job class/testing with unemployment office this friday with a company that flash freezes, packages and ships frozen fruits and veggies. One of my buddies work there and he gets packages of fruit all the time.. Hoping to do quite a bit of fruit washes soon I am way above the curve for job requirements, but 1100 people applied for 4 jobs..90% of all the RV, trailer factorys and van conversion shops have shut down for good, so its pretty bad around here. I do free lance networking, so I have survived better than others, but really would like to work somewhere for free fruit...

[HooBilly]

Still chugging along, interesting observation though, co2 coming out of the airlock smells like budweiser.. Didnt think about it when I slapped it together, but wheat, malt barly and rice may make a rice beer. Dont know if if rice beer contains hops, but thi ssure smells good..

[JethroBodine]

Uncle Remus, thanks for this recipe, I tried it out with malt instead of enzymes, and didn't get very good conversion. 3/4 of the fermenter was full of white gloop, and I only got about 1 1/2 gallons of liquid( probably would have got more if I had strained it out) but decided to add more malt and sugar( 4 more times). Saved the product in a fermenter under an airlock, and finally distilled to get 2 quarts, at 50% abv,of the best smelling and tasting vodka I've had in a LONG time. Just finished a large, watered down screwdriver, perfect for staying hydrated in the heat, and the OJ was watered down not the vodka. Next batch will be enzymed.

[visualjeff]

I found the same yeast balls mentioned in this thread at my local asian food store for $2.97 a bag.

BTW, I have two versions of this wash going, one with the yeast balls and one with EC-1118. I'll keep you posted as to how they differ.

VJ

[violentblue]

Think I may give another go around of this a try over the winter.
I'll invest in good yeast this time, and definatly make use of freeze concentrating before potstilling the whole shebang

[rubber duck]

Well I just finished my 3rd run of this recipe and i must say that this is outstanding. Other than rum i don't realy use sugar( I don't drink all that much so i'm not realy into production). This is a realy good sugar bassed recipie I think i'll try doing a single run and oaking it to see what happens.
This is realy the ticket for a vodka.

[0re0]

I did a similar recipe last year,but kept it as saki.Its been in the bottle for 8 months,and is some good s##t.I used 15Lbs of calrose rice that I milled down some.I cooked the rice,adjusted the ph,and mashed at 152f with amelaze and later with beano.I left the mash overnite to convert,and got a fairly good conversion.I added 10 pounds of corn sugar,and 5 cans of welchs 100% white grape for body.I fermented with 2 packs of flor/sherry yeast and once the sg dropped,I kept adding corn sugar additions for the next four months,and racking to get rid of all the sedement.I ended up using 21pounds of corn sugar all together.It stopped fermenting at 21%.
I had thought of distilling it,but its just too good like it is.It taste real close to a semi-dry sake.

Semi dry, oh yea!
The strongest sakes I've drank was MOMKAWA PEARL, Nigori. It was only 18% ABV. Fruity sweet and thick. Everytime i go out to eat at my local Chinese place i order a few okkuri's of sake. I've always thought about making sake, but have never done it. Winter time is here and I may just try it!

Got a good recipe? besides the vague ones floating around the internet

[big worm]

Well I just finished my 3rd run of this recipe and i must say that this is outstanding. Other than rum i don't realy use sugar( I don't drink all that much so i'm not realy into production). This is a realy good sugar bassed recipie I think i'll try doing a single run and oaking it to see what happens.
This is realy the ticket for a vodka.

bout 6 months on oak and you get a very mild rice whisky i wish i had put more up on oak. perhaps i'll do another batch

[plonker]

I did my first one of these last week. Put about 20% malted barley for a bit of conversion..
Ran it throught the thumper and like yours, it came out like a light whiskey...

I was hoping for a stolichnaya style vodka. Mix the output with a heap of neutral for a slight grain taste... Instead its gone in with the single malt which was too grainy....

Malted wheat and sugar next..

[big worm]

stick with the enzymes and follow this recipe close..if you want a very clean vodka. subsatuting the enzymes with malt adds flavors like a malt whisky.

[mupfo]

Anybody ever malted rice ? Got some buddies in Arkansas (duck hunting) they are going to bring me some rice out of a grain bin going to give it a try.. Any suggestions

[C2H5OH]

Rice vodka sounds good, been wanting do something with rice. I've also got a few jars of rice syrup might have to try adding that instead of sugar.

[sparky marky]

where do you get the enzymes for this recipe? my local brew shop doesnt know anything about them and i cant seem to find them on the net either

[LWTCS]

Try Brewhaus for starters.
Link icon at the upper right side of your screen will take ya right there.

[Dnderhead]

If you are making a bunch---but you should have both alpha and gluco.----
http://www.milehidistilling.com/Alpha_A ... /13215.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[sparky marky]

hmm.... shipping costs are a bit high... will it keep for a while in the fridge?

[Samohon]

Have definately put this on my " To Do", list. Thanks Guys...

[fishydistiller]

Thanks for the great recipe Uncle Remus!
I am starting my first batch right now as follows:

10 pounds long grain rice (cheap Riceland rice from Sam's)
5 grams Alpha amylase (bought the enzymes from Mile High- they say it lasts 1 year in the fridge and only 10% activity each year after that)
5 grams Gluco amylase
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient (the TaylorMade Sake website that someone linked to on the forums talks about needing nutrients)
1 teaspoon citric acid (to lower ph for Gluco addition)
1 packet champagne yeast

Procedure:
Boil rice with 3 times volume of water for 10 minutes. Let cool to 165, add Alpha amylase. Let sit 60 minutes, keeping it between 165-140.
After 60 minutes, add 1 teaspoon citric acid (or enough to get ph down to around 4-5) and Gluco amylase. Let slowly cool to yeast pitching temp( starting off around 140 hopefully).
Pitch yeast and nutrient.

How does this look?

So far I have learned:
My 16 Liter pot is not nearly big enough, and not having a false bottom means I got some rice burned onto the bottom. I had to split the rice into two pots and add additional boiling water...
Resting in the Alpha amylase phase right now.
More updates to follow!

[jathivxu]

I made a post about rice wine and was referred to this forum. It's good reading. My query is this:- 1) Can I distill chinese rice wine in my turbo air still and what will happen (the rice wine is approx. 20%) and ; 2) will it remove the rice taste so that I can add the N.Z. essences that I have, to make whiskey, rum etc.?

[WalkingWolf]

If you were using the Air Still to produce alcohol to be used as a fuel, you put a gallon of fermented alcohol "wash" (at perhaps 15% ABV) into the Air Still. In about 2 hours of operation, the Air Still would distill off about a quart (32 oz) of 50% to 60% ABV (100 to 120 proof). It is possible to re-distill that volume for even higher purity if needed.

With the above information taken from a site that offers this still I would say the answer to the question is NO. With that said, the question becomes: do you have a black/white mentality or do you see the world in many shades of grey?? With all of the reading you do on rice ferments, nearly all mention the very mild flavor that is present in rice ferments. I would venture to say, with the above setup, you will not remove all rice flavor but at the same time I wouldn't think the flavors that remain would be offensive to the flavor essences you want to use. I would think that three runs would give a product pretty close to a neutral.

WW

[ol'blue]

Rice makes for a very mild subtly flavored alcohol, even with sugar mixed in the wash, it still comes out very mild wil little heads and almost nothing for tails.

[RefluxFan]

10 pounds long grain rice (cheap Riceland rice from Sam's)
5 grams Alpha amylase (bought the enzymes from Mile High- they say it lasts 1 year in the fridge and only 10% activity each year after that)
5 grams Gluco amylase
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient (the TaylorMade Sake website that someone linked to on the forums talks about needing nutrients)
1 teaspoon citric acid (to lower ph for Gluco addition)
1 packet champagne yeast

I notice you have left out sugar in this one.......how's it going, what quantites at what % did you get out of this?
Watching closely

[ibfestus]

I don't want to boil rice in the pot I use for my still because it is too hard to get clean and I'm afraid that I will scorch some rice then not be able to clean it. The largest SS stock pot I have holds about 4.5 gals so if I add 3 gal. water and 1 gallon rice is their any problems in doing the wash in batches and putting it all in my 40 gal fermenter? I have all the ingredients, the enzymes etc.

[myerfire]

Is the champagne yeast used because of higher ABV? As opposed to bakers yeast.
myerfire

[kerinin]

I started a batch of this two days ago and it looks like things are taking off. I was feeling too lazy to wait for the enzymes to ship, so I ran to our local asian supermarket and bought a package of yeast balls.

I had to split the recipe in half (my fermenter is only 7 gallons) and even then I had to split that in two to make the rice. Anyway, I cooked the rice, added the sugar, then let it cool to 140 and added two yeast balls to each pot. Unfortunately it's not -20 here, so I ended up letting it sit overnight before adding the yeast.

I added the yeast the next day, but wasn't getting much activity after about 12 hours. I was worried that I had killed the koji by putting them in too hot, so I added two more yeast balls at that point and mixed everything up. Anyway, it's all humming along now. I've been keeping track of the bubble rate here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key ... l=en&gid=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

So far so good!

[klondike]

Started two batches of rice mash Sunday. Each batch is approx 14.5 gallons of water, 25 lbs of cheap, white, long-grain rice, 15 lbs of sugar, 4 tblsp alpha amylase @ 166F, then 4 tblsp gluco @ approx room temp. Split a pack of alcotec yeast between the two batches.

For each batch, I had to cook the rice in 12.5 lb amounts, in 5 gal of water. It took a hell of a long time to do it this way (total of 4 pots of cooked rice). However, after adding the yeast, things took off quickly. By Monday morning, there were big, fluffy, foam caps on each container (big 20 gal laundry buckets). This is in my basement. By Tuesday, I came home from work and the entire house and basement smelled like mash. It is bubbling away very nicely now, and has a very thick, white tint to it. I didn't check specific gravity before starting fermentation, but I figure with everything I put in those tubs, it should yield pretty well.

Will post more as things progress. The rice is cheaper than buying similar amounts of sugar, so I am really eager to see how this stuff turns out.

[sammy]

This is my second try at this recipe. The fist went so well we drank it right out of the still, and was downed by quite a few. This one was about, 22 1/2 gal of water(30 gal brute garbage can with 6 inches for headroom) , 17.5 pounds of rice, 4 Tbs of alpha amylase and 4Tlbs of gluco amylase, 20 pounds white sugar,and about a 1/2 cup of distillers yeast that had been re hydrated in some warm sugar water. Cooking the rice is a two batch process, and its a pain. That being said, it's worth it. Keep stirring on lower heat, after the boil, and you'll get less scorching. At 150 deg. F I added the alpha amylase and waited 90 min. After 90 mins I added the gluco amylase. I converted the sugar, just to help things along and added that at about the same time. Around 90 deg. F I added the yeast and stirred for about 5 min. to airrate

I'm unclear about the state the rice should end up as. This batch looked as if the rice had been puffed and had the consistency of light molding clay. I'm not sure why, I thought that it would be, "goo" like. It took up about 12 inches at the bottom of the fermenter and had to be strained and wrung out. Next time I'll have some cheese cloth on hand.ate.

I'm unclear about what the rice should end up as. This batch looked as if the rice had been puffed and had the consistency of light molding clay. I'm not sure why, I thought that it would be, "goo" like. It took up about 12 inches at the bottom of the fermenter and had to be strained and wrung out. Next time I'll have some cheese cloth on hand.

As things go I forgot to take the sp gav. but all went well. About a week and a half later it was finished and cleared each batch overnight. Three stripping runs later, I had 3 gals for the spirit run. I ended up with 1 1/2 gals of just amazing stuff at 94.5% and about a 1/2 gal that's not bad but will probably rerun in the next batch. We tried it long side Gary Goose, and while different, everyone agreed that it was on par with the good stuff

A lot of work, but worth the effort. Wineos Plain Ol Sugar Wash is already in same fermenter. An easier start by far, and we'll see what the difference will be.

[klondike]

So, of two 20 gal. tubs of rice mash, I ran the first one. It has been cold where I live, so even though it's in the basement, I think the temp really slowed down fermentation. The first tub produced about 11 or 12 gallons of distillable liquid. The runs were not so hot. Yielded about 1and 1/2 gallons of drinkable liquor. Not much nasty heads or tails, but the highest abv yield was 175, which dropped very quickly as distillation progressed. This is from a still that consistently puts out 180 proof liquor thru most of a run. However, it does taste pretty good, and mixes well at high proof with cranberry juice (pure).

Anyway, if I try it again, I will cook my rice longer and add the alpha-amylase at a higher temp and let it work longer. Also, maybe add something to get more nutrients in the mix.

1 and 1/2 gallons of home-made likker is better than no home-made likker at all.

[valkyrie99]

I love the smell of this recipe while its working. Been bubblin along for over 3 days now.

[pumpman]

I found this interesting read today and thought I would share it.

http://www.buildabeer.org/Homebrewing%2 ... Crowle.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow