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Posted: **Sun May 09, 2021 12:25 pm**

Has anyone tried a side by side comparing results with aspergillus oryzae (Japanese sake koji) and rhizopus oryzae (angel rice leaven)? Or aspergillus luchuensis (awamori shochu koji)?

Posted: **Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:12 am**

lbzlittle1 wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 12:05 pm
SGB wrote: ↑Sat Jan 02, 2021 12:59 am
Personally I'm not doing back flips over it nor am I a fan. The taste just reminds me of those days. I'm just making it for my friends Chinese wife and her family and friends. I'm also not too concerned about yields as I am about taste and trying to turn out a product that tastes much better than what's sold in stores.. Personally.. I prefer straight bourbon and cold beer
Like sake, I think craft shochu is coming back and the stuff is very different from commercial shochu.

Well, I was referring to distilled rice wine( baiju/soju/ shoju/kaoliang high proof alcohol)
It has a very distinctive taste and in my years living in the Asian region I've drunk many a bottle. The sake is a different story. .in Japan I always drank it hot. Now here in South East Asia on the island, it's just too hot to be drinking hot rice wine. So I drink it ice cold. I also very much like mixing the two
A little bit of distilled rice alcohol in the rice wine seems a good mix and I do recommend it. It also very funny that many brands of rice wine and sake have distilled spirit added to bring up the proof.
I've done a few variations, Japanese koji, angle yeast, red rice yeast, and the yeast rice balls and really there is not much flavor difference other than when using the red rice koji or qi or whatever it's called. The red one definitely has a distinctive flavor in the wine but distilled it fades back. They all fairly ferment about the same except I would say that the angle yeast for alcohol seems a bit stronger. But basically you could ferment the rice with milk or yogurt too and still get something. I guess it's all about flavor and what you like and quality of the rice and the steaming of it and not boiling, or something other than just a good washing and steaming to bring out the good rice flavor... Otherwise you just end up with rice hooch

Posted: **Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:58 am**

v-child wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:49 am I buy the Thai brand short grain rice in 50 lb bags for about a dollar a pound. I don't play with magic yeast balls either. I make Korean Soju and the results are spectacular with HTL and standard fermenting techniques. The rice wine has a very good taste when dry also.

I know this is an older post but I would love a little more info on how you do the "HTL and standard fermenting techniques"

Posted: **Tue Sep 28, 2021 9:09 am**

squigglefunk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:58 amI know this is an older post but I would love a little more info on how you do the "HTL and standard fermenting techniques".

Have you tried the “search function”? Or do you just prefer to be “spoonfed”?
ss

Posted: **Wed Sep 29, 2021 4:25 am**

yup yup

Posted: **Mon Nov 15, 2021 6:16 am**

well in my first experiment, the angel yeast "rice leaven" sucked big time, ended up throwing it all away (about 30LBs of really expensive rice too) and the "magic rice balls" made a really good drink. SO maybe there is some magic in those balls.

Posted: **Mon Nov 15, 2021 7:13 am**

squigglefunk, you may not have used the correct Angel product. the 'leaven' line is for bread making or other yeast risen products, we are using the 'stater of liquor making' Angel product. Angel makes a dizzying array of different yeast products, but only the starter of liquor making has the required mold for enzymatic conversion included.

I haven't tried traditional yeast balls and inoculation of steamed rice, but the results I got from the appropriate Angel product were quite good.

Posted: **Mon Nov 15, 2021 7:43 am**

you might be mistaken because the angel yeast packets had directions for making rice wine, not bread ?

and this link to an amazon seller even states: ingredients: rhizopus , rice flour ... although it doesn't list yeast in the ingredients... hmmmm, maybe that's the problem?

https://www.amazon.com/Packs-Leaven-Chi ... B07CNJJN69

Posted: **Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:29 am**

Wrong. You should have Angel Yeast Yellow Label

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Posted: **Wed Nov 17, 2021 7:21 am**

I will check it out thanks

Posted: **Wed Nov 17, 2021 7:28 am**

I see that does seem to be the difference between the "rice leaven" and the "starter of liquor"

they both have the Rhizopus in the ingredients but the yellow label has Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is yeast.... so the "rice leaven" has the mold with no yeast, I should have pitched some DADY in there with it or something....

Posted: **Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:22 am**

OK in keeping with the topic. Normally I distill my rice wine to make alcohol but sometimes I also make the wine. So just to let you all know . 6 months ago I made some sake using yeast ball's to make the koji stage and angle yeast to kick up the fermentation I let the rice rest with the yeast balls for 5 days after which I added 1.5 water to kilo rice and the appropriate ratio angel yeast. It did it's fermentation for approx a month after which I strained into a secondary container. Now try as I might to be as clean as possible u still used my hands to squeeze every drop from the rice with a cloth. I put everything into a 8liter jug and into the fridge. Now 6 months later.. It's a thing of beauty clear and great. I siphoned from the 8 liter into bottles and it's just perfect

Posted: **Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:42 am**

squigglefunk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:58 am
v-child wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:49 am I buy the Thai brand short grain rice in 50 lb bags for about a dollar a pound. I don't play with magic yeast balls either. I make Korean Soju and the results are spectacular with HTL and standard fermenting techniques. The rice wine has a very good taste when dry also.
I know this is an older post but I would love a little more info on how you do the "HTL and standard fermenting techniques"

Mash it just like corn or any other grain. Best to soak it overnight and add it to boiling water. Try to keep it as close to boiling as possible and put the required amount of HTL under 190 F and it will thin out pretty quick. Before you ask- about 2 1/2 lbs of short grain rice per gallon of water.

I just finished up a run of sweet rice using Korean "Nuruk" which is, from my understanding, the same as yellow label Angel Yeast. I have used the Angel yeast also with great results. The beer from the process is what the Koreans call "Makeoli" and I distill that to make "So Ju". "So Ju" has a wonderful flavor mostly contained in the early tails.

Posted: **Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:38 am**

I never let water touch the rice when cooking. Always soak overnight in warm water and then steam.

Posted: **Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:38 am**

I read that the yellow Lable also does other grains as well as kick start the koji process

Posted: **Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:40 am**

SGB wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:38 am
SGB wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:38 am I never let water touch the rice when cooking. Always soak overnight in warm water and then steam. I do the dry/ wet approach. Put the yeast balls or the angel yellow Lable directly on the cooled steamed rice and put that directly into the fermentation bucket for 5 days after that add 1.3 litre water to kilo rice ratio stir it around and leave it alone. I'm about to do another and I'll post the gravity

Posted: **Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:19 am**

Distill the rice wine/beer and age on charred oak makes a very nice whiskey.... almost a floral aroma and flavor. Agree that most of the flavor is in the tails, and the tails from rice are much milder/less noxious than from any other grain I've used.

Posted: **Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:43 pm**

[

v-child wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:49 am
I just finished up a run of sweet rice using Korean "Nuruk" which is, from my understanding, the same as yellow label Angel Yeast. I have used the Angel yeast also with great results. The beer from the process is what the Koreans call "Makeoli" and I distill that to make "So Ju". "So Ju" has a wonderful flavor mostly contained in the early tails.

Just wandering by and thought I'd just make a small correction here - nuruk and angel yellow yeast are actually nothing alike. AYY is a lab isolated yeast, that has several isolated biomes in it, and is very limited in its "biota ecosystem". It's probably isolated out of the Chinese yeast balls (qu) or possibly even some strings from yeast bricks (daqu), as it has a similar scent to my nose as do full on daqu that I got from china.

Nuruk in the other hand, is similar to daqu and anything but - it's wild fermented and not created, and one nuruk can be wildly different in flavour to the next. Angel never changes, but nuruk is all over the shop. I've been making it myself for a few years now, and believe me, it's very difficult to get a singular consistent profile from any of the batches, even given the exact same ingrediants and fermentation parameters (almost there tho, after 3 years haha). Makgeolli made with AYY is okay, but quite...flaccid...compared to using nuruk.

If you want reliable consistent results, which, imo are just a little flat in favour, use angel yellow label. If you want wild, who the heck knows what you're going to get absolute flavour bombs and the occasion failure, use nuruk

Posted: **Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:28 am**

Wow, this is a great thread. I've been making sake for over a decade. I know the process, but the equipment is my headache.

1. How did you steam 4kg of rice? What kind of equipment did you use?
2. How did you strain the rice after fermentation? I find this is the most difficult step in my experience.

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Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

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Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.

Re: Rice Alcohol vs Sake! First experience.