Home Distiller

After inoculation of Aspergillus oryzae and other fungi (Nuruk) to the steamed rice and filtered water (0.1:1:1). Fermentation begins at room temperature (75 F)!

Nuruk can be purchased from Korea, but I prefer to make it in-house because it is difficult to find it in the States. Nuruk production is tricky, but it is fun too. Solid-state fermentation is the process to make Nuruk. Substrate is wheat (coarse mashed) and mixed with little bit of water, and then formulate in round or rectangular block. Cover the block with a source of fungi (dried corn stalk will work instead of rice stalk), and then set them in a dark and dry place for 4-8 weeks. Keep the temperature 75-85 F. I use my attic. You need to flip flop the wheat block twice per week.

What you look for is “dark yellowish or white” fungi (Aspergillus oryzae or nidulans) on wheat block. If you see “black” fungi, those are Aspergillus niger, which produces “dark” color Makkgeolli rice wine, so sort them out and burn them away.

I spent last two whole months to make some good quality Nuruk, so if you wish, I can share some which may be enough for a small test batch.



After 48 hours of fermentation, inside temperature elevates to 78 F from 75F, and pH reaches to 4.0 from 8.0. Fully swollen rice is obvious, and some rices start floating.



After 90 hours of fermentation, residual rices decreased to almost half of the initial mass, and no more ethanol bubble produced. Time to stop and start downstream process.



After series of filtration with decreasing mesh number of sieves, final product with 1:2 dilution with water reveals wonderful color of milky white. Estimated alcohol concentration is 5-6% (v/v). Now MatKorea is ready for fun. Taste before dilution is very bold and strong, as well as sour, so you may want to add your favorite flavor(s), for instance, sugar, maple syrup, fruit extracts, whatever you like.... And also you can control alcohol concentration. Since the original liquid has almost 15% alcohol in it, you can dilute accordingly to get your own alcohol level and your own flavor...

Do you prefer Sake? Then distill the final product, then you get yourself Sake!!

But since MatKorea contains LOTS of lactic acid bacteria, which is the results of carbohydrate fermentation, your skin cells will become lovely if you have skin trouble. Due to the same action of lactic acid bacteria, it contains LOTs of other nutrients which are easy to digest without burden to your stomach. So, MatKorea has been popular to Korean people for last 2000 years…..

Well, this is it for my first post and I’m a Chem E. engineer who professionally ferments bacteria, yeast, fungi for vaccine, antibodies, metabolites production, well, whatever keeps my job…

Hope this helps…. And most importantly, have fun!

Welcome to the forums, signalhunt... Thanks for the well documented process... I'll be interesting in watching this topic as it progresses...

Hi Signalhunt -

I'm extremely impressed with your ability to make nuruk, and your credentials regarding using biology in commercial production processes. Are you still making nuruk these days? I've looked very hard, and can't find any good information on nuruk recipes online. Nothing is detailed enough. I'm living in Korea right now, and have just started making some batches of makgeolli, but I always have to buy nuruk from local markets. I'm very determined to learn how to make it myself, so that when I return home to the US I can continue to enjoy the amazing beverage that is makgeolli. (I'd also just derive a lot of satisfaction to being able to exercise quality control over every step of the process.) I suspect I will not live in an area anywhere near a Korean market when I return to the US.

Could you please elaborate on the process by which you made nuruk? For instance, how much coarse mashed wheat and water do you use per block? Should the dried corn stalk you select for wrapping already have fungus on it when you wrap the blocks? And how do you form the blocks, do you shape it with a mold? (If so, how?) And one thing I was wondering in particular is how do you dry the blocks? From what I can gather, the Koreans sun-dry them, but I'm not sure how that works. And perhaps a stupid newbie question - how to you get/make coarse mashed wheat?

If you would post pics of your nuruk-making, that would be awesome! I can upload some pics of my first makgeolli batch, too, if you want, though it looks very similar to yours. (Except that I "double fermented" mine; in other words, I added rice two separate times. I was told this would improve the taste. Some brewers add rice three times.)

-darktoad

VERY cool! Just a small correction; Sake, is sometimes carelessly used for any asian alcohol beverage. But real Sake is not distilled. Sake is one Japanese version of rice wine. If you distill Sake, you get Shochu. Distilled Makgeolli could probably be called an ansestor to Soju. The Chinese equivalent would be Shaojiu. Shochu, Soju, Shaojiu....thre similar words in three different languages for a distilled rice wine. One would not get Japanese Sake from distilling a Korean rice wine.

Is it possible to get a culture going on this stuff from the kind you buy so you don't have to constently buy it? I don't have a source for corn stalk and I'm pretty sure that the corn I get from the store is shot full of pesticides and I'm not too sure that the organic kinds will have the right kind of mold. Also did you use sweet rice or just normal rice?

is this the same as sake?
if so---http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_i ... cts_id=742