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sorry if this has been posted before...but im actually looking for threads talking about fermentation without the aid of yeast.
Does anyone have some links to threads talking about this, or any knowledge on the subject. Ive found a few german experiments on google dealing with this....but im not exactly fluent in anything but english.
thanks guys

Are you talking about wild yeast? or bacterial fermenting as in rice wine?

While there is bacterial fermentation as in saurkraut and kimchee, there is no ethanol without yeast.

Rice wine is made by convertin' starch to sugar with a fungi, and the ethanol is created, as usual, with yeast.

Ok never done it and do not care to.rice is not my thing .

Rice makes a fine product Dnder, ya should consider givin' it a try.

Ever tried sake or mokkli? They are awsome and have a flavour that we western brewers aren't used to. The fungus that is used to convert the starch gives an almost mettalic taste in the background. Except it isn't mettalic... that's just how I describe it. It's a very good and unique flavour.

If ya have any asian markets where ya live they sell these sacks of little black balls about the size of a large "shooter" marble. They are a blend of the fungi and yeast. Get long grained rice, and steam it well for 45 minutes to an hour. Add water till the rice goes past the puddin' stage to the soupy stage. Add about two of the fungi/yeast balls per gallon.

The starch is slowly converted to sugar durin' a couple weeks and at the same time the sugar is converted to ethanol.

Once it's done fermentin' all ya gotta do is rack it once or twice and bottle.

Very easy to make and quite tasty.

I love sake.

What are those fungi/yeast things called?


edit: Answering my own question after a little research... The fungus is called "koji" or Aspergillus oryzae. To quote Wikipedia, "The protease enzymes produced by this species are marketed by the company Novozymes under the name Flavourzyme. The importance of A. oryzae has led to its recognition as Japan's national micro-organism ("kokkin"), just as the sakura cherry blossom as Japan's national flower.

DrTorque wrote:What are those fungi/yeast things called?

Heh.

By who?

The Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese all use 'em, claim them as "theirs", and have their own name for them.

The only English speaker at my local asian market calls them "yeese-baa", which I assume is "yeast ball" when less heavily accented.

Thanks - I'm going to go look for it.

Corn wrote:... Ive found a few german experiments on google dealing with this....but im not exactly fluent in anything but english....

Try translating the German pages you found with http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Hope that helps some.

have a friend that uses corn meal to make wine. no yeast at all. and have boiled some for him. both ways are VERY good. guessing there is some "wild" yeast in the meal

yep, on the corn ,in the air, on your hands, its every where man. some good and some bad