Rice Wine from leftovers

[squeegeethree]

We had 4 pounds of steamed rice that was untouched from our take-out. Ok I know you are supposed to start with the best ingredients but here I go on my journey with what is around. I mixed the 4 pounds of rice with some White Mountain dry koji (expired 2 months ago), 2 koji balls that have been in my fridge for 2 years (a gift I didn't know what to do with), and a bit of filtered water. The slightly sticky rice is now in a spare 2.5g fermenter with an airlock. There's not much water in there. I don't know if this whole thing should be left more to the open air or not. If I should add water or not. Uncertain if those little balls have yeast in them as well. I guess I will see and if anyone has any thoughts let me know.

[brew_cat]

I have eaten fermented rice that a Chinese friend of ours made. It was interesting. He told me it was pretty traditional.

[KramerOG]

You need to add lactic acid for the koji to work. The water should barely cover the rice. This site should help, but bear in mind that you
seem to be following a seat of the pants approach rather than a traditional sake approach. https://homebrewsake.com/homebrew-sake-%e2%80%93-what-equipment-do-you-need/

[squeegeethree]

I read acidic acid elsewhere, so I guess a seat of your pants ph adjustment.
I’m not really making sake, I know that.

[brew_cat]

Hooch

[uncdeo]

Definitely not basic acid.

[squeegeethree]

I haven’t seen a rice wine video with an acid addition yet. I’m going to skip that for now. If the Koji takes then I’m pretty confident I can take it from there. If it doesn’t work then at least my wife will be glad I cleaned out the fridge.

[squeegeethree]

Well, i think I can see the Koji beginning but it's a bit hard to tell and I'm certain I'm trying too cold. This site had the best photos of how my Koji should look along with newbie content.
https://www.fermentationculture.eu/what-koji-needs/

They also had some Koji just for Barley for sale which would be interesting to try... has anyone?
https://www.fermentationculture.eu/shop/barley-koji/

[squeegeethree]

Stirred the rice. It definitely has a sweetness that is unfamiliar to what I remember the take-out being

[squeegeethree]

So the airlock is bubbling away at this point. I have stirred the rice 2 times since the last photo. I appear to have avoided contamination even though I did not adjust pH. The Koji is mushifying the rice and the yeast is doing its thing with the “sweat” coming off. I never topped of with water either. At this point I guess you would consider this a 4 lb Koji starter that I would build up from. Maybe I can convince my colleagues at work to order lunch sushi but not eat the rice that comes with it.

[Rburrelli]

Ask them for a rice donation for a scientific cause.

[squeegeethree]

I didn’t post yesterday because there wasn’t much visual change. Today the airlock is going crazy. I pitched some Kveik yeast, Voss, because I cannot maintain lager temps right now in my apartment.

[squeegeethree]

Well since that phase went so well I decided to continue to the next phase and feed my “starter” a real batch of rice following whatever advice seemed doable in my apartment.
I got some sushi rice but I had to rig up a rice steamer which you will see.

[squeegeethree]

I washed my rice until the water was running clear and then soaked the sushi rice for about 10 hours. I saw ranges of 2 hours to 24 hours of soaking online so I just went with what my schedule allowed.

[squeegeethree]

Not having a steamer I decided to rig my brew kettle into one. To do this I put a Pyrex bowl on the bottom of the kettle to lift my false bottom out of the water that was around (and in) the pyrex bowl.
The water I brought up to a boil before reducing to a simmer.

[squeegeethree]

I inverted my false bottom and tied some cheese cloth around it. I’m not sure I needed the cheese cloth but I had it and maybe it will make cleanup easier. Edit: The single layer of cheesecloth really helped with cleanup as the bottom most layer of rice was overcooked super sticky and the cloth just peeled it off the false bottom surface.

[squeegeethree]

I spread out my presoaked rice into as even a layer as I could onto my raised false bottom

[squeegeethree]

The brew pot was covered tightly to build up steam. I checked the rice every 20 minutes because I had no idea how well this would work. My volume of rice took 80 minutes to reach perfection.