Yesterday I ventured into another area of culinary skills - wine making. Ever since I attended the Tekka tour and sampled some of Gina's homemade wine, the idea of making my own wine has been lingering in my mind. I finally got all the ingredients and tools ready and started on my wine-making yesterday. I followed the method in KC.

The things you need are fairly simple:
- A large enough GLASS container to hold the rice during fermentation
- 1 kg rice (to cook and cool off completely)
- 1 piece Wine Yeast (酒饼)
- 1 tbsp Sugar

You can get wine yeast in some of the old kind of chinese medical hall. I got mine from one near the market I frequent. This is how it looks like. It is important to cook the rice SOFT and leave it completely cool and dry before using. KC has a lot of useful tips you can refer to. I cooked 1 kg of rice (i.e. 7 cups of uncooked rice with slightly more than 7 cups of water) but only used half of it for my rice fermentation (with all other ingredients half as well).

After the rice has completely cooled off (I left it outside to cool for about 5 hours), crushed the rice yeast to powder form and mix with the sugar. Then mix these into the cool rice. I didn't really crush the yeast very finely, can still see specks of it among the rice after mixing. When done, transfer everything into the dry and clean glass container. Put a piece of clean, dry cloth over the mouth before putting on the cover. It is IMPORTANT not to open the jar during the first 7 days of fermentation or your effort will go down the drain. This morning when I woke up, I am happy to see small droplets at the side of my container. I can already smell the wine fragrance when I place my nose near the cover...heee... I will continue to report my progress in my blog. So do stay tune. :) Hope to see some of you join me in my new venture.

See next update here. Posted by KWF at 10:22 AM Labels: Wine Making ting said...

Hello wf,

This is so interesting. I've seen my friend ferment wine, but he wrapped the rice separately in banana leaves instead. For that extra flavor I guess ;p

April 20, 2008 at 11:17 PM gina said...

hi Ting, that method is the Malay method of rice fermentation, its often called Tapai. My indonesian maid knows it too. After fermentation, its eaten as it is, just like a piece of kueh. In certain of rural Malaysia, Tapai is eaten like a delicacy.

April 21, 2008 at 7:47 AM Xiaolu said...

Hi wf,

You have a very nice blog. I tried this myself a few months ago, but did it incorrectly and it became moldy. I was wondering whether you twist the lid so that it's closed tightly or just rest it on top? Also, how long is the whole process supposed to take? Thanks!

April 22, 2008 at 10:33 AM KWF said...

Xiaolu, I close the lid tight, with a cloth over it. It is important that no air should enter the bottle, especially during the first 7 days. The wine can be harvested in 21 days. But I'll probably leave it slightly longer, maybe 30 days. I haven't decided yet.

April 22, 2008 at 9:23 PM Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely have to try this again soon =).

April 23, 2008 at 10:23 AM Wishing you success in advance, xiaolu. Remember to share with me your process/results, ok? :)

April 23, 2008 at 1:22 PM gy said...

hi all,

need some help,what if i added more yeast than it the rice required? want to make sure the rice is well mixed with yeast. after fail many time, worry about failing again. just check it, it start to ferment within 24hrs. is it ok? there is some droplet on the container. can't see the inside because is cover with cloth and the container is not transparent.

June 17, 2008 at 7:27 AM gy, not too sure about adding more yeast. exactly how much more did you add? Do NOT open your container to check. If you smell sweet wine smell at the mouth, you should be all right. Next round, use a transparent container so that you can look out for mould. Once mouldy, you'll have to throw all away and start again.
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