Choujiu recipe

[jeff]

Hiya — here’s the recipe for choujiu (which I think of as kind of a farmhouse sake — far simpler and more primitive than sake, and tending more towards sourness and funk).

Ingredients:
* Sticky/glutinous rice
* Chinese yeast balls, aka jiuqu
* Water

Process:
Cook the rice as you normally would — steaming, or in a rice cooker. With glutinous rice, it’s a good idea to soak overnight first.
Rinse the rice under cold water to cool it just above room temperature. Strain it to get rid of excess liquid, and transfer the cooked, cooled rice to your fermenter.
Crush the yeast balls and sprinkle 3/4 over the rice. I used a ratio of 1 ball per 4 cups of uncooked rice. Blend in with your hands (this is not a very sanitary fermentation). Sprinkle the remaining crushed yeast balls over the top and seal the fermenter.
After about 4 days, the block of rice will have contracted significantly in size and essentially be floating on liquid. I let it go for around a week total before straining off all the liquid I could press out of the remaining rice.
At this point you will have a milky, quite sweet beverage. It will continue fermenting for quite a while, becoming drier and more sour. Some people like to keep the rice solids in suspension, while others let it drop clear and pour the wine off the lees. Package as desired, and carbonate or not!