Baijiu [General]
2015 May 8
My baijiu is brewing merrily . . . I have it in a large 5L jar that originally contained russian tomatoes. I have several layers of cling wrap over the top, held on with rubber bands. The rice has liquified and the cling wrap has bulged out with CO2 for the past couple of weeks. It smells great.
BTW you can use any rice, not just sticky rice. Just cook it with a bit more water to gelatinize it, or cook it in a pressure cooker. You can get Grace rice for about $1 a kg, and since rice has 80% + convertible sugar, this may be cheaper than fermenting pure sugar (which is $15 for 10 kg at Costco).
It's easy to make it into baijiu too, all you need is a large translucent bag made of HDPE (high density polypropylene).
BTW you can use any rice, not just sticky rice. Just cook it with a bit more water to gelatinize it, or cook it in a pressure cooker. You can get Grace rice for about $1 a kg, and since rice has 80% + convertible sugar, this may be cheaper than fermenting pure sugar (which is $15 for 10 kg at Costco).
It's easy to make it into baijiu too, all you need is a large translucent bag made of HDPE (high density polypropylene).
Francis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu
So it's made from grains usually, using a special starter based on a fungi that turns the grain to sugar, then yeast takes over and turns that to alcohol. You can make 20% abv from rice this way without distilling. The process is unique to asia. The way grains are fermented elsewhere is by malting (sprouting and drying, which releases enzymes to convert the starch).
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You can get the dried starter balls at Green Fresh Supermarket in Vanier.
I have a batch brewing now.
But the stuff my friend gave me to try is done in several stages, fermented in large jars buried in the earth, then dug up, distilled, and reburied to age for many years.
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menuinprogress.com
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www.splendidtable.org
Like I said, Green Fresh in Vanier, 60 cents for two starter balls.
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One LCBO in Ottawa carries three brands:
www.lcbo.ca
www.lcbo.ca
www.lcbo.ca