Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey all,

I'm trialling a process to make bourbon using Ragi-Tape (normally used for rice wine etc). So far so good as far as mould growth on the corn. :-D

But I'm wondering if I should bother using backset? I don't want to use it in the initial fermentation phase as I'm unsure how the micro-flora will behave. I will have to dilute the "wine" before fermentation can finish and would probably use backset at this point, if at all.

Any comments on whether it's worth adding the backset at all? Given it's not required for it's pH lowering effects?

Cheers all :smile:

BourbonJunkie wrote:
You are out of my league, Blackened. I am interested to read of your results, and I would be happy for you to send me a bottle so I can critique your effort, but I am out of my depth when it comes to understanding what you are up to. One effort I have lined up for the future is the BWKO. It would be interesting to see you do a comparison between what you are proposing and the BWKO and see what you reckoned comes up trumps.

I'm relatively new to this forum.... BWKO?

If the end result is drinkable then I'd appreciate knowledgeable feedback. But good results are far from guaranteed so I'll play it by ear :))

BWKO = Bourbon Whiskey Knock Off.... Should be a recipe in tried and proven section

bluess57 wrote:BWKO = Bourbon Whiskey Knock Off.... Should be a recipe in tried and proven section

Thanks, I'll have a look :smile:

So far so good. Mould growth is different as compared with a rice substrate. Current substrate consists of 80% corn (tried whole and cracked) and 20% whole triticale.

The cooked grains don't tend to turn to a watery slurry at the same grain/water ratio as rice. So I'm incrementally adding liquid after the mould growth has taken hold.

Also I'd note that whole corn is much harder to cook than cracked corn. I'll use up my whole corn but won't be buying any more.

Just got some "koji" to start this same experiment myself. How did the final batch go?

My vietnamese flatmate got some stuff from vietnam that contains the fungus enzymes and yeast. I cooked up 15kg of sticky rice (a total prick of a job) and then added the fungus/yeast powder once it was cool. Within 5 minutes i could see the starch starting to convert and within 10minutes bubbles started to form. 24hours later and it looks to be a thin soup with vigorous fermentation. I plan to let it ferment for 10 days then run through the pot still. If its bad ill reflux it (i've heard rice makes a fine neutral)

ON the packet of the fungus/yeast mix there are pictures of corn so im hoping it will work with that as well.

What quantity of water do yo use to cook 15kg of sticky rice i used 2 kg of rice to make beer with 4 kg of malt barley put the rice through coffee grinder and added boiling water just got thicker and thicker 15 L until i added small amount of malt barley one cupful at 72 Celsius and it thinned out quickly .
Cooked rice is evil stuff when boiled and grinding up makes worse .Do you think using enzyme at the higher temperature and then the enzyme yeast would make any difference to the final result or is all that is needed is the enzyme yeast mix.
Thinking of doing 1/2 rice 1/2 malted barley and see how that turns out.

Traditionally sticky rice is steamed.

Any reason your using sticky rice? It's usually much dearer than its cousins.

not sure on the quantity i used. My flatmate is vietnamese so cooks rice everyday, he just added what we needed by eye. I would recommend boiling the water first then adding the rice to save some time, otherwise you gotta keep stirring it as you cook it which is easier said then done.

We used sticky rice because apparently thats what they use in vietnam, i have no idea why they use that thouhg.

For beer i wouldnt use the yeast balls. The enzymes in the malt is adequate. I love using rice in beer, dries it out nicely

I use 2L/kg Water/sticky rice in a standard rice cooker. Although I find smaller batches work better, say 500gm at a time. No stirring, just come back when it's done.

The final results of the corn only batch weren't very good. It just never took off like rice batches do.

Been ages since I've used the Ragi Tape but I've got a fridge full of 50/50 corn and rice. I cook the corn by crushing and then pressure cooking. Corn in the bottom, rice layered over the top. The Ragi Tape seems to use the rice as substrate to grow into and the enzymes produced *seem* to be working their magic on the corn too. I haven't run it through the still yet so can't say for sure but it does look to have turned very liquid similar to a 100% rice batch. Less than a week into this particular trial so time will tell.

The sticky rice cooks differently. The individual grains of rice seem more exposed to enzymes seeing as they are so mushy after cooking compared with the firmer grains of standard rice

HTH

That's why they are steamed. They can't be cooked in boiling water with good results. It's also called glutinous rice.
If you cook normal rice with excess water they too will go mushy but need more water than the sticky rice to do so.
We love steamed sticky rice in our house. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Gelatinization Temperatures for Adjuncts rice and corn is about 75 Celsius so if you boil the water and then add the rice cover and insulate should stay hot long enough for Gelatinization of the starch .The bigger the pot the longer it takes to cool down after its boiled.
Steaming the rice its not going to burn on the bottom of the pot.

Steamed jasmine rice and yeast balls make great drop :handgestures-thumbupleft:
It's only thing Iv made that tasted good on spirit run straight outa pot still, all my fermenters are full of fruit but will be going back to rice when fruit season over :happy-partydance: