rice whiskey

[trinder]

hi all,
I have just found this in a book by Marguerite Patten (any guru think she is any good)?
you will need:-
3lb. Carolina or short grain rice
1lb. raisins
3lb sugar
juice one lemon
8 pints warm water
1 oz yeast

1) Put the rice and chopped raisins with the sugar, lemon juice and water in a large bowl.
2) Add the yeast which should have been dissolved in a little warm water
3) let the mixture stand, covered with a cloth,for twelve days,but stir occasionally for the first three days.
4) See that it is kept in a warm place.
5) A scum will rise to the top as it works,but do not remove until the last day.
6) Filter the wine into a clean cask or stone jar.
7) Store for months in a cool place.
8) Bottle.
This is similar in taste colour and potency to whisky.

I highlight the word potency specifically for any comments regarding this statement.
As this is a 6 month waiting job I really think it I am up for having a go. By my thinking I could have a new one starting every month thus having a gallon of whisky for a few quid every month ---sings -- I'm in heaven la la lah

[mrsflibble]

personally I take most marguerite patten ricepes with a pinch of salt (and also extra herbs and spices lol) but this seems legit, can you please let me know how it turns out? thanks!!

[mrsflibble]

pudding rice will be cheap, carnaroli not so much and same with arborio or sushi rice...

[gregorach]

A standard bottling whisky is 40%. There is absolutely no way on God's green earth that you will get anywhere near that just by fermentation. Even using a high alcohol tolerance turbo-yeast won't get you past 20%, maybe 25% tops. Also, unless you're using a specialist diastatic yeast or some weird wild yeast, there's nothing in there to convert the starches from the rice into fermentable sugars, so the rice probably isn't going to add much and you've probably only got about 1.5 lbs/gallon of fermentables (does rice contain other fermentable carbohydrates? ), which won't get you past 10% anyway.

As for the notion that it might taste anything like proper whisky, this Scotsman says "You must be joking!"

Which is not to say that it might not be drinkable... But I'm a purist when it comes to whisky - if it's not spent at least 8 years in the wood, I'm not interested.

[MKG]

Well, I was just about to start a missive - than I saw that Dunc had already done it. Ms. Patten was a wonder for a low-paid post-war population. Apart from that, she's probably best avoided. Rice is invariably the ingredient which very old recipes use to make something taste like whiskey - which is strange because it doesn't make it taste like whiskey. She's obviously using bakers' yeast and that, as Dunc says, won't get anywhere near the potency of whiskey. In fact, it wouldn't even ferment out the 3 lbs of sugar she puts in plus the (about) half-pound of sugar from the raisins. So sweet whisky? YECCCHHH!!

You can buy, quite cheaply, a whisky-flavour drink at 22% ABV. That's produced (once again, as Dunc refers to) with the product of a turbo yeast fermentation to which flavourings have been added. You CANNOT achieve that with normal yeasts unless you're working under lab. conditions (I think the record so far with a wine yeast is 23% - but that was a LOT of work and nurturing).

So - similar in taste, colour and potency to whiskey? If it was that easy, no-one would be distilling anything. It's rubbish. And I think I'd guarantee a starch haze. And I bet it would taste like doggy doos.

Mike

EDIT: I wonder if Marguerite's only experience of whiskey was in a honey-flavoured hot toddy. This recipe might get somewhere near that (apart from the hot bit) - so still crap, then.

[gregorach]

It might taste like the sort of whisky that was available to the low-paid post-war population... These days you can buy some horrible rotgut blend at a ridiculously low price, which is at least (technically) real whisky.

My advice would be that if you can't afford the good stuff, don't bother with whisky. There's plenty of other booze you can make dirt cheap, and some of it is actually good. Responsible drinkers drink drink that's worth drinking.

[trinder]

thank you so so much people. I really appreciate not getting disappointed by trying something that is "in a book - so must be right" perhaps I'll stop reading the daily express as well. xx

[Andy Hamilton]

Rice beer might be a much better experiment, faster results too. There are a few recipes on the net, I've not tried myself yet so can't recommend any but let me know if you do try it.

[MKG]

Rice beer ... hmmmm. Found this one on the net ...

"The following technique can be used to make the Rice Beer.
first of all, boil the rice and cook it. Spread it on a long carpet and let it cool. Then add fermented medicines, made from rice itself, and mix properly. While mixing, put the rice in a big container. Be sure to cover it properly. Keep the fermented rice for a week, for a strong taste, else you can remove even after three to four days.

After this add water and start oozing the juice from the rice and drink it. You can remove the rice particles, by using a big or large sieve. The taste is simply awesome."

I think something got lost in the translation. I hope.

Mike

[gregorach]

Depends on what you mean by "rice beer"... Using rice in beer is perfectly do-able, although why you'd want to is beyond me. It's the defining characteristic of Budweiser (and I mean the naff American one, not the proper Czech one). It's a simply a cheap way of providing additional highly fermentable carbohydrates with no appreciable flavour, but for that you still need to mash it with sufficient barley malt to convert the rice starch to sugar, and it does need to be "gelatinised" (boiled to bits) first. You might as well just add sugar.

Making anything alcoholic from just rice is difficult, because it doesn't contain the enzymes needed to convert the starch to fermentable sugars. Making sake involves carefully cultivating a mould called "koji-kin" on the rice to convert the starch before (and during) fermentation.

You could just make proper beer instead...

[scrap]

It's the defining characteristic of Budweiser (and I mean the naff American one, not the proper Czech one).

There is no other.