Begin Brewing!

Decided to do a few more batches of rice wine with the Angel Yeast to see how well it continues to work. This will be the strongest batch yet (or at least the one with the biggest grain bill). Ingredients 15 pounds Happy Belly (Amazon) Calrose Rice (uncooked, fresh from the package) 3 gallons of water at 177F 1.25 tsp. Alpha Amylase powder (not needed, really) 1/2 tsp. Gypsum 0.50 tsp. Fermaid O yeast nutrient (also probably not needed) 1 gallon cold water 40 grams yellow-label Angel Yeast "Brewing" Process: Heat 3 gallons of water to 177F using The Grainfather (or your preferred method) Place 15 pounds of rice, alpha amylase, gypsum, and yeast nutrient in sanitized fermenter Put 177F water into fermenter, which should mellow out to about 155F depending on ambient temperature and rice temperature Stir rice and water well to ensure all rice gets in contact with water Let sit for 1 hour to hydrate the rice a bit Add cold water to the 5.5 gallon mark Wait for temp inside ferment...

I currently have my second batch of rice wine fermenting with the "magical" yellow-label Angel Yeast from China, and wanted to share some of the more unusual aspects of using it.  If you've never seen or used this yeast, I suspect you're not alone.  It ships in a 500 gram package that looks like this: What makes it "yellow label" is that yellow box you see in the upper left corner of the package.  This implies that it's yeast for distilling (though you do not need to have a still or distill the output to use it).  As I understand it, inside the package is a mix of yeast and other materials which will convert starch into sugar and directly ferment it, without the need for a traditional mash step.  This can radically shorten your brewing time.  For my most-recent batch of rice wine, I heated 3 gallons of water to 155F, poured it over 13+ pounds of uncooked rice straight out of the bag, let that soak for an hour, rehydrated some of this yeast in warm water,...

The last batch of rice wine turned out OK.  It was very thin-bodied and fairly low in alcohol (an estimated 7% ABV). The flavor was fairly non-descript with a slight tartness.  I decided to do another, stronger batch to put the yellow-label Angel Yeast through a bigger challenge. Ingredients 13.4 pounds (uncooked) medium grain rice 3 gallons of water at 155F 36 grams yellow-label Angel Yeast 1 tsp. Gypsum Additional cold tap water, about 1 gallon The entire "Mashing and Brewing" process: Heat water to 155F.  While the water is heating, sanitize a fermenter and dump the rice into it. When the rice hits 155F, pour it over the rice in the fermenter and stir to ensure the rice gets wet. Cover the fermenter and leave to sit for an hour or more. Add cold water to the 5.5 gallon mark and stir well. Add the Angel Yeast to about 5-6 ounces of 90F water and stir well to rehydrate. Add the rehydrated yeast to the fermenter and stir well again. Seal the fermenter Fermentation plan: D...