Homemade Rice Wine (Tapai)

This glutinous rice wine is fresh, sweet and slighty winey. It was incredibly easy to make and it is so good when freshly fermented.

The only part that might require a bit of work is locating the special yeast, Chinese rice wine starter 酒麴, also known as shanghai wine yeast balls 上海酒餅丸. This wine yeast ball is not replaceable by regular yeast, the taste is very different.  You can try looking for them at the dried foods vendors at your local wet market or buy them online.

Our yeast is bought from the local market. It comes in a form of a flatten ball. The wine yeast balls need to be crushed to powder before mixing with the cooked glutinous rice. Do not mix the yeast while the rice is hot or you will kill them. 

Make sure you sterilized all your utensil and jars to avoid creating unwanted molds.

You can try using ordinary rice to make wine but glutinous rice will make for a sweeter fermented wine.

Cover the jar with its lid loosely so the yeast is allowed to breath. Wrap up the jar and place at the warmer corner of your house.

This is the Jar on Day One

We did not stir the rice and left it undisturbed for 30 days. This is the Jar on Day 30

There was no water added to the rice. After straining twice we managed to collect approximately 1 litres of pure wine from 1kg rice.

Pour the wine into a large pouring container. Leave to set for one hour preferably overnight. You will see rice residue collecting at the bottom.

We pasteurized the wine using a steamer or double boiler. Mild heat, usually to less than 100 °C (212 °F). Use a cooking thermometer to watch the temperature.

Ingredient

1kg cooked Glutinous rice

1 yeast ball.