by Wissahickon on Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:43 pm
Recently I attempted to make rice wine, using sweet rice purchased from an Asian market, and the round white yeast balls also available there, usually sold in packets of two yeast balls. I made this rice wine long ago, in the 1980s, and it worked well. At that time, I used a glass bowl for the ferment vessel. This time, I selected a two quart mason jar for the fermentation vessel, followed instructions for making the rice wine, and began the process. All seemed to go well, except that there was a spot of dark mold on top of the ferment, about the size of a nickel, when the process was completed. I tasted but did not swallow the rice/wine, and there was no off taste or smell. I wonder whether the mold was the result of my using a tall and narrow vessel rather than a broader one, which might have allowed all the rice to be completely submerged in the liquid. Anyway, I scraped the mold off, screwed the lid on the jar, and refrigerated it. But I haven't yet used the rice wine (intended for cooking purposes, not for drinking). I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about this very rudimentary issue in fermenting wines. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.