Rice and Raisin Wine

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

alanywiseman.

Landlord.
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
1,888
Reaction score
9
Location
Glasgow
I am planning a Rice and Rasin Wine as I have heard many a comment about how good it is. I have been searching for a recipe and the following one kept cropping up:

Rice (long grain) 5 lb (2.25kg)
Raisins 3 lb (1.5kg)
Sugar 10 lb (4.5kg)
3 Lemons
1 Orange (This can be substituted for the same quantity of pure apple juice)
1 cup of strong cold tea (Optional, this is to add the tannin normally found in wine)
Wine yeast and nutrient 2 oz 50g 1tbsp yeast, 1tbsp nutrient
Water 3 gallons 13.5 litres

It seems fairly straight forward but at 1.5kg of sugar per gallon it seems like it will be rocket fuel. I was thinking of reducing the sugar to something more resonable like 3.5kg. The question I have is has anyone made this? and if so does it really benifit from being so strong?
 
I made something using a similar recipe from the 1940's I found in my grandad's wine-making book. That used 3lbs rice, 3lbs sugar and 1lb of raisins to every gallon of water. I made it many years ago but seem to remember that it wasn't too bad.

Your recipe uses less rice so I'd have thought it might not have enough body.

Of course that might make it end up more like sake!

Edit: I'd have thought that much sugar was needed as the recipe was from the 1940's when it was rationed!
 
Thanks for the input BB.

I think I will cut back on the sugar and add amalyse and pectase to prevent hazing :thumb:
 
Made some of this a few weeks ago and have a glass of it next to me as I type. It has some dark smoky aromatics, verging on acrid. Smells a little... medicinal. (My son's version? "Congrats Dad, you've successfully brewed a cleaning product", although he's not a drinker so only likes a very narrow range. I might just ignore him). I'm going to leave it to breathe a bit, even though it's a white, hopefully the volatiles will evaporate.

First assessment of the taste is not too bad, fairly good mouthfeel and all that, not too astringent - the aroma doesn't carry through to the taste that much, although the after-taste is a little bitter. Colour and clarity are good. I'll have to pull our my brew notes but it feels reasonably alcoholic, I know I left it to get quite dry and it's been resting in the DJ after racking. Doesn't taste like raisins, or sake, for that matter. Not sure what it does taste like. Can't make up my mind if I like it. The smell is a bit off-putting, if I'm honest. Might bottle and forget it for a while, I had a feijoa wine that started off odd-smelling and settled in over time to being golden.
 
The sugar level is acceptable because if you follow that recipe and add 3 gallons of water you will actually end up with closer to 4 gallons. Sugar bulks up the liquid volume by half a pint per pound, so there's an extra 5 pints before you add the tea, oranges and lemons.

I've made this several times and usually aim for around 15% abv from the first batch, but anything at that sort of alcohol level needs keeping for a year or so.

From "First Steps"
Do not discard the pulp as it can be used to make a lighter wine. Dissolve 8lbs sugar in 1 gal of hot water and pour onto the rice and raisin residue. Add 1.5 gal cold water plus 1oz citric acid together with fresh yeast, and follow the same procedure as given for the first batch.
You shouldn't need pectolase, but amylase would be a sensible addition.
 
I have found all the starch based (rice wheat potato) wines have a bit of "bite". that is they taste fiery. My neighbor bought me a bottle of potato wine round a while ago to sample. I said " its fiery but very smooth". She replied, " It should be, the man who made it has been dead five years"!!.
I also had the luck to sample an 11 year old Mangelwurzel wine. It was made by an old lady who didn't drink?? so her wines lasted a long time. It had been made sweet and with cotton wool instead of an airlock. So it was very much sherry style. It was delicious.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top