Making Chinese Rice  Wine at Home
糯米酒

Ingredients :
(This may be reduced according to ratio) 
6 Kilo Glutinous Rice
18 pcs small wine biscuit ( 3pcs of wine biscuit per kilo)
3 bottles Chinese white wine.( ½ bottle per kilo of rice)
150ml water more or less

 

Method:
1. Cook all the Glutinous Rice and let it cool down completely, preferably overnight.
*Letting it cool overnight to make sure all  the rice have cool completely. If continue other steps by using the hot rice will cause the wine to  become sour )

2. Get ready the wine biscuit and crushed into powder form.

4. Get ready a Ceramic pot and start with 1st layer of wine powder then 1 layer of Glutinous Rice…cover with another layer of wine powder.

5. Repeat Step 4 until  all the Glutinous Rice & wine powder are finished.

6. Finally Pour a little bit of water on the top of those ingredients

7. Cover it nicely and keep at a dark cool place but not necessary airtight, the yeast fermentation need to breath.

8. On the 3rd day  open and pour the Chinese white wine into it to make it more 'thick and tasty. ++(see notes)

9.Close the jar (not air tight) and leave the jar in a cool place to ferment for 21 days.

10. Open up after 21days. Stir wine and strained out the wine into a clean pot or bottles. Discard the residue.

Notes :
1) Keeping the wine longer than 20days will further the fermentation and may result in sour wine.(vinegar)
2) With good result may produce 10 - 15 bottles (1 liter) sweet & tasty Chinese rice wine.
3. Once bottled, wine may be kept for 1 or 2 years. The wine ages in its container and changes from a milky white color to cherry red while developing a sherry-like flavor.

++You may use ordinary Chinese white wine. Some white wine sold in Chinese Oriental Shops are salty. No worries you may used these as well. The final result of Rice Wine will not be salty. 
Sometimes upon opening on the 21st day,  the wine may be just very sweet without any wine smell. Not to worry, just bottle it and wait for another 3 weeks, the wine will age to a sweet and tasty wine.
          
The wine biscuits  are usually a small ball of lees left over from the previous batch of rice wine making
which have been dried and resold as “Jiu-Bing” at the traditional Chinese medical stores.
According to some sources, the original Jiu-Bing was actually balls of rice flour, ginger and some other ingredients, left outside to attract the desired molds and yeast.

* Alternative Western Substitutes for Chinese Rice Wine for Confinement

This is a good western  alternative for those who need wine for confinement, available at most Western Liquor stores.
"Stone's Original Green Ginger Wine"

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