Sibu Tales : Making Indigenous Rice Wine

The making of rice wine is an ancient art.

I derive great pleasure from this art and have tried several times with great success because I have a good mentor in Gertrude, who is also married to an Iban man.

Together we made two batches successfully and later I mentored a few other friends in the making of fine rice wine.

I took this photo of our Fuzhou City adventure. The glass pot is filled with warm rice wine. My Sarawak wine is almost the same but better tasting in my opinion.

I have made rice wine for many years since then but not so frequently. In fact I even made one batch for a friend whose daughter-in-law was in confinement and she had found the rice wine very fragrant and tasty for their soh mien with chicken soup.

Our shared recipe is quite different from the Chinese Foochow red wine.

Here is the recipe for the glutinous rice wine:
1 kg good glutinous rice
2 pkts of 200 gm raisins  (optional)
1 1/2 kg Iban rice yeast or ragi
2 -3 liters water to boil with 1 kg of sugar - cooled

1. Cook and cool the glutinous rice (over night)
2. Blend the rice yeast into fine powder
3. When the rice is cooled, mix with the powdered rice yeast  and raisins well in a large glass jar.
4. Let the combination ferment.
5. After 2 days prepare the sugared water and add to the rice . Cover the glass container well.
6. Wait for 3 weeks and watch the fermentation closely.
7. Strain after the 4th week.
8. Bottle after the 6th week or when the wine is clear.

I will be making a batch or two soon, so I will probably adapt this recipe.