I'm attempting the Rice Beer recipe on p. 262 of The Art of Fermentation. I'm a longstanding home brewer, so I wanted to run some of my methods and procedures by the group for comment.
Recipe:
4.5 C (2#) white rice
10 C (5#) water
Cook
Let it cool. Took two or three hours to come down to what felt like a workable temp, and might still have been too hot in spots.
Work crushed yeast ball into rice substrate with clean hands.
Press into 1 Gallon glass vessel. Form "well" in the center of rice. Cap with airlock.
For the first 24 hours, I kept it in a room where I'm finishing a beer in the upper 70-degrees. So let's say it was at 80 for the first 24 hours.
Nothing much appeared to be happening, so I brought it to the kitchen (~60 degrees) and considered adding another yeast ball. I removed the lid and the aroma in the vessel was incredible - sweet, rich, earthy, much like an oyster mushroom bed if you've ever grown those at home. That was totally unexpected and completely wonderful.
I left the container at the 60-degree range for 18 hours. This morning, there was visible positive pressure in the airlock. Returned the vessel to the 80 degree room, where a slow bubbling in the airlock continues.
Questions:
Does this fermentation require more oxygen than I'm giving it access to? Should I have a towel over the top instead of a sealed environment?
How long does it generally take for the microbes to produce noticeable quantities of free liquid in the mix? With beer, if there isn't significant activity at 24 hours, I pitch more yeast. This is a much more solid and dry environment for the organisms to colonize, but I do worry about contamination as starches sit for long periods.
Should I stir the mixture before there's noticeable liquifaction?
Does the fermentation proceed more quickly if additional water is added after the rice cools?
Thanks for any insights the group may have. I love the idea of being able to have a crock I can feed rice into at intervals and siphon off a grain alcohol as part of my household rhythm, so that's what I'm hoping to end up with.