Should be excellent for fermenting rice wine. To be clear, I'm talking about the jars being tucked away in a dark, 70-75 F cupboard. Unfortunately I can't quite achieve literary precision, as the only one under a staircase is in the basement and it's a tad too cool there (plus I ferment my beer there and I want to separate the two). Anyway... today's day #5 and I can definitely see activity!
There seems to be slightly more liquid in the jar with the Chinese yeast cakes, but it's present in both. Aside from the variation in origin, there was much more crushed Chinese yeastcake than Vietnamese, which could of course attribute to varying degrees of rice breakdown. Here's a detail of the 2 jars:
The liquid is gathering on the bottom, but if you look closely there's a lot of liquid in between the individual grains of rice. Technically the fermented rice is ready now, but I'll try that some other time. Right now I want to leave the jars alone (other than to take a picture now and then) so I won't introduce any infections. Knocking on wood, but so far it's advancing perfectly! There's also a faint but deliciously sweet smell coming from the jars.
I'm also enjoying a not overly sweet root beer we bought at Whole Foods: Maine Root Beer.
I'm also enjoying a not overly sweet root beer we bought at Whole Foods: Maine Root Beer.