Korean Rice Wine (Makgeolli or 막걸리)
Tired of drinking store bought Makgeolli that contain lots of preservatives used for extending expiration date? You’ll never buy one from the store again once you try out this recipe!!
Equipment
- Cheese cloth
- Gallon Jar
- Steamer Pot
- Wooden Spatula
Ingredients
- 1 kg Sweet Rice Regular rice is fine, but sweet rice is preferred for extra sweetness
- 134 g Nuruk Sold in Korean Supermarkets
- 2 g Dry Yeast
- 2000 ml Filtered/Purified water Do not use tap water
Instructions
- Disinfect gallon Jar by placing the jar upside down in a boiling water.
- Disinfect cheese cloth with boiling water.
- Place rice into the steamer pot and wash the rice with running water more than 10 times until water looks clear (Fill & Drain repeat).
- After wash is complete, fill water in the steamer pot up to a point where rice is completely submerged. Let it rest for 1-3 hours.
- Remove water and after placing the rice over cheesecloth, put cheese cloth filled with rice into the steamer pot, and steam the rice for about 60-75 minutes.
- Let steamed rice rest for 20 minutes after turning the heat off.
- Cool rice down to below 77F (About room temperature).
- Mix cooled rice with Nuruk and Dry Yeast in an empty disinfected container.
- Add 1000ml of water.
- Use spatula to mix the mixture.
- Put mixture into the gallon jar.
- Add the remaining 1000 ml of water.
- Place cheese cloth over tip of the jar so that air can flow. Use rubber band around the tip to seal (In the picture, cover was placed over the cloth, but did not use it to close down the jar)
- Store at around 68 F (Basement temperature should be fine during Summer weather).
- For the first three days, give a good stir using clean, disinfected spatula twice a day.
- After final stir on the third day, remove cheesecloth and close the jar tight using the cover so that air can no longer flow in/out.
- Let it stand for 3-4 more days (You can see the fermenting process where bubbles are formed and rice volume getting smaller).
- As shown in the photo you will see the rice volume getting smaller and alcohol on the top portion getting clear over time. The alcohol content on top is called Dong Dong Ju! (Which is similar to sake).
- After 7 days of fermentation, use disinfected cheesecloth to squeeze out the good stuff!
- The result: I’ve taken some DongDongJu out prior to step 19. You can notice the difference in thickness. Make sure to contain Makgeolli at 50%-75% of the plastic bottle, as the fermenting continues while it’s in the fridge and gas will eventually build up in the bottle. You don’t want the bottle to explode in your fridge!
- For best tasting Makgeolli, store in the refrigerator for about a week.
- This Makgeolli is at about 15% abv, so if you want Makgeolli that tastes similar to store bought, dilute it with water and add sugar according to your taste (However adding Sprite tastes best instead of adding water/sugar).
- Enjoy! (You can pair with Korean Seafood Pancake on a rainy day).
- Consume within 30 days.