In graduate school I work in a lab studying yeast fermentation and while living in north Borneo ran a goat dairy producing milk and cheese (fermentation again) for supermarkets. The dairy business was difficult to maintain due to the climate so closed that and partnered with a local to make and sell rice wine. Marketing and delivery involved a little too much drinking so I switched to making bacon, ham, and sausages which went very well. I also began experimenting with making different kinds fermented vegetables and hooch. I started with a recipe for Finnish Sima and since I had plenty of passion fruit growing on the fence next to the sausage kitchen I frequently threw them into the mix. I also tried to make mead and ginger beer and varying the amount of sugar in my "hooch" to get the best results. Lemons with the peels left on resulted in a very nice fizzy "grapefruit" champagne like drink. Authentic Sima is not fermented very long and only contains less than 1% alcohol but longer fermentation will make it stronger.
Weighing Ingredients
To avoid contamination of source ingredients and excessive washing it is better to do everything by weight and put the mixing container on a scale and pour ingredients directly into it to the desired weight. Zero the scale and do it again for the next ingredeient. One gram is close to 1ml and 1kg is close to 1 liter unless it is something thick like honey or brine. Metric is based on 10 and much easier use for calculations compared to imperial measurements and I use metric in most recipes.
Sugar Concentrations & Rice Wine Fermentation
During my work making rice wine the final alcohol concentration was close to 16% but this process involved the action of Aspergillus oryzae breaking down the starchy rice followed by fermentation with yeast. In the village I stayed in, in Borneo, there was a relative/auntie who made the best rice wine anywhere, sweet and strong. She showed me how to make sasad using yeast and then to clean and choose the ones which were green and pick off the orange black and yellow spots. Green is the color of Aspergillus oryzae spores which makes amylase. I made sasad a few times mixing rice flour with powered sasad and they grew fuzzy white mold then turned greem. I didn't understand at that time that the mold was good and the action of sasad was two fold, providing amylase to break down the starch and yeast to ferment to alcohol.
While in Borneo I tried different concentrations of sugar and settled on 1:6 ratio which is about 16% sugar. For a lower concentration use 600g white sugar plus 600g brown sugar for 10 liters which is 12% sugar with aprox. 6% final alcohol concentration.
A Useful Trick
I weigh water when making meat brines in low profile containers, but not everyone has a large enough scale and there is an easier way for tall containers. For hooch I use the sugar weight / volume of water which is actually w/w since water is about 1kg per liter. You want about 2.86kg sugar for 20 liters final volume for a 1:6 w/w ratio. I tried from 1:8 to 1:4 ratio sugar to water but 1:6 had the best taste.
- Make the wort with less water (sugar and fruit add to the volume).
- Measure and add the desired final volume of water to the transparent fermentation container.
- Mark the outside at the line, remove the water, and sterilize the inside of the container.
- Add the cooled wort to the container and top up to the mark with sterilized water.
I made this many times with many variations using various spices, tea, and even tamarind (no don't try this). I have logs of the various sugar concentrations etc so I will provide a few here to give you a starting point. I would advise not trying to make mead, especially with strong honey and don't add cinnamon (yuck). Lemons are better than limes, lime skin is too bitter. Raisins, dates, mulberries, passionfruit, and cranberry sauce are all good.
Activate the yeast
11g - Yeast Powder Wine, Ale, or Baking Yeast
Put 3/4 cup of hot water in a glass and tear/smash 10 raisins into the water and heat to sterilize. The raisins have sugar and nutrients needed by the yeast. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and rubber band to keep out dirt and flies and let cool to body temperature.
After cooled, add 10-15g of yeast powder, baking yeast will work but wine or ale yeast is better. Fruit flies are attracted to fermentation odors so cover tightly and keep at room temperature. If the yeast is good, it will start to bubble after 1-6 hours and is ready to use, usually 1-2 hours is enough.
I am trying a recipe with 12% sugar and don't forget the ginger powder!
Make the Wort (3 recipes from my log)
| Wort 1:6 ratio sugar to water by weight | |
| 1 gallon | Water 8.35lb 3.7854kg |
| 2 cups | White or Brown Sugar or usually I use 1 cup each |
| 2 large | Lemons sliced thinly, you can remove the white part of the peel |
| 40 | Raisins |
| 1/8-1/4tsp | Ginger Powder (optional but recommended) |
| 1/2-1 cup | Other fruits mulberries etc. Cranberries are esp. nice (if have) |
| 3-5 | Dates seeded (optional, if you have them toss a few in) |
Another Version From Log - Sima Batch 20 liters Clear bucket June 5th 2017 1:6 | |
| 16 lt +++ | Water (top off to 20 liters) |
| 1.4 kg | White Sugar |
| 1.4 kg | Brown Sugar |
| 10 | Sasad / local yeast / just use activated yeast as above |
| 4 | Large Lemons |
| 8 | Limes |
| 10 | Dates |
| 1/4 cup | Raisins |
| 1/4-1/2 tsp | Ginger Powder just estimated sprinkled on top |
| Using passive solar heating in black bucket starting 7/6/17 | |
| June 10 2017 | Not sweet cloudy bitter ... still too sweet ferment not finished. Has a clean but bitter taste, must be the lime peels. To adjust bitterness use the lemon/lime juice or slice and remove the peel and seeds on some or all of them. Ginger not noticable but after testing many batches it seems to prevent undesirable sour flavors. Final Result: Drink Cold!!! I LOVED THIS BATCH. LIKE FIZZY GRAPEFRUIT CHAMPAGNE OR BITTERS |
20 liters - 12% sugar Aug 04 2024 | |
| 16 lt +++ | Water (top off to 20 liters) |
| 1.25 kg | White Sugar |
| 1.25 kg | Brown Sugar |
| 1 tsp. | Cider Yeast / activate yeast as above |
| 4 | Large Lemons |
| 1/4 cup | Raisins |
| 2 cups | Black currants fresh ripe |
| 1 cups | Black currant preserve |
| 1/4-1/2 tsp | Ginger Powder |
| Squeezed juice from lemon ends and removed most of the seeds and half the peels. Accidentally forgot to add ginger powder. | |
I don't peel the lemons, just slice them with the skin on ... other people only use lemon juice or remove the white part of the peel and include the zest.
Bring wort to boiling, turn off heat and add the lemons, or just boil everything. Some people add the raisins at the bottling phase, I don't, I boil them too.
Other Useful Materials
| 1.5 gal small | Container (round without ridges inside is best) |
| 22 liter large | Container (use 22 liter container for 20 liter batch) |
| 1 | Plastic Sheet to cover the container with extra 3 inches all around |
| 1-2 | Rubber Postal Bands |
| 1.5lt | PET cola bottles or smaller PET cola bottles / bottles w/ crown caps / grolch |
| 1 | Ladle |
| 1 | Funnel |
| 1 | Strainer (optional) |
Pour the wort hot into the sterilized container, cover and cool to body temperature, this helps sterilze the container. I use plastic containers with a tight lid that will pop up by itself and a plastic sheet over this with a rubber postal band to hold the sheet tightly. For short on the counter batches 1-3 days some people use a newspaper, cheesecloth, or loosely screwed lid. For longer fermentations the plastic sheet and rubber postal band around works well but try not to leave too much airspace at the top of the container. This is just tight enough to keep the air out, but let CO2 excape. Really, you do not need an airlock for successful fermentation. In our rice wine factory we ferment starchy rice for 1 month in 22 liter plastic buckets covered with newspaper or a plastic sheet tied or tucked in and plywood on top for stacking. For home brewing semi-transparent or transparent containers are more exciting because you can see the brew fermenting/bubbling and it help to avoiding settled yeast when siphoning off the brew.
In theory if all this sugar fermented you would have about 7% alcohol but after 3 days it is still only around 1%. Authentic Sima is made in 2-5 days and is gassy but not alcoholic <1%, carbonated lemonaide. You can wait 3 weeks or more to get a higher percentage of alcohol, but may need to add more sugar when bottling. A mixture of 1:5 will give 10% potential alcohol or even 1:4 can be used, but it will take longer to ferment, will never reach the potential alcohol percentage, and the end result will probably still be sweet with left over sugar.
Caution! Fermentation can build up alot of pressure so keep tabs if your containers are tightly closed, glass and plastic containers can explode causing serious injury. You may need to release the pressure occaisionally.
After the wort has cooled your activated yeast should be a little bubbly. Pour the activated yeast into the wort and stir with a sterilized spoon.
Cover well as explained above and keep 1-7 days in warm location.
Clean bottles with 2-5% bleach and rinse well. Do not use hot water to sterilize plastic cola bottles as they melt above 70C. Cola bottles are advise because they are thicker walled than regular PET bottles, but regular PET bottles will work also. A few smaller cola bottles are good also for the extra, or you can use all smaller size bottles.
Remember you may want to add raisins when you bottle, 5 or 6 raisins per 1.5 liter cola bottle is enough. I don't as I add raisins directly to the wort and some end up in the bottle. Some people add a tsp of sugar at this point to make gas but mine usually still has plenty of sugar and is still fermenting so it is not necessary.
Use a sterilized funnel and ladle to add Sima to the bottles. Some people strain it, but I do not. Try to avoid mixing and bottling the yeast at the bottom, keep this to drink seperately or throw it away. Leave an inch of airspace at the top to assist when releasing the gas later. I advise not to drink the leftover with yeast at the bottom as it can unsettle your stomach.
Bottle and close tightly, keep in warm location 1-3 days or till the raisins float. 1.5 liter cola bottles work great because you can feel the pressure by pressing the sides and release some pressure by turning the cap in increments without opening fully. You can ferment longer in the bottles if you release the pressure periodically, but you will have more yeast at the bottom of the bottle also.
Chill in a cold refrigerator. C02 is 2-3 times more soluble at refrigerator temperatures so more gas will dissolve and also it will be easier to open without foaming over. It will foam, so have a glass ready and open and pour quickly.
Enjoy, it's like grapefruit champagne if you leave the peels on.