I live in Bangladesh where all alcoholic drinks are forbidden.I tried to make rice wine from bread yeast but consistency of alcohol is very low because of it's low resistance to alcohol.I heard Chinese made their wine yeast ball from nature.Anyone can tell me how i can make my own yeast ball from Bangladeshi ingredient?


Jiuqu in a modern context refers explicitly to types of microbes and their enzymes (Qu) domesticated for usage in the manufacture of products containing alcohol.

Grains or flours are imbibed with water (e.g. steaming rice or mixing flour with water to form a dough) and subsequently incubated in a warm, humid environment during a favorable time of year, typically spring or autumn. No inoculates were used, but often herbs were added to some preparations because they were noted to create beneficial qualities. In order to keep the grains or dough's relatively moist and warm they are kept in closed straw-roofed huts and typically housed in straw baskets, stacked on wooden shelves or simply placed upon the floor. The presses and molds used to shape the dough's were/are also made of wood. All of these elements unknowingly provided access to the microbes. The cakes are deemed ready when a colored coating is formed on the outside. They are then dried and stored until use.

You can also achieve higher alcohol levels by staggering the addition of sugars to get the bread yeast to go beyond the normal alcohol tolerance levels. Wash and reuse your yeast(lees) to pitch every batch and after a few batches your yeast alcohol levels will increase. Wash yeast by adding water to lees... shake vigorously and rack like a normal wine, keeping the yeast that collects at the bottom.

Staggering the sugars means to add the sugars every couple days in smaller amounts. This will reward the yeast that can stand the higher alcohol levels and then in turn reproduce yeast buds that can survive the high levels.


Homemade Ragi(Borneo style) – Yeast


  1. Root Ginger 200g thinly sliced
  2. Lengkuas(Galanggal) 200g thinly sliced
  3. 2 Garlic clove
  4. 1 Tbsp finely crushed white pepper
  5. 1 Tsp cinnamon powder
  6. Glutinous rice flour 400g


Making the paste

Transfer the root ginger, lengkuas (Galanggal), Garlic cloves, crushed white pepper and cinnamon powder into a blender. Add half cup of water and blend to a fine and smooth paste. Or just finely pound the ingredients without a blender.

Mix the paste above with the glutinous rice flour in a dough machine bowl. Let the machine run for 3 - 5 minutes. Once done, cover the dough with a wine or cheese cloth let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

Start making ping-pong size yeast balls. It can also be flattened to speed up drying time.

The yeast balls will then be left to dry at room temperature for five days before bringing it out to dry whole day under the sun.Or until you are completely satisfied it has dried up. Keep in airtight jar or container in a cool dry place.

Knead the paste and flour manually if you don’t have dough making machine.

Note. Japanese Koji normally have one fungus whereas its Chinese counterpart and this recipe I posted here could have tens if not hundreds of microbes and enzyme in it.

Your Answer

