Author : Chim Chay

Summary : The study evaluated the quality of rice wine produced by traditional and multi-parallel fermentations using the microorganisms isolated from Cambodia starter culture, "medombae". Dominant microorganisms from "medombae" were identified as Mucor spp, and R. oryzae for molds; and Saccharomycopsis, C. tropicalis and S. cerevisiae for yeasts. Processing conditions and stability of instant starter culture production for ice wine processing are established. The R. oryzae- and mixed culture-inoculated non-pigmented steamed rice obtained consistently and significantly higher total sugar and reducing sugar values than the rest of the treatment. The pigmented rice has inherent property that contributed to the significantly lower microbial counts as compared to the non-pigmented rice variety as substrate for fermentation. Waxy non-pigmented rice was found consistently gave higher alcohol content throughout the fermentation as compared to waxy pigmented rice. Multi-parallel method of rice wine fermentation provides wine recovery compared to traditional method. The sensory properties and acceptability of the rice wine produced by traditional and multi-parallel fermentation that rice wine form waxy pigmented rice had significantly higher acceptability than the waxy non-pigmented rice probably both fermentation methods due to the reddish color of the samples. The pigment could have also contributed to the high total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. The physicochemical properties, sensory characteristics, antioxidant and total phenolic content of rice wine strongly positive ad negatively correlated.