Production of Rice Based Alcoholic Beverages and their Quality Evaluation

Abstract

Murcha is a traditional starter culture used for the production of alcoholic beverages in Nepal. The present study was conducted to compare and characterize rice-based alcoholic beverages prepared from varieties of rice as well as starter culture. Optimization of the production was performed using three criteria (pH, temperature, and Brix). Four different rice varieties (marsi/ red rice (RR), black rice, taichin, and khumal-4) and four different cultures (ATCC 18824, murcha, yeast isolated from murcha, and commercial wine yeast) were used to prepare rice-based alcoholic beverages under optimized condition. The highest acidity was found in black rice (BR) fermented by murcha (2.0±0.0 %). The highest alcohol was found in the taichin rice fermented by isolated yeast (23.38±0.00 %) and wine yeast (23.38±0.00 %). The highest antioxidant was found in BR fermented by wine yeast (WY) (68±0.002%). The highest phenolic content and reducing sugar was found in BR fermented by ATCC (103.2±0.02mg/l) and (1064±0.03µg/ml) respectively. The study showed different cultures and rice variation gives beverages with different characteristics. The results were subjected to statistical analysis. The result was found to be significant (p <0 .05).