Screening of rice cultivars for brewing high quality turbid rice wine

• Seven rice cultivars were screened for high quality turbid rice wine brewing.
• Taste of the wine played a key role in overall preference than color and aroma.
• Individual rice cultivars affected wine fermentation characteristics.

To screen proper rice cultivars for brewing high quality turbid rice wine, 5 high-yield rice cultivars, 9 high-eating-quality rice cultivars and 5 glutinous rice cultivars were collected. At the end of fermentation, significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in the fermentation properties, sensory properties and suspension stability of the original fermented mash (OFM) among individual rice cultivars. The assayed fermentation properties of OFM included pH value, total acidity, amino acidity, reducing sugar, alcohol yield, fusel alcohols and ethyl acetate. Seven rice cultivars were screened out for producing high quality wine by the comparative analysis. This research provided the basic scientific data for producing potential high quality turbid rice wine.