The chhyang second water technique I wrote about a couple of weeks back...has turned out mediocre. The taste is just..meh, it's not specially sour or anything, and the alcoholic content is lower than what I would have expected. Let's just say it's not strongly pungent, though of course it's got some strength. It definitely needs to be backsweetened, and possibly flavored with fruits and herbs.
There's a couple of reasons that might have contributed to that. It's possible there's not enough remaining enzyme in the mixture to break down the grains into simple sugars, and thus the remarkable lack of sweetness. It's possible there's not enough yeast to convert available nutrients into alcohol (though that seems unlikely). It's also possible the low temperature, combined with the lack of enzyme has slowed the metabolism of the ecosystem. And finally, it's quite within the realm of possibility that the proper nutrients are done in the mixture, all the good starches have been used up, and the mixture doesn't have vitality anymore because the 'spirit' is all gone.
To test the hypothesis of lacking yeast and enzyme, I added an enzyme tablet, and half a packet of yeast to one of the jars.
An interesting observation is whenever I disturb the jars, vigorous fermentation appears to take place a couple of days after, so a slight possibility is that the co2 produced in the jars is not being displaced and the bacteria and mold are having a hard time due to the lack of 02, but that...doesn't sound right....
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