Characteristics of GABA Rice Makgeolli Made by Korean Traditional Rice Wine Method of Geupchungju

This study was performed to elucidate the fermentation and sensory characteristics of Korean traditional rice wine, makgeolli, made from GABA rice, which has a high content of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). GABA rice is a brown rice that is not easily fermented by general makgeolli manufacturing methods. Thus, the Geupchungju method, which is a Korean traditional manufacturing method for makgeolli using a fermentation starter and additional malt, was considered for making makgeolli from GABA rice. We confirmed that Geupchungju method showed a high saccharification and stable alcohol fermentation ability in the early stages of fermentation. However, malt addition more than 2% resulted in a lower score in the sensory evaluation of the final product. It was also confirmed that GABA content of GABA makgeolli was higher than that of commercial makgeolli by 2.3-fold. Our result provides useful information toward improving quality of brown rice makgeolli.