I am constantly adding to my research and looking for scientific data
Does this Chinese university paper have a address .Could you provide a reference.
The solid state ferment changes from a solid to a liquid. "The rice should be sticky, not loose or even slightly soupy." This is not a qualified statement , science involves metrics, measurement, since mass (weight) and volume are variables , Science dictates that all solutions be measured by weight. Interesting to note that one gram equals, 0ne cc, equals one ml,in water,at sea level and 20 degrees C. The accepted ratio of water to rice is 2:1 water to rice, rice will absorb a third its weight when soaked, steaming this adds about 2 to 5 % The added water is usually 160% of the dry weight of rice. If you add the 33% plus 5% with the 160 % added water you will be close 2to1. That is 2kilos or 2 liters of water to one kilo of rice. Not by volume. This will initially be very dough like when the hot rice is added to the water.
The concept of "Dryer" by reason of adding water is questionable. Drier ferments , ones that show close to zero on a hygrometer are a result of complete fermentation of fermentable sugar. The yeast must be capable of this and the sugars must be fermentable. How does the water affect this? Sweeter ferments, a result of unfermentable sugar, either a complex sugar or a weak yeast incapable of complete ferment, registering well above zero on a hygrometer. Just how added water factors to make "Dryer" ferments baffles me?
Tartness is a measure of acidity in the ferment process, the reason for increased acidity is primarily the fact that increases in numbers of yeast cells parallels a lowering of the PH or a more acidic ferment. How does added water increase acidity? "Too wet can effect the flavor of the wine and make it too tart"?
It is obvious that the rice ferment becomes increasingly wet as it completes, All my rice ferments change from a solid to primarily liquid within 7 days and by 30 days the weight of solid mater has decreased to 20% of its original mass.. That is all that is left when the liquid is separated from the solid at completion.To note I get about 2 liters of rice wine per kilo of rice exactly similar to the original 2:1 ratio water to rice.
Volume 6, Issue 1, pages 30–39, January 2006 of the Yeast research by Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. gives a good overview of the hundreds of varieties of yeast,and bacteria,common to solid state Asian ferments.
http://www.sytu.edu.cn/zhgjiu/umain.htm , is a Chinese paper on the history and process of their ferments.