Combine the barley malt powder and 14 cups cold water in a large bowl. Stir well with a whisk or a wooden spoon.

Let it sit for 2 to 3 hours until the powder settles on the bottom.

Make rice with a rice cooker: Wash the rice, changing the water a couple of times and finally draining as much water as you can.

Add ¾ cup water to the rice, put it in the rice cooker, turn it on and start cooking.

When the rice is done, add the clear malt water from the bowl by gently pouring it in. Be careful in moving the bowl and pouring, so you don’t disturb the dregs on the bottom.

Stir the rice with a wooden spoon and break it up a bit.

Set the rice cooker to warm. Let it sit and ferment.

Stir the rest of the 4 cups of water into the leftover barley malt sediment. Leave it to sit and settle while the rice ferments in the rice cooker.

Open the rice cooker after 4 hours and check to see if some of the rice grains are floating. About dozens grains should be floating. If not floating yet, let it ferment for another hour.

Pour the hot sikhye out of the rice cooker into a large pot.

Gently pour in the clear malt water that has been separating while the sikhye ferments and discard the sediment. You will get about 3 cups of clear malty water.

Cover the pot and bring it to a boil for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup sugar (if used) and mix well.

Ladle about 1½ cup of sikhye into a small bowl or cup and serve it with a spoon. You can drink it like tea or just drink the liquid and eat the rice with a spoon.

Pour the hot sikhye though a strainer over a large bowl to gather all the rice. Rinse the rice under cold running water and transfer it to an airtight container with some cold water. Cover and refrigerate.

Cool the hot sikhye water and transfer to a glass jar. Refrigerate it.

When you want to serve, ladle about 1½ cup cold sikhye water to a small bowl and gently stir in about 2 tablespoons rice.

Garnish with pine nuts and jujube pieces if you use. Serve with a spoon.

Freeze the rice punch until it’s half frozen (8 cups of sikhye usually takes 5 to 6 hours).

Or make granita by adding some clear sikhye water into an airtight container and freezing it solid.

To serve, ladle out icy cold sikhye slushy and/or scrape frozen sikhye with a fork, and stir in about 2 tablespoons rice. Add garnish (if you use) and serve with a spoon.