Rice wine

Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage made from rice. Unlike wine, which is made by fermentation of naturally sweet grapes and other fruit, rice "wine" results from the fermentation of rice starch converted to sugars. This process is akin to that used to produce beer; however, beer production employs a mashing process to convert starch to sugars whereas rice wine uses the different amylolytic process. Alcoholic beverages distilled from rice were exclusive to East and Southeast Asian countries, with knowledge of the distillation process reaching India and parts of South Asia later through trade. Rice brew typically has a higher alcohol content (18–25%) than wine (10–20%), which in turn has a higher alcohol content than beer (3–8%).

Rice wine features prominently in Chinese and other East Asian cuisines. A substitute for rice wine is dry pale sherry.[1]

Contents

Types

Some types of rice wine include:

  • Amazake - low-alcohol Japanese rice drink
  • Ang Jiu - Chinese red rice wine, popular among the FooChow Chinese (Malaysia, China)
  • Ara - Bhutanese rice, millet, or maize wine
  • Brem - Balinese rice wine
  • Cheongju - Korean rice wine
    • Beopju - a variety of cheongju
  • Choujiu - A milky glutinous rice wine popular in Xi'an, China
  • Cơm rượu - A Vietnamese dessert consisting of rice balls in mildly alcoholic, thick, milky rice wine
  • Gamju - A milky, sweet rice wine from Korea
  • Hadia- Rice beer made after fermentation in Chottanagpur regions of eastern Indian states of Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal (India)
  • Huangjiu - A Chinese fermented rice wine, literally "yellow wine" or "yellow liquor", with colors varying from clear to brown or brownish red. Famous varieties include those produced in Shaoxing. Used for both drinking and cooking.
  • Jiuniang - A Chinese soup- or pudding-like dessert made from fermented glutinous rice in a mildly alcoholic rice wine
  • Kulapo - A reddish rice wine with strong odor and alcohol content from the Philippines
  • Lao-Lao - A clear rice wine from Laos
  • Lihing - Kadazan rice wine (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo)
  • Makgeolli - a milky traditional rice wine indigenous to Korea
  • Mijiu - a clear, sweet Chinese rice wine/liqueur made from fermented glutinous rice, drunk as a beverage, used in cooking, or served as a dessert called jiuniang or laozao in southern China. Can be considered a category of huangjiu.
  • Nigorizake - a cloudy, sweet, white, rice sake made from fermented glutinous rice, drunk as a beverage, used in cooking in Japan. Can be considered a category of Sake.
  • Pangasi - Rice wine from Mindanao in the Philippines.[2]
  • Raksi - Tibetan and Nepali rice wine
  • Rasi the refined wine of Hadia
  • Rượu đế - a distilled liquor from Vietnam, made of either glutinous or non-glutinous rice
  • Rượu cần - Vietnamese rice wine drunk through long, thin bamboo tubes
  • Rượu nếp - Sweet, milky Vietnamese rice wine made from sticky rice
  • Sake - Japanese rice brew
  • Sato - A rice wine originating in the Isan region of Thailand
  • Shōchū - a Japanese alcoholic beverage that can be made from rice, although it is more commonly made from barley, sweet potato, or sugar cane
  • Soju - Korean alcoholic beverage, often mistaken as rice wine, but actually almost always in combination with other ingredients such as wheat, barley, or sweet potatoes
  • Sonti - Indian rice wine
  • Tapuy - Clear rice wine from the Mountain Province in the Philippines, also called Tapey and Bayah
  • Tapai - Kadazandusun rice wine (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo)
  • Tuak - Dayak rice wine (Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Rice wine recipes", BBC, accessed 31 March 2011.
  2. ^ http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=70519

Further reading