On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 11:36:20 -0700, Doug Freyburger wrote:

> Drop34 wrote:
>> Ignoramus20054 wrote:
>>
>> > What is saki, is it vodka?
>>
>> Rice wine
>
> Not quite rice wine, not quite rice beer, but in that
> general range. Wines are brewed from fruit and sake
> is made from rice so it isn't quite a wine. Beers
> are brewed from grains fermented with yeast and sake
> is made from rice fermented with something other than
> yeast so it isn't quite a beer, either.

Not exactly. Yeast ferments sugars to alcohol in both
beer and sake. Beer sugars are converted from the grains'
starches with grain malt, sake starches are converted by a
fungus. Sake production is complicated by the need to keep
the fungus level high enough for the conversion, but not
so high that it overcompetes with the yeasts for the sugar.

> Like it's
> in the middle between beer and wine.

It's always complicated applying pre-existing words to new
conditions, but that a high alcohol non-carbonated grain beverage
is called 'barley wine' is sufficient for me.


> Like vodka, sake is clear and alcoholic.

Sake is not always clear, but the fuzzy sakes are less popular in
the US. Whether clear carbonated beverages fermented from malted
grain (eg, Zima) are 'beer' is another question.

Someday, I'd like to know how a high-gravity beer like Guinness
manages to be low carb.

Martin
--
Martin Golding | If I'd wanted all that water in my beer,
Dod #0236 KotLQ | why would I have paid so much to have it dehydrated?