Rice wines are alcoholic beverages 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.

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%).

Barrels of sake, a rice wine

Some types of rice wine include:

• Brem - Balinese rice wine
• Cheongju - Korean rice wine
  • Beopju - a variety of cheongju
• Choujiu - A milky glutinous rice wine popular in Xi'an, China
• Gamju - A milky, sweet rice wine from Korea
• Lao-Lao - A clear rice wine from Laos
• Lihing - Kadazan rice wine (Sabah, Malaysian Borneo)
• Makkoli - a milky traditional rice wine indigenous to Korea
• Mijiu - a clear, sweetish Chinese rice wine/liqueur, usually being served as a dessert in southern China
• Raksi - Tibetan and Nepali rice wine
• Rượu đế - Vietnamese rice wine
• Rượu nếp - Sweet, milky Vietnamese rice wine made from sticky rice
• Sake - Japanese rice wine
• Sato - A rice wine originating in the Isan region of Thailand
• Sonti - Indian rice wine, also known as handia in the state of jharkhand (india)
• Tuak - Iban rice wine (Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo)

Other types include:

• Cơm rượu - A Vietnamese dessert consisting of rice balls in mildly alcoholic, thick, milky rice wine
• Mirin - Sweetened Japanese rice wine used for cooking
• 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
• Shōchū - a Japanese alcoholic beverage that can be made from rice, although it is more commonly made from barley, sweet potato, or sugar cane
• Snake wine

See also

• Chinese alcoholic beverage
• Korean wine
• Cheongju (wine)
• Rice baijiu, a potent Chinese spirit distilled from mijiu
• Sake
• Rice vinegar
• Chhaang - a common alcoholic rice beverage in Sikkim, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan

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