weak alchoholic drink made from rice

[tree123]

I wonder what I should call a weak alchoholic drink made from rice. It is not strong, but rather weak around 5~19 degrees.

Cambridges Dictionary defines 'liquor' and 'spirits' are strong alchoholic drinks, and wine is made from grapes or other fruits or flowers.

Can I call it rice alchohol?

 

[GoesStation]

"Rice wine".

 

[emsr2d2]

We measure the strength of alcohol in percentages, not in degrees.

 

[SoothingDave]

Is "degree" the same as percentage of alcohol by volume?

We'll use that and "proof" for hard liquors. 40% ABV is 80 proof.

 

[PeterCW]

They are not the same. The percentage ABV has generally replaced degrees proof in both Europe and North America.

Returning to the original question these brews are generally referred to as "rice wine" in English despite this being technically incorrect.

 

[Rover_KE]

'Rice wine typically has an alcohol content of 18–25%.ABV'. (Wikipedia)

This is quite a strong wine. To make it weaker, dilute it with water.

 

[Skrej]

They are not the same. The percentage ABV has generally replaced degrees proof in both Europe and North America.

The term 'degrees proof' isn't used in the US anyway, only 'proof', which is still widely used and is defined as double the ABV percentage. Almost all booze you buy in the US is labeled with both the proof and ABV percentage, although only the ABV is legally required.

Colloquially, I'd say most people still refer to the proof rather than the percentage on hard spirits, at least in my region. Of course when talking about wine and beer, then you have to refer to the 'percent'.

 

[SoothingDave]

Exactly the same here. You might talk about the % of a beer or wine, but most people would talk about the proof of a whiskey or vodka. There are even products like Wild Turkey 101 bourbon and Bacardi 151 rum, known for their potency.

 

[tedmc]

The Japanese name for it is sake while the Koreans call it soju. There doesn't seem to be a special name in Chinese, or is there one?

 

[tree123]

The Japanese name for it is sake while the Koreans call it soju. The doesn't seem to be a special name in Chinese, or is there one?

In Chinese it is called miju (literally rice alchohol). I saw a Chinese video clip in which the name is translated as 'rice wine' yesterday, and I thought the translation would be wrong, because I thought wine usually refers to an alchoholic drink made from grapes or other fruit. (GoesStation has told me its English name is rice wine.)

There are many types of alchoholic drinks made from rice in China. Some are weak and some are strong. The strong achohol made from rice is called baiju(literally white alchohol).

PS--I am not sure if I am correct about those as I hardly drink them. Now I start being interested in them.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Here in the US, we usually say sake.

 

[emsr2d2]

I only know of sake too, which is roughly 18-20% ABV.

 

[Skrej]

Korea has soju (not exclusively rice, though), and my personal favorite, makgeolli.

 

[tedmc]

Somehow the names in Chinese you mentioned (miju and baiju) have not caught on with the Westerners, unlike sake and soju ( which actually originated from Chinese shau-jiu, meaning hot wine). I think this has to do with the two countries having been opened to the West much earlier.

 

[Tdol]

Cambridge Dictionary defines 'liquor' and 'spirits' are strong alchoholic drinks, and wine is made from grapes or other fruits or flowers.

In Laos, they distil a spirit from rice which is sometimes called rice brandy or rice whisky, and it is that strong, not like sake.