[Sca-cooks] grain wine

[Alec Story]

Great question!  I'm using the term "grain wine" to refer to rice wines
(including sake) but also to include wines from other grains.  Especially
in early medieval China, millet was more common than rice for wine
production, at least in northern China where the author of the recipe book
I'm using lived.

The key difference between what I'm calling grain wines and malt beverages
(including beer) is the source of amylase.

Malt beverages use malted grain to turn starch into sugar.

Asian grain wines do not.  They use amylase derived from fungal cultures,
operating on unmalted grain.  In period Chinese brewing, fermentation
proceeds with the cooked grain added whole, and not drained off into a wort.

The resulting drink is much closer to wine or mead than beer.  Nevermind
the expectation that beer / ale has bittering herbs in it, and is usually
carbonated.

If you can think of a better term to include millet and rice wines, I'd be
interested to hear it.

On Aug 3, 2016 3:43 PM, "Stefan li Rous" <stefanlirous at gmail.com> wrote:

> Alec Story said:
> <<< If you find me at Pennsic I can try to get you a sample.  I'll be
> displaying 6th century grain wines at A&S on Sunday. >>>
>
> What is the difference between a “grain wine” and an ale or beer?
>
> The modern definition of the latter two has changed from period, but I’m
> still not sure how either of them, period or modern definition, differs
> from a “grain wine”.
>
> Thanks,
>    Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
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