Wine Science

There are different type of alcoholic beverages depending upon the method of preparation, with or with out distillation, raw material used and the vinification practices.

BEER OR SIMILAR BEVERAGES 

Beer and ale  are the principal malt beverages produced and consumed in this country. These are made of malt, hops, yeast, water and malt adjunct. The malt is prepared from barley grains which have been germinated and dried. Hops are the dried flowers of the hop plant. Ale usually is made with a top yeast, a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Weiss beer, Porter and Stout are the ales in that the top fermenting yeast are employed in their manufacture. Weiss beer is alight, tart, ale is made chiefly from wheat, Porter and  Stout are dark, heavy, sweet ales.

Sake  is a yellow rice beer or wine of Japanese origin with an alcohol content of 12% to 17%, 3% solids and 0.3% lactic acid.

Pachwai is a high alcohol rice beer made in India by inoculation with a preparation known as bakhar, murcha, ramu and u-t-lat.

Binuburan is the name applied to rice beer prepared in the Philippines.

Thumba is an alcoholic beverage produced from millet in West Bengal.

Kvass is a general Russian name of the sour type of alcoholic beverage, prepared with rice and barley or rye that has been allowed  to sprout before milling.

Rakshi is the name applied to the high alcohol content rice beer prepared in Nepal.

Sonti is a rice beer or wine of India. The mold Rhizopus sonti and yeast are active in the fermentation while Torani  is a sour beverage prepared from rice in India, supposedly fermented by Aspergillus and Penicillium and yeasts of genera Hansenula Candida and Geotrichum.

Pulque is a Latin- American beer like beverage containing about 6%  of alcohol that results from natural yeast fermentation of the juice of the agave or century plant.

Ginger beer is a alcoholic beverage made by the fermentation of sugar solution flavoured with ginger.

WINE

Unless otherwise specified, the term wine is applied here to the product made by the alcoholic fermentation of grape or grape juice by yeast and a subsequent aging process. Wines however, could be produced  by the fermentation of juices/extracts of many fruits such as cherries, most of the berries, rhubarb, dandelion, honey, besides banana, pineapple cashew nut, pomegranate, lemons, tangerines, oranges, dates and figs.

Dry wines contain little or no unfermented sugar, in contrast to sweet wines which have either residual sugar or added later on. Wines usually contain 11 to 16 % of alcohol but may have as low as 7 per cent.  Fortified wines, to which distillate of wine called as Brandy is added may contain 19 to 21% of alcohol.

Table wines have a comparatively low alcoholic content and little or no sugar while dessert wines are fortified sweet wines.

Sherry :  This wine is produced by special processing technique, containing 18 to 21% alcohol and could be sweet or dry. The technique used is secondary fermentation by special type of Flor yeast or by baking.

Boukha : It is the wine made from figs.

Cider : In Great Britain and France , the term cider (Cider or Cidre) means apple wine, hard cider or fermented apple juice but in U.S.A. it may mean fermented or unfermented apple juice based on the definitions and available products, broadly it can be classified, as follows :

Soft Cider : 1.5 % alcohol content

Hard Cider : 5-8 % alcohol content

Apple wine: Above 8% but may go up to 14%

Perry : It is the wine prepared from pear juice. It could be sweet or dry. Since the pear fruits are more astringent the same characteristic is imparted to the wine also.

Mead :   This type of wine was used to be prepared by Indians and was known for excellent digestive qualities. Honey is also used for sweetening the musts for other fermentation.

Medicinal wines :   These are flavoured wines containing several herbs of medicinal importance and may include even bitter compounds, quinine for example. These wines are usually sweet and have as high as 18-20% alcohol.

Natural Wines :   Natural wines are the products obtained by the use of approved formulas with a natural wine base, herbs, spices, fruit juices, aromatics, essences and other flavouring materials and  are  intended to attract the non-wine drinking public. Many of these wines are under 14% alcohol.

Vermouth: It is a wine with 15 to 21% alcohol, flavoured with a characteristics mixture of herbs and spices, some of which impart an aromatic flavour and odour and others a bitter flavour. Vermouth may be sweet or dry.

DISTILLED BEVERAGES

Brandy is an alcoholic distillate from the fermented juice mash or wine. Fruit brandy other that grape, and derived from one variety of fruits shall be designated by the word Brandy qualified by the name of such fruits (Peach brandy/Apricot brandy).

Vodka : It is the alcoholic distillatlte obtained from fermentation of potatoes followed by distillation.

Rum:  It is the distillate from the fermented molasses, flavoured and matured, appropriately.

Gin  : It is the distillate flavoured with the parts of juniper plant.

Whisky : It is the distillate from the fermented cereals, flavoured, matured and blended, appropriately.

Arrack, arak or rak : It  is a generic name applied to a variety of beverages and distilled liquors prepared from rice beers in the Far East including India, Ceylon, Siam, Java, China and Korea. The Indian arrack is prepared from rice toddy and the refuse from sugar factories.

Toddy is the fermented juice from unexpanded flower spathes of various palms including the cocoa palm, is distilled in ceylon to produce arrak.