Sake Sake , also spelled "saké" ( ), also referred to as a Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Unlike wine, in which alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes, sake is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars which ferment into alcohol. The brewing process for "sake" differs from the process for beer in that, for beer, the conversion from starch to sugar and from sugar to alcohol occurs in
Low-alcohol beer commercial brewery, San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company, also produces their "Anchor Small Beer" using the second runnings from their Old Foghorn Barleywine. The term is also used for commercially produced beers which are thought to taste too weak. The Middle East accounts for almost a third of worldwide sales of nonalcoholic and alcohol-free beer. Notable Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia and Egypt have issued fatawa permitting the consumption of "alcohol-free" beers that can be proven to contain zero traces of alcohol. Alcohol-free beers such as Holsten, Barbican and Moussy are often available in stores and restaurants throughout the Arab world.