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
P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company brand began losing popularity. In 1965 Carl Badenhausen sold the company but remained at the helm until his retirement in 1969. In the mid-1960s the company went into decline. It was losing market share to lighter lagers with less alcohol content. In 1972, despite advertising efforts to revive the company, the owners agreed to sell the brand, the company, and all their assets to the Falstaff Brewing Corporation in 1972. The new owners closed the original brewery in Newark, started brewing elsewhere, and did not strictly adhere to Ballantine's recipes. The general consensus is that, under the stewardship of Falstaff,