Rice wine, or sake, is a wine made by fermenting rice. When you make rice wine at home, you will want to know its alcohol content or the percentage of alcohol by volume of liquid. You can measure the percentage of alcohol in your rice wine with a vinometer. A vinometer has a funnel or reservoir at the top that leads to a graduated marked stem that measures the alcohol content by volume. A vinometer utilizes the forces of capillary action and alcohol fluid tension to measure the percentage of alcohol content in wines. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Pour 1 cup of rice wine into a glass measuring cup. Add three drops of red food coloring to the rice wine. Stir with a spoon to mix it thoroughly. The dye will help you read the vinometer as sake or rice wine is a clear or transparent liquid.
2. Fill the funnel or reservoir located at the top of the vinometer with the dyed rice wine. Place a small bowl under the vinometer and watch it. Once three drops have run out of the bottom of the vinometer stem, set a plate against the open part of the funnel or reservoir. While holding the plate against the reservoir, flip the vinometer over quickly. Carefully set the vinometer and plate down on your workspace. Slowly let it go so that the vinometer stands by itself.
3. Watch the level of rice wine in the vinometer stem as it slowly exits the vinometer. The level will be indicated by the marked graduated lines on the vinometer's stem. When the level or rice wine stops lowering, look for the closest graduation mark to the current rice wine level in the vinometer's stem. The numbers next to the graduation mark represent the percentage of alcohol by volume that the rice wine contains.
Tags: rice wine, percentage alcohol, vinometer stem, alcohol content, funnel reservoir