Making rice ‘wines’ in Asia is more akin to brewing beer than to winemaking. Although recipes vary between countries, essentially steamed rice porridge is treated with a starter of microorganisms growing on malted wheat cake (nuruk, Korea), rice cake (koji, Japan), red rice and/or wheat cake (qu, China), or cassava/rice cake (Vietnam). Liquefaction/saccharification of starch and fermentation of sugars occur simultaneously due to the presence of Aspergillus, Rhizopus and other amylolytic fungal species and Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts, respectively. Chinese yellow rice wine or Shaoxing rice wine is a traditional fermented alcoholic beverage from China. It is similar to brewing and the microorganisms involved in this process are responsible of aroma, flavor, and color.