Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Soft drinks from Ethiopia

Keribo (roasted-barley sweet drink)keribo

Keribo is a sweet, very low-alcohol Ethiopian drink of roasted barley. The barley is boiled in water, the liquid is strained off, and sugar and baker's yeast are added for an overnight fermentation before more sugar goes in. It is served at holidays and weddings and keeps only about two days.

Fully documentedSoft drinks3.3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe household method summarised by Fentie et al. (2020) from Abawari's survey in Jimma zone; no amounts are given in the sources read.
Roasted barleyMixed with hot water and boiled[fentie2020]
Water[fentie2020]
SugarSome before fermentation and more before serving[fentie2020]
Baker's yeast[fentie2020]
Starterbaker's yeast added; lactic acid bacteria come in spontaneously

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.3 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Roasted barley boils in water

Step 1 of 4
Boil the roasted barley in water
Time
20 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: barley infusion.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Keribo is a sweet, very low-alcohol Ethiopian drink of roasted barley. The barley is boiled in water, the liquid is strained off, and sugar and baker's yeast are added for an overnight fermentation before more sugar goes in. It is served at holidays and weddings and keeps only about two days. Made in 4 steps over 3.3 days. The longest step, add more sugar and serve, takes up to 2 days (Fentie E.G 2020). Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), added and Leuconostoc mesenteroides do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 2 daysReported[fentie2020]Add more sugar and serve
AciditypH 5.8 → 4.47Reported[hotessa2020]Add sugar and baker's yeast; ferment overnight

What makes this one different

Keribo is started with added baker's yeast and sugar on a strained roasted-barley wort, not with gesho or malt. It had the lowest ethanol of eight Ethiopian traditional drinks measured in one study.

Related ferments

Safety

Keribo spoils within about two days at room temperature. Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococci were below detection in market and household samples in Jimma zone.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae, staphylococci and moulds (below detectable levels in market and household samples).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Abawari documented the raw materials, processing and microbiology of keribo in Jimma zone in two reports in 2013. He described it as served on holidays and at weddings and as a source of income for many households in the zone (abstract of the microbiology paper). Debebe et al. (2017) measured the ethanol in six keribo samples from vending houses at 0.4–2.6 % (v/v).

  1. [fentie2020] Fentie E.G., Emire S.A., Demsash H.D., Dadi D.W., Shin J.H. 2020, Cereal- and fruit-based Ethiopian traditional fermented alcoholic beverages, Foods 9:1781 (review)paper
  2. [abawari2013] Abawari R.A. 2013, Microbiology of keribo fermentation, an Ethiopian traditional fermented beverage, Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 16:1113–1121 (abstract, via Europe PMC)paper
  3. [debebe2017] Debebe A., Redi-Abshiro M., Chandravanshi B.S. 2017, Non-destructive determination of ethanol levels in fermented alcoholic beverages using Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy, Chemistry Central Journal 11:27paper
  4. [hotessa2020] Hotessa N., Robe J. 2020, Ethiopian indigenous traditional fermented beverage, the role of the microorganisms toward nutritional and safety value of fermented foods, International Journal of Microbiology 2020:8891259 (review, summarising Abawari 2013)paper
  5. [wedajo2020] Wedajo Lemi B. 2020, Microbiology of Ethiopian traditionally fermented beverages and condiments, International Journal of Microbiology 2020 (review)paper