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Alcoholic drinks from Myanmar

Khaung ye / hsan khaung ye (Myanmar rice beer)ခေါင်ရည်

Khaung ye is the home-brewed rice beer of Myanmar's hill peoples. Cooked rice, often with sorghum or millet, is mixed with a dried rice-yeast starter, packed into clay jars and left to ferment for a week to a month or more. Three village khaung ye measured 6.9–12 % alcohol.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks7.1 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne Kayah household batch of about four gallons of beer, enough for a party (Kite Tales).
Rice2 pyi (Burmese volume measure)[kite]
Sorghum3 pyi[kite]
Powdered rice-yeast starterAbout a handfulGround rice shaped into balls, rolled in rice husk and dried over the stove for about a week; or bought ready-made[kite]
Warm waterAdded at serving[kite]
Starterrice-yeast balls (see myanmar-rice-wine-starter)

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.1 days

Start
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What changes: Sorghum boils until tender, then rice cooks with it until the water is gone

Step 1 of 4
Boil the sorghum, add the rice and cook until dry
Time
30 min – 1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: cooked grain.

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

Khaung ye is the home-brewed rice beer of Myanmar's hill peoples. Cooked rice, often with sorghum or millet, is mixed with a dried rice-yeast starter, packed into clay jars and left to ferment for a week to a month or more. Three village khaung ye measured 6.9–12 % alcohol. Made in 4 steps over 7.1 days. The longest step, pack into clay jars, press under dry leaves and ferment, takes at least 7 days (Kite Tales (Myanmar)).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 7 daysReported[kite][ppt2019]Pack into clay jars, press under dry leaves and ferment
AciditypH 5.4–6.5Measured[ppt2019]Decant, add warm water and drink through a bamboo straw

What makes this one different

Khaung ye is fermented as a solid mash in clay jars and drunk by adding warm water and sipping through a straw, not pressed and bottled. Each people uses its own grain mix and starter, so the beers differ in sweetness, sourness and strength.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Gheko methodStarter mixed into the rice before steaming (DVB).
  • Distilled Khao YaeDVB reports that Karenni makers either boil the rice down and ferment it in a pot, or distil it by a steaming method.
  • Kayan sticky-rice and millet beerAbout 3 weeks in a clay pot (Irrawaddy feature).

Safety

The three studied beers showed no mould growth, which the authors link to their alcohol holding back some microbes. Their pH of 5.4–6.5 is close to neutral.

History and sources

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

In 2014 DVB reported that Karenni family businesses kept to their traditional techniques for Khao Yae, while foreign companies were newly licensed to brew in Burma. In 2018 the Irrawaddy described Kayan rice wine (khao yae) as drunk by men, women and children in Kayah State at weddings, harvests and religious festivals.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [ppt2019] Pwint Phyu Thin, Aye Aye Mar, Bo Bo Thet, Nwe Nwe Aung 2019, Evaluation of Khaung-Yay (traditional Myanmar ethnic alcoholic beverages), 2nd International Conference on Bioeconomy, Yangon, pp. 311–314 (Kachin, Kayah and Chin samples)paper
  2. [kite] Kite Tales (Myanmar), "Rice wine: from crop to cup" (Saw Myar, Hta Nee La Leh village, Kayah State)web
  3. [irrawaddy-kayan] Irrawaddy, Cheers to Traditional Kayan Rice Wineweb
  4. [dvb-karenni] DVB, Rice wine remains perfect tonic for Karenni farmersweb