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Alcoholic drinks from India

Themsing (Monpa millet or barley beer)

Themsing is a beer of the Monpa people of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, made from finger millet, barley or both. The cooked grain is cooled on a bamboo mat, mixed with a starter culture and a pinch of ash or charcoal, and packed into wooden pots sealed with leaves, where the mixture can be stored for one to three years. Lukewarm water poured through the mash draws off a golden drink.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks12 months – 3 years

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe survey gives no amounts for the beer or the starter; it describes the method only.
Finger millet or barley, or both[SHRI2012]
Starter cultureThe survey names no starter type for themsing[SHRI2012]
Ash or charcoala pinch[SHRI2012]
Lukewarm waterAdded to draw off the drink[SHRI2012]
Starterstarter culture, not named in the survey (a companion paper describes the Monpa pham starter tablets but does not mention themsing)

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 3 years

Start
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What changes: Millet or barley cooks in a pot until soft

Step 1 of 5
Cook the grain until soft
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: cooked millet or barley.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
grains become soft
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

Themsing is a beer of the Monpa people of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, made from finger millet, barley or both. The cooked grain is cooled on a bamboo mat, mixed with a starter culture and a pinch of ash or charcoal, and packed into wooden pots sealed with leaves, where the mixture can be stored for one to three years. Lukewarm water poured through the mash draws off a golden drink. Made in 5 steps over 12 months – 3 years. The longest step, ferment in wooden pots, tightly covered, takes 12 months – 3 years (Shrivastava K 2012). Yeasts, since the starters of Arunachal tribes are a source of yeast cells does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 months – 3 yearsReported[SHRI2012]Ferment in wooden pots, tightly covered

What makes this one different

Themsing is made only by the Monpa of Tawang. A pinch of ash or charcoal goes into the mash with the starter, and the mash is stored solid in sealed wooden pots for up to three years; the beer is drawn off only when wanted, through a pipe or by pouring lukewarm water through a bamboo basket.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pipe extractionThe drink is sipped out through a pipe about 1 cm wide fitted at the bottom of the vessel.
  • Basket percolationLukewarm water is added slowly to the mash in a perforated bamboo basket and the filtrate collected.

Safety

For the traditional beers of Arunachal Pradesh in general, Shrivastava and colleagues (2012) note that spoilage or contamination happens at times, especially in bulk batches, that cases of beer toxicity are sometimes reported, and that the work is done by hand in open, unhygienic conditions, which they see as the likely cause of spoilage.

History and sources

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

A 2012 survey of 21 tribes in 42 villages records themsing only among the Monpa of Tawang district [SHRI2012]; a 2021 review lists it for the Monpa with finger millet [RAWAT2021].

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [SHRI2012] Shrivastava K., Greeshma A.G., Srivastava B. "Biotechnology in tradition: a process technology of alcoholic beverages practiced by different tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, North East India." Indian J. Traditional Knowledge 11(1):81–89, 2012. Survey of 21 tribes in 42 villages of 14 districts. Text and flow chart 4 (read from an archived copy of the PDF)paper
  2. [SHRI2012b] Shrivastava K., Greeshma A.G., Srivastava B. "Biotechnology in tradition: methods of starter preparation for alcoholic beverages employed by different tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh." IJTK 11(1):194–201, 2012, Monpa starter methodpaper
  3. [RAWAT2021] Rawat J.M., Pandey S., Debbarma P., Rawat B. "Preparation of alcoholic beverages by tribal communities in the Indian Himalayan Region: a review on traditional and ethnic consideration." Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 5:672411, 2021. Tables 1–2 list beverages, starters and starter plants by state and tribe, Table 1paper