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Alcoholic drinks from North Sumatra

Tuak (Batak sugar-palm wine with raru bark)tuak

Tuak is the palm wine of the Batak of North Sumatra, made from the sap of the sugar palm (Arenga pinnata). Sap from the cut flower stalk runs into a container with pieces of raru bark, which is added to improve the taste and alcohol content, and it ferments for at least a day or two. A study of stored palm wine measured about 4.8–5.2 % ethanol over the first days in Bali.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks24 hFamily: Palm wine (base flow)

Recipe

Tuak (Batak sugar-palm wine with raru bark), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Sophia Guevara, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceOne fermentation in a 2024 North Sumatran account; the amount of bark is not given.
Fresh aren sap5 LGives about 5 L of tuak[zulmi2024]
Raru bark, cut into pieces about 5-7 cm longSmall pieces go in the collecting container and several pieces in the larger fermenting container[zulmi2024]
Starterspontaneous (the natural wild yeasts of the sap; raru bark is added to stimulate the fermentation)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Sap runs from the cut flower stalk of the sugar palm into a container

Step 1 of 4
Tap the sugar palm
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Output: fresh sap (nira).

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

Tuak is the palm wine of the Batak of North Sumatra, made from the sap of the sugar palm (Arenga pinnata). Sap from the cut flower stalk runs into a container with pieces of raru bark, which is added to improve the taste and alcohol content, and it ferments for at least a day or two. A study of stored palm wine measured about 4.8–5.2 % ethanol over the first days in Bali. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, add raru bark and ferment, takes at least 24 h (Zulmi A.D.P 2024). Yeasts, chiefly Saccharomyces cerevisiae, that ferment aren sap does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 24 hReported[zulmi2024]Add raru bark and ferment

What makes this one different

Batak tuak is fermented with pieces of raru bark, added to improve the taste and alcohol content. For comparison, a study of a different additive, bayur wood root, in aren sap found it held the alcohol at 4 % for 64 hours and slowed the change of alcohol to acetic acid.

Ethanol in stored palm wine, Bali
4.839% on day 1, rising to 5.233% on day 3, then falling slowly to 4.927% on day 7. This is palm wine from Sanda village, Tabanan, Bali (Aryasa and colleagues, 2019, cited by Zulmi), not Batak tuak.

Related ferments

Safety

Fermentation past about 3 days lowers the alcohol and turns the wine toward vinegar.

History and sources

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

Zulmi and colleagues (2024) write that tuak has been part of popular culture since ancient times and is served at every traditional celebration. Wikipedia calls palm tuak a local drink symbol of North Sumatra, popular among the Batak.

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [zulmi2024] Zulmi A.D.P., Safitri D.Z., Khairahma, Apriwidyanti W., Silaban R. 2024, Cultivating health, traditional alcoholic drink 'tuak' as a potential functional drink for regulating blood glucose levels while keeping cultural significance intact, Diversitas Hayati 2(1):1–5paper
  2. [mentari2019] Mentari S.N., Djangi M.J., Sudding 2017, Peran akar kayu bayur (Pterospermum sp.) terhadap fermentasi nira aren (Arenga pinnata), Chemica 18(2):90 ff. (a record of the same paper is also listed as Chemica 20(1):81, 2019; abstract only, the full text is not read)paper
  3. [wp-tuak] Wikipedia, Tuak (outline only)wiki