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Alcoholic drinks from India

Yu angouba (Manipuri malted-rice beer) and Tangkhul khor

Yu angouba is a light rice beer of Manipur made with germinated paddy (malted rice grain) instead of a mould starter cake. Rice and sprouted paddy are soaked, pounded, stirred into boiled water and left covered for 2–3 days until it foams; it keeps for at most a week.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Yu angouba itself.

DocumentedAlcoholic drinks2.1 days – 3.1 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are the ratio given in a survey of Manipuri foods, about 100 g of germinated paddy to 1 kg of rice.
Rice1 kg[DEVI2012]
Germinated paddyAbout 100 g[DEVI2012]
Water, boiled[DEVI2012]
Starterother: germinated paddy (malt) instead of a mould cake

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.1 days – 3.1 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Rice soaks with germinated paddy

Step 1 of 4
Soak rice with germinated paddy
Time
2–3 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: soaked rice and malt.

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

Yu angouba is a light rice beer of Manipur made with germinated paddy (malted rice grain) instead of a mould starter cake. Rice and sprouted paddy are soaked, pounded, stirred into boiled water and left covered for 2–3 days until it foams; it keeps for at most a week. Made in 4 steps over 2.1 days – 3.1 days. The longest step, cover and ferment undisturbed, takes 2–3 days (Devi P 2012).

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[DEVI2012]Cover and ferment undisturbed

What makes this one different

Atingba, the other Manipuri rice beer in the same survey, is started with a hamei mould-and-yeast cake. Yu angouba uses sprouted paddy instead, so the malt makes the sugar, as in barley beer, and the beer is ready in 2–3 days.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Khor (Tangkhul)Made from paddy only, fermented in a conical pot sealed with cow dung and ash. The Tangkhul also call atingba patso and yu acham.
  • Tangkhul leiyi, zam, khor, paso, chathurNamed Tangkhul rice beers; a Tangkhul writer says they look and taste different.

Safety

Yu angouba cannot be stored long; the survey gives a maximum of 7 days.

History and sources

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

Rawat et al. 2021 list yu angouba for the Tangkhul with a hamei starter, while Devi and Suresh Kumar 2012 describe it as made with germinated paddy. The difference is unresolved.

  1. [DEVI2012] Devi P., Suresh Kumar P. "Traditional, ethnic and fermented foods of different tribes of Manipur." IJTK 11(1):70–77, 2012 (read from a Wayback Machine copy of the PDF)paper
  2. [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, Table 1paper
  3. [luithui2014] Luithui C. 2014, Who killed the rice beer?, Kangla Online, 29 August 2014 (Wayback Machine copy)archive