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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Zimbabwe

Doro (Zimbabwean opaque beer; hwahwa, mhamba, uthwala)doro

Doro is the traditional opaque beer of Zimbabwe, brewed at home from millet or sorghum malt over about a week. A thin malt porridge is cooked and left to sour for two days, boiled down, fed with more malt, and then mixed with fresh porridge and water to start the alcoholic fermentation. It is drunk while still fermenting, at about 4 % alcohol. Made in 9 steps over 8.2 days – 9.3 days. The longest step, germinate in a sack, takes 2–3 days (Lyumugabe F 2012). Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the main yeast in 13 household beers and Lactic acid bacteria that sour the porridge do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[lyumugabe2012]Germinate in a sack
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks8.2 days – 9.3 daysMore alcoholic drinksMore from Zimbabwe

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne household brew as described by Benhura and Chingombe and summarised by Lyumugabe et al. Most household beers use bulrush or finger millet malt; sorghum malt is used at times.
About 7 kgSorghum malt flour · For the first porridge (masvusvu)[lyumugabe2012]
About 24 LWater[lyumugabe2012]
About half the first amountMore malt flour · Added after the soured porridge is boiled[lyumugabe2012]
Two to three times the first day's amountFresh masvusvu porridge · Cooked on the sixth day[lyumugabe2012]
Water · Mixed in at the biti stage[lyumugabe2012]
Starterspontaneous; yeasts come from the malt and from pots used for earlier brews

Total time across the recorded steps: 8.2 days – 9.3 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: The grain soaks up water and swells

Step 1 of 9
Steep the grain
Time
24 h
Reported
Temperature
Room temperature
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: wet 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

What makes this one different

Doro is made in two separate sour stages. A cooked malt porridge (masvusvu) sours for two days into mhanga, which is boiled down by a quarter before more malt is added. Only on the sixth day is fresh porridge mixed in to start the alcoholic fermentation, so the whole brew takes about a week, much longer than the overnight dolo or ikigage. Most household doro is made from millet malt.

Related ferments

Safety

Doro is drunk in an active state of fermentation and has a short shelf life. In one survey of 13 household beers the yeast count was 7.87 to 9.56 log CFU/ml.

History and sources

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

  1. [lyumugabe2012] Lyumugabe F., Gros J., Nzungize J., Bajyana E., Thonart P. 2012, Characteristics of African traditional beers brewed with sorghum malt, a review, Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Société et Environnement (BASE) 16(4):509–530 (doro section, citing Benhura et al. 1989)paper
  2. [misihairabgwi2015] Misihairabgwi J.M., Kock L., Pretorious E., Pohl C., Zvauya R. 2015, Characterisation of yeasts isolated from traditional opaque beer beverages brewed in Zimbabwean households, African Journal of Microbiology Research 9(8):549–556paper
  3. [fermdb-doro] FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, row Doro, Hwahwa, Mhamba, Uthwala (citing Gadaga T. et al. 1999, A review of traditional fermented foods and beverages of Zimbabwe, International Journal of Food Microbiology 53:1–11)web