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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Rwanda

Ikigage (Rwandan sorghum beer)ikigage

Ikigage is a sour, opaque sorghum beer brewed at home in Rwanda. Red sorghum is steeped, sprouted on leaves and sun-dried into malt, then mashed in hot water and cooled. A leaven called umusemburo starts the fermentation, and the beer is ready in 12 to 24 hours, without the wort ever being boiled. Made in 8 steps over 4.6 days – 5.1 days. The longest step, sun-dry and rub off the rootlets (kuyavunga), takes at least 2 days (Lyumugabe F 2012) and runs at 29 °C (Lyumugabe F 2012). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Issatchenkia orientalis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 daysReported[lyumugabe2012]Sun-dry and rub off the rootlets (kuyavunga)
Temperature29 °CReported[lyumugabe2012]Sun-dry and rub off the rootlets (kuyavunga)
AciditypH 3.9Reported[lyumugabe2012]Pitch umusemburo and ferment under cover
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks4.6 days – 5.1 daysMore alcoholic drinksMore from Africa

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne household brew as described by Lyumugabe et al., about 18 kg of ground malt and 60 L of water in all.
About 2 kgGround sorghum malt · Stirred into the boiling water first, to gelatinise the starch[lyumugabe2012]
20 LBoiling water[lyumugabe2012]
16 kgGround sorghum malt · Added for the main mash[lyumugabe2012]
40 LCool water · Added to bring the mash down to pitching warmth[lyumugabe2012]
Umusemburo (traditional leaven) · Made from an earlier spontaneous fermentation of sorghum wort[lyumugabe2012][lyumugabe2014]
Banana leaves, a cloth and a lid · To cover the fermenting beer[lyumugabe2012]
Starterbackslop (umusemburo traditional leaven)

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.6 days – 5.1 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Red sorghum soaks up water

Step 1 of 8
Wash and steep the sorghum (kwinika)
Time
24 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
L. fermentum
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

Unlike West African sorghum beers such as dolo or tchoukoutou, the ikigage wort is never boiled, as is usual for East African sorghum beers. Part of the malt is gelatinised in boiling water and the rest is mashed into it, then cool water is added and the leaven goes straight in.

Related ferments

Safety

The traditional leaven has been found to carry Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and village beers carried S. aureus where beers made with selected starter cultures did not. The wort is not boiled before the leaven goes in. African sorghum beers of this kind keep only 24–72 hours because they are drunk while still fermenting.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus in the leaven and in village beers; Escherichia coli in the leaven.

History and sources

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

Its traditional process was described in detail by Lyumugabe et al. in 2010.

  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 (ikigage section, citing Lyumugabe et al. 2010)paper
  2. [lyumugabe2014] Lyumugabe F., Uyisenga J.P., Songa E.B., Thonart P. 2014, Production of traditional sorghum beer "ikigage" using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus fermentum and Issatckenkia orientalis as starter cultures, Food and Nutrition Sciences 5(6)paper