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Alcoholic drinks from India

Opo, kala apang and ennog (Adi black rice beers with burnt husk)

Opo, kala apang and ennog are black rice beers of the Adi and their neighbours in Arunachal Pradesh. Cooked rice is mixed with rice husk burnt black and a crumbled starter cake, packed into leaf-lined baskets or pots for one to three weeks, and then boiling water is poured through the mass so a dark beer drips out.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks7 days – 23 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold recipe; the sources give the husk-to-rice ratio but no batch size.
Rice, boiled[khapudang2018]
Paddy husk, burnt blackhalf the quantity of the rice (ennog); equal to the rice (kala apang)[khapudang2018][NATH2019]
Ipoh starter cakes, crumbled[khapudang2018]
Ekkam (Phrynium) leavesTo line and cover the baskets[khapudang2018]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (ipoh, apop, pee, kshai or siiyeh, depending on the tribe)

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 23 days

Start
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What changes: Rice husk smoulders slowly until it is completely black

Step 1 of 6
Burn the rice husk black
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: charred husk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
black

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

Opo, kala apang and ennog are black rice beers of the Adi and their neighbours in Arunachal Pradesh. Cooked rice is mixed with rice husk burnt black and a crumbled starter cake, packed into leaf-lined baskets or pots for one to three weeks, and then boiling water is poured through the mass so a dark beer drips out. Made in 6 steps over 7 days – 23 days. The longest step, pack and weight for the main fermentation, takes 4–20 days (Khapudang R 2018). Moulds, lactic acid bacteria and yeasts of the starter cakes of North East India (the starch-degrading moulds break down the rice, the yeasts make alcohol); the microbes of ipoh itself have not been studied does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–20 daysReported[khapudang2018][SHRI2012][NATH2019]Pack and weight for the main fermentation
AciditypH 4.2–4.3Measured[KUMARI2025]Pack and weight for the main fermentation

What makes this one different

These beers are made with rice husk burnt black, which colours the beer, and they are extracted by pouring boiling water through the fermented mass in a bamboo tube.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Opo (Adi, Nyishi, Mishmi)4 days in summer, 7 in winter; extracted with boiled water through a bamboo funnel.
  • Kala apang (Adi Galo)Kshai starter; husk and rice 1:1; a 20-day ferment in a pot covered with oko leaves; filtered through a perpur funnel.
  • Ennog (Adi Galo; also named for the Monpa, Apatani and Nyishi)Ipoh starter, husk half the rice; about 3 days in a basket and 10 more under weight.
  • Opo (Apatani)Starter called chu, made with Solanum khasianum.
  • Saimod (Mising, Assam)Rice beer made by mixing the ash of burnt rice husk into cooked rice (Kardong et al. 2012, as summarised by Nath et al. 2019), reported as an acidic drink; see apong, whose poro apong also uses burnt husk.

Safety

A 2019 review says traditional rice beers are made under poor hygiene without technical inputs, which gives a short shelf life and a poor product with low alcohol, and that bacterial contamination or toxicity is sometimes reported.

Hazards the sources name: Bacterial contamination or toxicity, reported for traditional rice beers brewed under poor hygiene, which gives a short shelf life and a poor product with low alcohol.

History and sources

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

The sources give no dated history of these beers. Khapudang et al. (2018) cite Tiwari and Mahanta (2007) for ennog as an Adi Galo black rice beer, and Nath et al. (2019) say ennog is made in almost every Adi Galo household for regular use. They add that brewing for daily use has fallen sharply because of legal and economic restrictions, so rice beer is now brewed mostly for rituals and festivals.

  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, 2012paper
  2. [NATH2019] Nath N., Ghosh S., Rahaman L., Kaipeng D.L., Sharma B.K. "An overview of traditional rice beer of North-east India: ethnic preparation, challenges and prospects." IJTK 18(4):744–757, 2019paper
  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, Table 1paper
  4. [khapudang2018] Khapudang R., Sharma S., Joshi V.K. 2018, Indigenous fermented food products of Eastern and Western Himalayan region, a review, Intl. J. Food Ferment. Technol. 8(2):119–139 (ennog, citing Tiwari and Mahanta 2007)paper
  5. [KUMARI2025] Kumari S., Ama T., Koch P.J., Debbarma R. 2025, Biochemical and physicochemical characterization of traditional rice wine of Nyishi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 24(7):615–626 (a related Nyishi rice wine, opo starter, no husk)paper