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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Cambodia

Sraa sar (Cambodian rice liquor) and red rice wineស្រា

Cooked rice is mixed with a dried rice-ball starter and fermented in jars for a few days, first as a damp mass and then with water added. Most village sraa is then distilled into a clear liquor of about 40 % alcohol and cut with water before sale, and the spent mash feeds the household's pigs. Made in 6 steps over 4.1 days – 4.2 days. The longest step, ferment in jars as a damp mass, takes 2 days (Sakuraba Y. 2021) and runs at 30 °C (Sakuraba Y. 2021). Rhizopus oryzae, the only starch-splitting mould found and Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, the main yeasts after fermentation do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2 daysReported[sakuraba2021]Ferment in jars as a damp mass
Temperature30 °CReported[sakuraba2021]Ferment in jars as a damp mass
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks4.1 days – 4.2 daysMore alcoholic drinksMore from Cambodia

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne household batch observed and measured in a Takeo village. About 23 kg of rice gave about 24 L of spirit at 41 %, cut with well water to about 31 L at 28 %. Water is added by eye.
About 23 kgRice · Brown rice, a brown and white mix, or broken rice[sakuraba2021]
Dried starter (dombea), or commercial starter balls · The household observed used two commercial starters made in Vietnam[sakuraba2021][yamamoto2011]
By eyeWell water · Added to the mash after two days, and again to cut the spirit[sakuraba2021]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (dombea, also called mae dombae or mae sra, "liquor starter")

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.1 days – 4.2 days

Start
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What changes: The rice is cooked through

Step 1 of 6
Cook the rice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Rhizopus
Yeasts

Output: cooked rice.

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

Sraa sar is distilled, not drunk as a brewed rice wine like sato or Cambodian red rice wine. In the observed Takeo method the mash goes from cooked rice to the still in four days, and the distilling is tied to pig keeping, because the spent mash is the pigs' feed.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Red rice wine (brewed, not distilled)In a lab version of the traditional method, red rice was soaked 3 h, steamed, mixed with 2 % dried starter and held at 30 °C, 3 days as a damp mass and then 7 more days with water; it reached 11.6–13 % alcohol.
  • Rice wine with tapaeRice liquor with tapae (fermented black rice) added was the usual wedding drink in the Takeo village before bottled beer replaced it.
  • Rice wine culture of the north-eastStarters made without rice liquor or old starter, covered with leaves and not dried in the sun; thought to be the older Cambodian way.

Safety

Spent mash from the still is fed to pigs. No safety limit specific to sraa was found in the sources; the risk with any home-distilled spirit is the unknown strength and quality of each batch.

History and sources

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

Khmer speakers call the starter (mae) dombae or mae sra, "liquor starter". A 2011 survey of 69 starter makers found two Cambodian traditions, an older "rice wine culture" and a "rice liquor culture" that blows liquor over new starters. In a Takeo village in 2016, rice liquor was still drunk among family and neighbours, while beer had taken over at weddings.

  1. [sakuraba2021] Sakuraba Y. 2021, Rice liquor production sustained in a rural village of Takeo Province, Cambodia (in Japanese, English abstract), Asian and African Area Studies 21(1):67–82paper
  2. [ly2018] Ly S., Mith H., Tarayre C., Taminiau B., Daube G., Fauconnier M.-L., Delvigne F. 2018, Impact of microbial composition of Cambodian traditional dried starters (dombea) on flavor compounds of rice wine, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:894paper
  3. [yamamoto2011] Yamamoto S., Matsumoto T. 2011, Rice fermentation starters in Cambodia, cultural importance and traditional methods of production, Southeast Asian Studies 49(2)paper
  4. [hamano2020] Hamano M., Matsumoto T., Ito K. 2020, Factors causing deficits in traditional rice liquor production in rural areas of Cambodia, International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development 11(1)paper
  5. [phoem2020] Phoem V., Ly S., Mith H. 2020, Cambodian rice liquor development using Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and alpha-amylase, Techno-Science Research Journal 8:46–55paper