Alcoholic drinks

clear, sweet-fruity, smooth spirit, drunk with water [WP:Chulli]

1. Sun-dry wild apricots
2. Ferment fruit with phab
3. Distil

Safety: Apricot kernels contain amygdalin; whether kernels go into the mash was not found.

• Wikipedia, Chulli (outline only)
• 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. Tables 1–2 list beverages, starters and starter plants by state and tribe, Table 1
• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0. Rows used here mostly cite Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, "Fermented foods in a global age: East meets West", Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 19:184–217 (not open access, so read through FermDB), and Tamang, Thapa & Rai 1996 (J. Food Sci. Technol.), row Chulli

Also called cidre de feu, fire cider.

amber, syrupy dessert cider; some are fortified to 16–17 %

1. Concentrate juice by heating only
2. Ferment

• Wikipedia (fr), 'Cidre de feu' and 'Cidre du Québec' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called 桑落酒, sangluo jiu.

fragrant, strong wine, 'twice as good as ordinary wine'

1. Collect water and soak qu on the 9th of the 9th month before sunrise
2. Add 9 dou millet every 7 days until the jar is full

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called 笨麴白醪酒.

continuously refilled white mash

1. Soak stacked qu cakes under water7 days
2. Add cold cooked rice at will; drink and keep addingcontinuous ('drink while adding, until finished')

Safety: One addition must be made before the Cold Food festival.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

sweet sap, mildly alcoholic sour toddy, or syrup from the same tree

1. Cut the spathe and hang a collectorcut and emptied twice a day, morning and evening; a thin slice is shaved off each time to keep the flow (Tuvalu/Sikaiana sources, via search summary)
2. Keep sweet (optional)
3. Let it fermentbegins within hours; stronger and sourer after ~24 h; harsh and sour after several days (via search summary)
4. Vinegar stage (if left longer)
5. Alternative: boil karewe 5–6 h

• Wikipedia, Palm wine, names table and Kiribati/Tuvalu text (outline only)
• banaban.com 'Banaban tradition: cutting coconut toddy' (via search summary)
• southpacificislands.travel 'Cutting toddy in Tuvalu' (via search summary)
• Sikaiana archives, Kutztown University library (via search summary)
• POLLEX entry KALEVE https://pollex.eva.mpg.de/entry/kaleve/

Also called aqua mulsa, melikraton (Greek), hydromeli, Roman hydromel.

sweet, low-to-moderate alcohol honey wine

1. Mix
2. Sun exposure40 days
3. Keep near the fire

• Wikipedia, Mead (Columella section). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead

Also called cormé, Speierling (German, for the tree and fruit), corme, cormé drink, sorb-apple drink.

sparkling, low-alcohol drink of fermented service-tree fruit

1. Blet the fruit
2. Ferment in water

• French Wikipedia, Cormé (boisson), https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormé_(boisson) (fetched 2026-10-16)

maize beer; photographed with "the last remaining brewer" of the village

• Cornell M. 2022, Traditional brewing in Myanmar: an amazing heritage (review of Corbin 2022, Heritage Drinks of Myanmar), Zythophile (photo caption)
• Wikipedia, Zozu, citing Piang 2020, South East Asia Research 28(3):284–300 (outline only)

Also called 粳米醪, lao, unfiltered rice mash wine.

lao (mash wine) drunk with its lees

1. Soak qu until fish-eye bubbles; filter qu liquid through hair bag then silk
2. Three additions of cooked rice8 dou of rice each time, each when the last has dissolved; add 2 dou more if still bitter

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 64

Also called 神麴黍米酒, sangluo-season wine.

light, fragrant millet wine that keeps a full year

1. Mix qu and water
2. Stepwise additions1 dan, then 5 dou, then 4 dou, then 3 dou, each when the previous rice has dissolved

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 64

Also called 冬酿酒, dongyang jiu (东阳酒).

yellow, sweet, low-alcohol rice wine with osmanthus aroma; drunk by every household at the winter solstice

1. Brew glutinous rice traditionally
2. Add gardenia (colour) and osmanthus (aroma)
3. Sell for a few days before the winter solstice; keep at 0–8 °C

• Wikipedia (zh), 冬酿酒, citing Suzhou Gazetteer 1995 and China News Service 2007 (outline only)
• thepaper.cn reports (via search summary)

fermented cacao-pulp beverage. It predates chocolate made from the seeds.

1. Pulp ferments

• Henderson J.S., Joyce R.A., Hall G.R., Hurst W.J., McGovern P.E. 2007, Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages, PNAS 104(48):18937–18940

Also called enturire.

alcoholic honey-sorghum drink; keeps up to two months

1. Soak sorghumat least 24 h
2. Mix with ash and leave3 days
3. Dry and grind
4. Make obushera and ferment3 days
5. Add unfiltered honey (with 'omuramba') and ferment3–5 days

• Wikipedia (en), 'Enturire' (fetched raw 2026-10-16)
• Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. (PMC11877266) — tables of Eastern African fermented foods and beverages by country (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and others) with microbes and references; dozens of items, Table (enturire, S. cerevisiae and L. reuteri, alcoholic)
• cereal_root_bread_r2.md boundary note: about 15 % honey added to malted sorghum slurry, 4+ days

Also called फापरको जाँड, phapar ko jaanr.

Faapar ko jaanr is the buckwheat form of jaanr, the Himalayan fermented grain mash made with marcha starter. FermDB, citing Tamang and colleagues, describes it as mildly alcoholic and slightly acidic, made like kodo ko jaanr but from buckwheat. No source found gives its own process figures.

Made like Kodo ko jaanr (finger-millet jaanr; base of tongba).

• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0, row Faapar ko jaanr (citing Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, Fermented foods in a global age, East meets West, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 19:184–217, and Tamang, Thapa and Rai 1996, Journal of Food Science and Technology)

Also called 封缸酒, 丹阳封缸酒, 金坛封缸酒, fenggang jiu, Danyang fenggang wine, sealed-jar wine.

Feng gang jiu is a sweet glutinous-rice wine of southern Jiangsu, named for the long ageing in sealed jars that the craft requires. It is brewed with white qu and a yeast mother; Chinese Wikipedia says spirit is added when the mash is sweetest, before the jar is sealed.

Heritage listing

National intangible cultural heritage, item Ⅷ-145, listed in 2008 for Danyang and Jintan

Ageing

The wine must be aged a long time in sealed jars, which gives it its name; the listings give no number of years

Colour and taste

Amber-brown, aromatic, rich and smooth

Made like Shaoxing huangjiu, Yuanhong (dry); base flow for Shaoxing wines.

• China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, 酿造酒传统酿造技艺（封缸酒传统酿造技艺）, item Ⅷ-145, second batch 2008, Danyang City (protection unit Jiangsu Danyang Winery)
• China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, 酿造酒传统酿造技艺（封缸酒传统酿造技艺）, item Ⅷ-145, second batch 2008, Jintan City, Changzhou
• Wikipedia (zh), 黄酒 (outline only)
• Wikipedia, Huangjiu (outline only)

Also called malamba, musungu, vin de canne, betsa, betsabetsa, badezy.

cane wine

1. Crush cane and collect the juice
2. Add plant additives
3. Ferment covered14 days

• Wikipedia (en), 'Malamba (drink)' and 'Guarapo (drink)' (fetched 2026-10-16)
• Randrianarivony T.N., Rakotoarivony F., Randrianasolo A., Hart R. 2024, "Plant species for the manufacture of Malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages", Ethnobiology Letters 15(1):16–29, doi:10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1874 (open access, fetched)

Also called 粟米爐酒, straw-drunk millet wine, sumi lu jiu.

A 6th-century recipe from the Qimin Yaoshu. Cooked foxtail millet is kneaded with qu powder and powdered lees from spring wine, packed into a jar over a layer of pebbles and left for five or six days. The mash is never pressed; cold water is poured in and the wine is sucked up through a tube.

1. Mix millet, qu and lees and pack the jarMillet cooked at night, cooled in the night dew, and mixed at cockcrow
2. Cover with paper and a brick, without mud
3. Ferment5–6 days
4. Pour in cold water and drink through a tube20 days

Safety: The text's only safety advice is about heat; sealing with mud makes the mash overheat.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66 笨麴餅酒, 作粟米爐酒法 (Chinese Wikisource transcription, juan 7)

Also called 粟米酒.

fragrant millet wine 'not inferior to proso wine'

1. Draw water before sunrise on the 1st of the 1st month; soak qu powder on the 15th
2. Four additions, 7 days apart, made at night by firelight28 days
3. Optional keepingpress in the 4th–5th month for a better wine; keeps over summer in a shaded room

Safety: Only works in the 1st month, per the text.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called frênette, cidre de frêne, quinquina d'Europe.

light thirst-quenching drink, served cool; in the 19th–20th centuries cut with water at meals (half for adults, two-thirds water for youths)

1. Infuse ash leaves
2. Add sugar (later recipes) and yeast; ferment

• Wikipedia (fr), 'Frênette' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called गहुँको जाँड, gahun ko jaanr.

Gahoon ko jaanr is the wheat form of jaanr, the Himalayan fermented grain mash made with marcha starter. FermDB, citing Tamang and colleagues, describes it as mildly alcoholic and slightly acidic and related to kodo ko jaanr. No source found gives its own process figures.

Made like Kodo ko jaanr (finger-millet jaanr; base of tongba).

• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0, row Gahoon ko jaanr, Gahun ko jaanr (citing Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, Fermented foods in a global age, East meets West, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 19:184–217, and Tamang et al. 2007, a Sikkim food-consumption study)

Also called ginger wine, Ingwerwein.

English ginger wine is a sweet wine of sugar water flavoured with bruised ginger, lemon and raisins, fermented with yeast. In the 19th-century household recipe it is stirred daily for a fortnight, then fortified with brandy and bottled a few months later.

1. Boil the sugar water with ginger and lemon rind1 h
2. Cool and add the yeast
3. Cask it with the lemon juice and raisins24 h
4. Stir every day14 days
5. Add brandy and close the caskIn a few weeks it is fit to bottle; wine made early in March is fit to bottle in June
6. Bottle

• Beeton I. 1861, The Book of Household Management, recipe 1819 Ginger Wine, Project Gutenberg eBook 10136
• Wikipedia (en), Ginger wine (outline and history only)

Gose is a tart, hazy wheat beer from Goslar and Leipzig, brewed with a restrained amount of salt and coriander seed. Modern versions are soured with Lactobacillus as well as fermented with top-fermenting yeast, so the beer finishes dry, sour and highly carbonated at about 4.2–4.8 % alcohol.

1. Mash Pilsner and wheat malt
2. Boil with few hops, salt and coriander
3. Sour with Lactobacillus and ferment with ale yeast

• BJCP 2021, Beer Style Guidelines, 23G Gose
• Wikipedia, Gose (outline only)

Also called Gose.

salty, sour wheat beer

• Wikipedia, Gose (outline only)
• Brauwelt, So the Story Goes – The Story of Gose, Parts II–III
• hannover.de, 500 Jahre Broyhanbier
• lostbeers.com, Lambic: the real story

Also called gruit / grut (Low German, Dutch), gagel (bog myrtle, Dutch), gale ale, herbed ale, pre-hop ale.

aromatic, bitter-herbal ale with a short shelf life

1. Mash and boil with gruit
2. Fermentdays (typical)

Safety: Bog myrtle and wild rosemary contain potentially toxic volatiles at high dose.

• Unger R.W. 2004. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Univ. Pennsylvania Press.
• Brewery History Society, From Herbal to Hops. https://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/183/HerbalToHops.pdf
• Lost Beers, Gruit: nothing mysterious about it. https://lostbeers.com/gruit-nothing-mysterious-about-it/

Also called 경주 교동 법주, 법주, baegilju ('hundred-day liquor').

clear golden yakju/cheongju, 16–18 % ABV

1. Boil and cool brewing water
2. Base mash with nuruk
3. Add steamed glutinous rice; second fermentationlong
4. Age3.3 months

• Wikipedia, Beopju (outline only)

Also called 한산 소곡주.

sweet clear yakju about 18 % ABV, said to have ~1,500 years of history

1. Ferment rice with nuruk and botanicals100 days (via search summary: hansik.or.kr / Korea Food Foundation)

• https://www.hansik.or.kr/magazines/list/magazineDetail/6/2746 (via search summary)

tart, alcoholic tea drink

1. Primary kombucha fermentation7–14 days
2. Add sugar and wine or champagne yeast, and ferment sealed7–14 days

Also called 河東頤白酒, overnight summer wine.

fragrant quick summer wine

1. Soak qu as millet finishes steaming; add millet before sunrise
2. Second addition next dawn; press the following dayready the day after the second addition

Safety: In the 6th month only 1 dan of rice per batch.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called ひやおろし.

Old-style namazume-shu: pasteurised once before storage, aged from winter until the following autumn, then sold without the second pasteurisation (JSS-NRIB2011 glossary). Related labels: nama-chozo-shu (stored raw, pasteurised once at bottling) and namazume-shu (pasteurised once before maturation) (JSS-NRIB2011).

1. First hi-ire then summer storage6–9 months · 60–65 °C
2. Bottle without second pasteurisation

• Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and National Research Institute of Brewing, "A Comprehensive Guide to Japanese Sake", 1st ed., March 2011

Also called 本みりん.

sweet cooking/drinking rice liqueur; enzymatic not alcoholic fermentation (flag in UI)

1. Mix steamed glutinous rice + koji + shochu
2. Saccharify and mature40 days – 2 months · 20–30 °C
3. Press and age

1. Ferment rice with thap
2. Add water and draw off the beer (kodtak)8–9 h

• goya.in 'Xaj, rice beer of the Ahoms' (names only, via search summary)
• Nath N., Ghosh S., Rahaman L., Kaipeng D.L., Sharma B.K. 2019, An overview of traditional rice beer of North-east India: ethnic preparation, challenges and prospects, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 18(4):744–757
• Rawat J.M., Pandey S., Debbarma P., Rawat B. 2021, Preparation of alcoholic beverages by tribal communities in the Indian Himalayan Region: a review on traditional and ethnic consideration, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 5:672411
• Shrivastava K., Greeshma A.G., Srivastava B. 2012, Biotechnology in tradition: a process technology of alcoholic beverages practiced by different tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, North East India, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 11(1):81–89

Also called omulunga (Namibia), ubusulu (Zulu), injemane, utchema (Mozambique), trembo / sora (Madagascar), ilala palm wine.

milky palm wine; trembo keeps only 1–2 days unless refrigerated [RANDRIANARIVONY2024]

1. Cut the stem apex or terminal bud
2. Collect the sap30 days – 2 months
3. FermentMadagascar trembo: left in the sun for about a week [RANDRIANARIVONY2024]

Safety: Tapping kills or badly damages the palm; tapped adults recover only after some years (hyphaene.org). Makalani is protected in Namibia (photographic project, low).

• Ethnobiology Letters 15(1):16–29, doi:10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1874
• Uamba I. et al. 2025, 'Production and marketing of wine from the palm tree Hyphaene petersiana ... Banhine National Park, Mozambique', S. Afr. J. Bot. (abstract via Europe PMC)
• "Fermented traditional wine from palm trees: microbial, nutritional attributes and health impacts", Front. Food Sci. Technol., 2023
• Hyphaene.org, Uses and conservation, https://hyphaene.org/index.php/about-hyphaene/uses-and-conservation
• Dictionary of South African English, 'ilala', https://dsae.co.za/entry/ilala/e03203 (via search summary)

Also called 이강주.

1. Make rice-nuruk mash and distil to soju (DISTILLED)
2. Infuse pear, ginger and turmeric, and age

• hansik.or.kr magazine (via search summary)

Also called impeke, inzoga y'amasaka (reported).

brown, very dense, sour and bitter sorghum beer, sometimes softened with honey; alcohol varies (travel sources)

1. Malt sorghum
2. Brew (mash) and ferment

• Impeke row, citing [ALOYS2009]
• burunditravel.bi (via search summary; low)

1. Ferment cane juice with roots

• Wikipedia, Philippine wine (outline only)

1. Ferment cereal with balam
2. Distil (DISTILLED)

• Angmo K., Bhalla T.C., "Preparation of Phabs — an indigenous starter culture for production of traditional alcoholic beverage, Chhang, in Ladakh", Indian J. Tradit. Knowl. 13(2):347–351, 2014, names only
• Rawat J.M., Pandey S., Debbarma P., Rawat B. 2021, Preparation of alcoholic beverages by tribal communities in the Indian Himalayan Region: a review on traditional and ethnic consideration, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 5:672411
• Chopra R.N., Chopra G.S., Chopra I.C. 1942, Alcoholic beverages in India, Part II, Indian Medical Gazette 77(5):290–296

Also called जौको जाँड, jaun ko jaanr.

Jao ko jaanr is the barley form of jaanr, the Himalayan fermented grain mash made with marcha starter. FermDB, citing Tamang and colleagues, describes it as mildly alcoholic and slightly acidic. No source found gives its own process figures.

Made like Kodo ko jaanr (finger-millet jaanr; base of tongba).

• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0, row Jao ko jaanr, Jaun ko jaanr (citing Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, Fermented foods in a global age, East meets West, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 19:184–217, and Tamang et al. 2007, a Sikkim food-consumption study)

Also called 贾湖, Jiahu wine, Chateau Jiahu (modern reconstruction by Dogfish Head).

a hybrid of rice beer, mead and fruit wine

1. Saccharify rice
2. Mix with honey and fruit and ferment

• McGovern P.E. et al. 2004. Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. PNAS 101(51):17593–17598.
• Penn Museum news release. https://news.upenn.edu/news/penn-museum-archaeochemist-and-international-scholars-confirm-9000-year-history-chinese-ferment

1. Ferment cooked rice (jumai) with the starter3–4 days
2. Mix with water and filter
3. Optional distil (DISTILLED)

• goya.in (name jou only, via search summary)
• Nath N., Ghosh S., Rahaman L., Kaipeng D.L., Sharma B.K. 2019, An overview of traditional rice beer of North-east India: ethnic preparation, challenges and prospects, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 18(4):744–757
• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0

Also called keptinis alus, keptìnis alùs, baked beer.

dark baked-loaf beer for feasts

1. Sprout barley; dry on the stove or in the sun; grind
2. Mix with boiled water and let swell
3. Shape loaves and bake in the ovena couple of hours, until well crusted
4. Break loaves and soak in water
5. Add hop decoction, sugar and yeast; fermentdrinkable after a few days

• Wikipedia (lt), 'Keptinis alus'; (fr) 'Keptinis alus' (fetched 2026-10-16)
• Matucheski M. 1994, 'Keptinis alus, Lithuanian baked beer', Zymurgy special issue 14 (cited by fr WP)

1. Ferment cooked rice with thiat
2. Distil (kiad is usually distilled)

• Sha et al., "Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in Marcha and Thiat", Sci. Rep. 2017

Also called kilju.

Kilju is a Finnish home-made sugar wine of white sugar, water and yeast, sometimes with fruit or berries. It ferments for a few days with fast yeasts or for weeks with ordinary ones, and is cleared before drinking. Finnish law lets a private person make it at home for their own use, as long as it is not distilled.

1. Dissolve sugar in water
2. Add the yeast and fermentat least 3 days
3. Clear it

• Alkoholilaki 1102/2017 (Finnish Alcohol Act), Finlex - a private person may make mild alcoholic drinks at home for their own use, other than by distilling
• Wikipedia, Kilju (outline only)

'Filipino eggnog', eaten with kakanin rice cakes [WP:Kinutil]

1. Ferment tubâ (see palm-wine)
2. Stir in egg yolk and/or tabliya

Safety: Contains raw egg yolk.

• Wikipedia, Kinutil (outline only)
• Wikipedia, Tubâ (outline only)

Also called lambanog, vino de coco.

DISTILLED coconut spirit ~36–45 % ABV

1. Tap coconut inflorescence and collect sap
2. Ferment to tuba
3. Distil in kawa stills (DISTILLED)

Safety: Distillation concentrates methanol as well as ethanol. Home distillation is illegal in many countries.

• Wikipedia, Philippine wine (outline only)
• UP Diliman and UPLB studies (via search summary)

Also called 粱米酒.

wine 'the colour of silver', with ginger, cinnamon, honey and bile notes; 'unlike proso or glutinous-millet wines'

1. Soak qu (any season)1 °C
2. Three equal additions10 days

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called 丽江窨酒, 窨酒, 胤酒 (older name), yinjiu, Lijiang cellared wine.

sweet, mellow fortified huangjiu of the Naxi

1. Brew a sweet local rice wine
2. Fortify with baijiu and seal in an underground cellarlong; in the custom, until the child's wedding [zh.wikipedia]

• Chinese Wikipedia, 丽江窨酒, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/丽江窨酒 (fetched 2026-10-16)

distilled rice spirit, sometimes infused

• Cornell 2022 (photo caption and text)

sour cereal beer; rice lugri measured at only 0.36–0.59 % alcohol in BALIYAN2021 (column alignment unclear; verify)

1. Cook grain
2. Mix with phab and ferment
3. Optional: distil to arak (DISTILLED)

• Baliyan et al. 2021, study of lugri from Lahaul, Frontiers in Microbiology
• Rawat J.M., Pandey S., Debbarma P., Rawat B. 2021, Preparation of alcoholic beverages by tribal communities in the Indian Himalayan Region: a review on traditional and ethnic consideration, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 5:672411

Fortified, then deliberately heated: estufagem (tanks ~45–50 °C for ≥3 months) or canteiro (casks in warm lofts for years) — imitating tropical sea voyages; extremely oxidation-stable (typical).

Made like Port (Porto).

Also called माध्वी, माध्वीक, madhvi, madhvika, madhavi.

Manusmṛti 11.94 names three kinds of surā: gauḍī (from jaggery), paiṣṭī (from grain) and mādhvī (from madhūka flowers or sweet bases). Dictionary entries describe mādhvīka as liquor made from mahua blossoms (wisdomlib, via search summary).

• wisdomlib.org 'Madhvika' and 'Madhvi' definitions https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/madhvika (via search summary)

Madua is a finger-millet beer brewed by almost every tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. The millet is roasted for 30 minutes, cooked soft, mixed with a starter and fermented in a leaf-covered basket for 4 days in summer or 7 in winter; warm water dripped through the basket carries out the golden beer.

1. Roast the millet30 min
2. Cool, then cook until soft
3. Mix with starter, pack in a perforated basket covered with ektam leaves
4. Ferment4–7 days
5. Drip warm water through from the top

Safety: The survey reports that children, and even infants, are sometimes given traditional drinks at festivals.

• 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, 2012, text and flow chart 3 (read from a Wayback Machine copy of the PDF)
• 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 1 (madua, all tribes, finger millet)

Also called महुआ, mohwa, daru, mahuli (Santhal), mahuda no daru (Gujarati).

aromatic flower spirit; heritage-liquor policies in MP (2022) (typical)

1. Collect and sun-dry fallen flowersdays
2. Soak dried flowers in water and fermentAbout 5 days in summer, longer in the cold months
3. Distil in earthen/metal pot still

• Chopra R.N., Chopra G.S., Chopra I.C. 1942, Alcoholic beverages in India, Part II, Indian Medical Gazette 77(5):290–296
• Wikipedia, Mahuli (outline only)
• Field study of Santhal mahuli in Similipal, Odisha (ejournals.ph; read through a search summary)
• Popular sources on mahua fermentation and stills (read through search summaries)

Also called मैरेय.

spirituous drink served at weddings and drinking parties

• Wisdom Library, Maireya. https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/maireya

Also called मकैको जाँड, makai ko jaand.

Makai ko jaanr is the maize form of jaanr, the Himalayan fermented grain mash made with marcha starter. FermDB, citing Tamang and colleagues, says coarse granules of dried maize are washed and mixed with powdered marcha, and that the result is mildly alcoholic and sweet-sour. No source found gives its own process figures.

Made like Kodo ko jaanr (finger-millet jaanr; base of tongba).

• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0, row Makai ko jaanr (citing Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, Fermented foods in a global age, East meets West, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 19:184–217, and Tamang, Thapa and Rai 1996, Journal of Food Science and Technology)

Also called malwa, Malawa beer (FAO 138).

millet beer; [HAWAZ2025] labels it non-alcoholic in its table while the same row says ethanol increased — treat alcohol as low and variable

1. Ferment millet mash

• , citing Muyanja C. et al. 2010, 'Traditional processing, microbial and physicochemical changes during fermentation of malwa', AJFAND 10(10), doi:10.4314/ajfand.v10i10.62891 (full text not reached)
• Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals: a global perspective, FAO Agric. Serv. Bull. 138, ch. 2 Table 3 ( and ch. 4 Table 1 ( adapted from Wacher-Rodarte 1995. Fetched and parsed, ch. 2 Table 3 ('Malawa beer', Uganda)

Also called maria-louca.

DISTILLED clandestine spirit; whole process about 15 days; eucalyptus leaves added in some Minas Gerais prisons

1. Ferment peels, sugar, water and yeast in PET bottles7 days
2. Distil in an improvised still (DISTILLED)

Safety: Improvised distillation; methanol and contamination risk (typical).

• Wikipedia (pt), 'Maria-louca' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called masato, nijiamanch' (Shuar), chicha de yuca.

milky, sour low-alcohol beer, often the main daily fluid

1. Boil roots until soft
2. Mash while chewing pieces and spitting them backpart of a 2–3 day process (Shuar)
3. Ferment2–3 days total (Shuar)

Safety: Shawi study: all communal water sources tested coliform-positive but only 2 of 11 masato samples (EcoHealth 2020; exploratory, small sample).

• Colehour et al., PeerJ 2014, PMC4103073 (via search summary)
• Busalleu et al., EcoHealth 2020, PMC7719114 (via search summary)

Also called mbege.

Mbege is the banana and finger-millet beer of the Chagga people on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Ripe bananas are cooked into a porridge called nyalu and left to ferment, often with msesewe bark, while sprouted finger millet is cooked into a sweet porridge called mso. The two are mixed, and within about six hours the mix has become a mildly alcoholic, sour beer.

1. Cook ripe bananas into a porridge (nyalu)
2. Ferment the nyalu with msesewe bark
3. Sprout and dry finger millet
4. Cook the malt into a sweet porridge (mso)
5. Mix nyalu and mso and ferment6 h
6. Drink within a day or two24 h – 2 days

Safety: Mbege keeps fermenting after it is made, so it is drunk within one or two days. No safety limits specific to mbege were found.

• Kubo R., Kilasara M.M. 2016, Brewing technique of mbege, a banana beer produced in northeastern Tanzania, Beverages 2(3):21 (abstract)
• Temba G.S. et al. 2025, Immune and metabolic effects of African heritage diets versus Western diets in men, a randomized controlled trial, Nature Medicine 31(5):1698–1711
• Hawaz H., Bottari B., Scazzina F., Carini E. 2025, Eastern African traditional fermented foods and beverages, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 24(2):e70137 (summarises Shayo, Nnko and Gidamis 1998)
• Wikipedia, Mbege (outline only)

Also called 浸藥酒.

base wine for medicinal infusions

1. Soak trimmed qu powder
2. Seven daily additions7 days

Safety: Lees and dregs buried so livestock do not eat them.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called 法酒, 黍米法酒, 當梁法酒, 秔米法酒, 三九酒, fajiu.

rich wine drunk with its lees

1. Start on the 3rd of the 3rd month with equal measures
2. Add rice in growing steps

Safety: Badly washed rice makes black wine; dogs and rats kept away from all residues.

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 67 法酒

Also called midus, lietuviškas midus, Lithuanian mead.

Midus is Lithuanian mead. Honey is dissolved in water, flavoured with hops and herbs such as linden blossom and juniper, and fermented with beer or wine yeast in wooden or enamelled vessels. Makers refill the vessel with fresh honey must several times over up to three months, then rack, blend and age the mead for months.

1. Dissolve the honey in water30–35 °C
2. Cool and add the hop and herb extracts20–25 °C
3. Ferment, topping up with fresh mustup to 3 months · 20–25 °C
4. Rack twice and clarify
5. Age in full vessels3–6 months · 5–18 °C

• Kublickas R. 2016, Midus: a traditional Lithuanian mead, in Kristbergsson K., Oliveira J. (eds), Traditional Foods, Springer, doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-7648-2_27 (abstract)
• Semenienė V.-B., Semenas V. 1994, Lietuviško midaus gamybos būdas (method of making Lithuanian mead), Lithuanian patent LT3022B, priority 15 September 1992
• Wikipedia, Midus (outline only)

Mingri, lohpani and bhangchang are three beers the Monpa of Tawang draw one after another from a single batch of cooked grain. Mingri is filtered off after 4–5 days with no water added; the filtrate ferments 2–3 more days into lohpani, and a last 4–5 days gives the weak, whitish bhangchang.

1. Cook grain until soft, then cool
2. Mix starter with the cooled grain
3. First fermentation4–5 days
4. Draw mingri through a bamboo sieve (khajir), no water added
5. Ferment the filtrate further into lohpani2–3 days
6. Ferment again and squeeze with a little water4–5 days

• 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, 2012, text and flow chart 6 (read from a Wayback Machine copy of the PDF)
• 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, 2019, Table 1
• 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 1
• BeerAdvocate, Brewing in the land of the thunder dragon (via search summary)

Also called mocororó.

sacred drink of the toré ritual

1. Extract the juice of fallen sour cashew apples; strain
2. Ferment in gourds or clay potsup to a year or more; bottles may be buried in the ground to speed fermentation

Safety: A study found it within Brazilian sanitary limits despite unwashed fruit (pt WP).

• Wikipedia (pt), 'Mocororó' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called 모주, 母酒, moju.

sweet, spiced hangover drink of Jeonju, under 1 % ABV

1. Base: lees left after straining wine, washed with water and strained cloudy; or makgeolli
2. Boil with eight medicinal herbs until reduced by about half and most alcohol is gone
3. Add cinnamon powder

• Wikipedia (ko), 모주 (outline only)

clear spirit similar to Sarawak langkau; modern versions flavoured with forest fruits such as bambangan [WP:Montoku (drink)]

1. Make lihing or tapai (see lihing-sabah)
2. Cook the lees and channel the steam into a container (distillation)

• Wikipedia, Montoku (drink) (outline only)

Also called 문배주.

DISTILLED millet/sorghum spirit ~40 % ABV; Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 86-1

1. Ferment grain with nuruk
2. Distil (DISTILLED)
3. Age

• Wikipedia, Munbae-ju, read through a search summary (outline only)
• Asia Society 'Korean food: liquors and wines' (via search summary)

Also called muratina.

sweet-sour ceremonial beer; now also sold bottled

1. Cut the Kigelia fruit and sun-dry
2. Boil the fruit, then sun-dry again
3. Soak the fruit in sugarcane juice; keep warm1 day (hapakenya recipe)
4. Sun-dry the fruit again
5. Main fermentation in plenty of cane juice (or honey water)about 4 days (hapakenya); 1–4 days by desired strength; ~5 days in sugared water with gentle heat (other accounts)

Safety: Unripe Kigelia fruit is described as poisonous; the claim may be exaggerated (popular sources).

• hapakenya.com, 'How to make muratina' (2014) (popular; low)
• Njeru et al. 2024, Food Sci. Nutr. Technol., doi:10.23880/fsnt-16000330 (abstract via search summary)
• Daily Nation, 'Muratina: from sacred tradition to urban party drink' (via search summary)

Also called 면천 두견주.

sweet azalea-flavoured yakju; National Intangible Heritage No. 86-2 (UNESCO periodic-report file, via search summary)

1. Base and main mash with azalea petals

• https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/42128.pdf (via search summary)

Also called น้ำตาลเมา, กระแช่, namtanmao, nam tan mao, krachae, kache.

palm wine; Thai law classes namtanmao with u and sato as 'native fermented liquor' (sura chae phuen mueang), non-distilled and at most 15 degrees (2003 ministerial regulation, via search summary)

1. Collect fresh sap (nam tan sot)
2. Ferment in clay jarsabout 1 month in Sathing Phra practice (Thai news via search summary)

• Wikipedia, Palm wine, names table (outline only)
• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0. Rows used here mostly cite Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, "Fermented foods in a global age: East meets West", Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 19:184–217 (not open access, so read through FermDB), and Tamang, Thapa & Rai 1996 (J. Food Sci. Technol.), row Krachae
• Thai legal category and Sathing Phra jar practice (Thai news sites, via search summary)

Also called 南都諸白, morohaku, Nara morohaku.

the most prestigious clear sake of the Middle Ages, 'like today's junmai daiginjo' in standing [JAWP:諸白]

1. Polish both koji rice and kake rice (morohaku)
2. Make bodaimoto seed mash (see sake-bodaimoto)
3. Three-stage additions (sandan jikomi)
4. Press and pasteurise (hi-ire)

• Wikipedia (ja), 諸白 (outline only)
• Wikipedia (ja), 僧坊酒 (outline only)

thick, porridge-like cereal beer

1. Malting
2. Mash and heat
3. Spontaneous fermentation

Safety: Interpretation rests on starch and phytolith residues in 3 mortars; the recipe is a reconstruction.

• Liu L., Wang J., Rosenberg D., Zhao H., Lengyel G., Nadel D. 2018. Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel. J. Archaeol. Sci.: Reports 21:783–793. https://cris.haifa.ac.il/en/publications/fermented-beverage-and-food-storage-in-13000y-old-stone-mortars-a/
• Stanford News, 2018-09-12. https://news.stanford.edu/2018/09/12/crafting-beer-lead-cereal-cultivation/

1. Ferment saguaro syrup with water

• Ojeda-Linares C. et al., "Traditional Fermented Beverages of Mexico: A Biocultural Unseen Foodscape", Foods 10(10):2390, 2021, name only

rice liquor; no numbers found

1. Sprout rice into khekhrii
2. Ferment rice with khekhrii
3. Distil (FermDB wording says 'used to produce the distilled liquor')

• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0. Rows used here mostly cite Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, "Fermented foods in a global age: East meets West", Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 19:184–217 (not open access, so read through FermDB), and Tamang, Thapa & Rai 1996 (J. Food Sci. Technol.), row Nchiangne (citing Tamang et al. 2020)

Also called 九醞春酒, jiuyun, nine-fold brewed wine.

spring wine; if 9 additions taste too bitter, 10 additions (10 dan rice) make it easier to drink

1. Steep qufrom the 2nd day of the 12th month to the thaw in the 1st month
2. Add rice every 3 daysuntil 9 dan of rice (9 additions)

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 66

Also called kirsebærvin, Kirschwein, vin de cerises, նռան գինի (pomegranate wine), country wine, made wine.

fruit wine; sweet styles may be fortified

1. Extract juice (pressing, stewing or pulp fermentation); adjust sugar and acid
2. Fermentup to 27 days · 22–24 °C
3. Age brieflyusually drunk within a year of bottling (WP 'Fruit wine')

• Wikipedia (en), 'Fruit wine'; (da) 'Kirsebærvin' (fetched 2026-10-16)
• Wang X. et al. 2020, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., doi:10.1128/aem.01847-20 (pomegranate)
• Lan Y. et al. 2017, Food Chem., doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.030 (pomegranate)
• Ji M. et al. 2026, Food Microbiology (mulberry, abstract)
• Wang X. et al. 2026, J. Food Sci., doi:10.1111/1750-3841.71101 (cherry)
• Jevtovic V. et al. 2026, Foods 15:1360, PMC13114681 (plum)

mixed fermented beverage, at the Viking-era tail of a long tradition

1. Mix and ferment

• McGovern P.E., Hall G.R., Mirzoian A. 2013, A biomolecular archaeological approach to 'Nordic grog', Danish Journal of Archaeology 2(2):112–131

1. Ferment honey, water and bark14 days
2. Add a little water; ferment anaerobically in a warm place12–36 h

• Fentie E.G. et al., "Cereal- and Fruit-Based Ethiopian Traditional Fermented Alcoholic Beverages", Foods 9(12):1781, 2020

clear, blackish rice beer; ennog is made in almost every Adi Galo household for daily use, rituals and local sale [NATH2019]

1. Burn rice husk to black in a heap
2. Cook rice, cool on a bamboo mat (peche)
3. Mix rice with burnt husk and starter
4. Ferment covered4 days
5. Extract

• 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, 2012. Survey of 21 tribes in 42 villages of 14 districts. Process flow charts read from the PDF figures, text and flow chart 2
• 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, 2019
• 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. Tables 1–2 list beverages, starters and starter plants by state and tribe, Tables 1–2
• FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0. Rows used here mostly cite Tamang J.P. et al. 2020, "Fermented foods in a global age: East meets West", Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 19:184–217 (not open access, so read through FermDB), and Tamang, Thapa & Rai 1996 (J. Food Sci. Technol.), row Ennog (citing NATH2019)

alcoholic beverage

1. Ferment maize juice with pulque or brown sugar

• Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals: a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, ch. 4 Table 1 (adapted from Wacher-Rodarte 1995)

Chinese baijiu is sorted into about a dozen aroma types. Besides the big three, strong (nongxiang), light (qingxiang) and sauce (jiangxiang), there are smaller types such as feng, chi, sesame, medicinal, te, laobaigan and fuyu, each tied to one maker or region and to its own grains, qu and fermentation vessel. This entry lists them until each has a page of its own.

Made like Nongxiang (strong-aroma) baijiu — mud-pit process.

• Tu W., Cao X., Cheng J., Li L., Zhang T., Wu Q., Xiang P., Shen C., Li Q. 2022, Chinese Baijiu, the perfect works of microorganisms, Frontiers in Microbiology 13:919044
• Qiao L., Wang J., Wang R., Zhang N., Zheng F. 2023, A review on flavor of Baijiu and other world-renowned distilled liquors, Food Chemistry X 20:100870
• Jin C., Jin G., Jin J., Lv Y., Dang Z., Feng Y., Xu Y. 2024, The impact of mechanized and traditional processes on microbial diversity and volatile flavor compound formation during Xifeng Baijiu fermentation, Foods 13:3710
• Wikipedia, Baijiu (outline only)