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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from South Africa

Umqombothi (Xhosa/Zulu maize-sorghum beer)umqombothi

Maize meal and malted sorghum soak in warm water and sour for about a day. The sour mash is cooked into a porridge, cooled, given fresh sorghum malt and fermented again for about a day, then strained into a thick, sour, low-alcohol beer. Made in 4 steps over 2 days. The longest step, mix maize meal and malts with warm water and leave to sour, takes 24 h (Xolo T 2024) and runs at 25–30 °C (Xolo T 2024). Lactic acid bacteria and Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts counted at every stage of a two-stage brew do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hMeasured[xolo2024][hlangwani2023]Mix maize meal and malts with warm water and leave to sour
Temperature25–30 °CMeasured[xolo2024][hlangwani2023]Mix maize meal and malts with warm water and leave to sour
AciditypH 3.5Measured[xolo2024]Strain
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks2 daysMore alcoholic drinksMore from Africa

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne laboratory batch from a 2024 study that copied the home process (about 5 L). Home brewing has no fixed amounts and relies on the brewer's judgement.
500 gMaize meal[xolo2024]
100 gRed sorghum · Mixed in for the first, souring fermentation[xolo2024]
100 gMaize malt[xolo2024]
5 LLukewarm water (35 °C)[xolo2024]
300 gRed sorghum malt · Added to the cooled porridge for the second fermentation[xolo2024]
75 g in 250 mL waterCommercial beer powder as inoculum · Pre-incubated at 25 °C for 24 h; home brewers use a back-slop from an earlier brew instead[xolo2024]
Starterspontaneous souring, then fresh sorghum malt plus back-slop (or commercial beer powder)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
StarchSugarAlcoholCO₂25–30 °CpH 6 → 3.33shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Maize meal and malt soak in warm water and lactic bacteria sour them

Step 1 of 4
Mix maize meal and malts with warm water and leave to sour
Time
24 h
Measured
Temperature
25–30 °C
Measured
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6 → 3.33
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Moulds

Output: sour mash that separates into liquid and solids.

Flavour
turns sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria from the grain and malt sour the mash

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

Umqombothi is a South African opaque beer made with maize meal as well as sorghum malt. Like other African opaque beers it is soured first, cooked, and fermented a second time, and it is drunk unfiltered while still active.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Optimised laboratory brewCooked 1.1 h at 95 °C and fermented 25.9 h at 29.3 °C after a modelling study (pH 3.27).

Made the umqombothi way

Safety

Cooking the soured mash drops the microbial count to below detection, and the second fermentation takes the beer to about pH 3.4. A study found Staphylococcaceae in a customary brew before the pH fell, so keep the souring mash covered and clean. Drink it within 2–3 days.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcaceae (9.36 % of bacterial reads in a customary brew).

History and sources

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

Brewed mostly by women for weddings, initiation homecomings and offerings to the ancestors; served from a communal drum (gogogo).

  1. [xolo2024] Xolo T., Keyser Z., Jideani V.A. 2024, Physicochemical and microbiological changes during two-stage fermentation production of umqombothi, Heliyon 10(2):e24522paper
  2. [hlangwani2023] Hlangwani E. et al. 2023, Analysis of the bacterial and fungal populations in South African sorghum beer (umqombothi) using full-length 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, World J Microbiol Biotechnol 39:350paper
  3. [wp-umqombothi] Wikipedia, Umqombothi (outline only)wiki