TRADITIONAL BEVERAGES
BYYUJI TERAMOTOAND SOMCHANH BOUNPHANMY
In 2007 we reported comparative studies
Making lao hai We visited brew farms at Non Sa Art village in the Xay Tha Ni district of the capital (Figure 1) where they brew lao hai, a traditional alcoholic beverage drunk using a drawing tube (Figure 2). It is made by a semi-solid-state alcohol fermentation system. The initial mash composed of steamed sticky rice, rice husk, and a microbial starter called peng lao is put into the earthenware pot (Figure 3). Water is not added to the initial traditional alcoholic bever- age called lao hai which is drunk with drawing tubes. on alcoholic beverages drunk with a drawing tube in Bahrain, Uganda and Thailand ( Teramoto Y, 2007 ). More recently, we researched traditional alcoholic beverages in the city and suburban area of Vientiane, Laos’ capital – and visited local brew farms to investigate a
mash. Sacchari cation and fermentation of the mash proceeds simultaneously at the ambient temperature. Laotian Peng lao (Figure 4) is a type of Asian microbial starter com- monly available in Vientiane markets (Figure 5) and is closely related to other Asian microbial starters such as Chinese qu , Japanese koji ( Saigusa N and Teramoto Y, 2017 ), Thai loog pang and Vietnamese men ( Teramoto Y and Dung NTP, 2012 ). Peng lao is made from raw ground sticky rice and a little water. Herbs or other ingredients are often added to avour the beverage and to protect from microbial Figure 1: Rice cooker made from drum at brew farm in Vientiane
contamination. Oval rice cake 3 to 4 cm in diameter, made from raw ground sticky rice, ingredients and a little water is incubated on a tropical plant leaf such as banana at the ambient temperature. Useful micro-organisms from the oor, wall and ceiling of kitchen or brew house are grown on the surface layer of oval rice cake without inoculation. After two to four weeks peng lao is covered with micro-organisms such as amylase-producing moulds, fermen- tation yeast and lactic acid bacteria which provide the acidic condition for the fermentation mash, advantageous for brewing in tropical conditions. Peng Figure 2: Lao hai drinking session using drawing tube at the traditional festival
october 2019 I BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 47
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