Methodology of rice beer preparation and various plant materials used in starter culture preparation by some tribal communities of North-East India: A survey

Headnote

Abstract: North-East India is inhabited by many indigenous tribes and as a part of their socio-cultural life most of these tribes prepare their own local brew, mostly using rice grains as the substrate. In addition each of the tribes also prepares their own unique starter cultures to carry out fermentation, and each type is a mixture of different parts of various plant species. These starter cultures in the form of cakes can be stored up to several months. The fermentation is usually carried out in earthen pots at room temperature and takes about 5-7 days for completion of the whole process of preparation. The authors visited some of the rural areas where rice beer is predominantly prepared and the process of preparation was observed and documented. The methodologies followed by the Bodo, Karbi, Ahom, Mising, Deori, Dimasa Kachari and Angami tribes of North-East India have been reported in this article. The plant species used for starter cake preparation were collected from the places visited and their taxonomical identification was carried out. This article also reflects some of the expertise of the ethnic people in maintenance of suitable conditions for microbial activities required for rice beer preparation.

Keywords: Rice beer, tribes, plant materials

Introduction

The consumption of rice beer prepared from rice is a common practice among many tribal communities residing in the North-Eastern states of India and many of them have been preparing it since time immemorial (Ghosh and Das, 2004; Jeyaram et al, 2008). It also plays an important role in the sociocultural life of the tribal people as it is found to be associated with many occasions like merry making, ritual ceremonies, festivals, marriages and even death ceremonies (Saikia et al., 2007). The preparation and consumption of this type of liquor emerged mainly due to the climatic conditions and discovering the use of surrounding natural resources (Roy et al., 2004). There are also reports of rice beer being used as a drug (Singh and Singh, 2006). It works effective against insomnia, headache, body ache, inflammation of body parts, diarrhoea and urinary problems, expelling worms and as a treatment of cholera (Samati and Begum, 2007; Deka and Sarma, 2010). All of the tribes prepare their indigenous alcoholic beverages at home using round to...