Traditional African Beer

[DaleP]

I've been asked to brew some beer for "Africa Night" at my church. Any ideas as to what this would be? I'm assuming that it should be based on sorghum, a gruit style? Any ideas?

 

[SharonaZamboni]

I know they make palm wine, but I'll ask about beer.

 

[dinnerstick]

brainstorm: something with a lot of honey flavor to mimic ethiopian mead? or something along the line of these (admittedly gimmicky) angolan beers? http://www.mongozo.com/en i've had the 'palmnut' and it was surprisingly nice
or indeed something with sorghum and/or teff.
and bear in mind north africa was the wheat growing bread basket of the roman empire!

 

[Warthaug]

There are traditional African beers, brewed using grains such as millet, teff, fonio and African (false) rice. They didn't have hops, but ginger and other spices were often used. More modern African beers are similar to Asian-style lagers.

I believe Papazian had a recipe or two for traditional African beers in one of his books. "Clonebrews" has recipes for a handful of modern ones.

Bryan