Banana beer
Virtually any fruit or sugary plant sap can be processed into an alcoholic beverage.
The process is well known being essentially an alcoholic fermentation of sugars to yield
alcohol and carbon dioxide.
*It should be noted that alcohol
production requires special licences or is prohibited in many countries.
BANANA BEER
[A beer is basically an alcoholic beverage with an alcohol content of 4-6%. It’s followed by wines then whiskeys upwards in terms of alcohol content & finally ethanol at 100% alcohol]
Banana beer is probably the most wide spread alcoholic fruit drink in Africa
Banana beer is made from bananas, mixed with a cereal flour (often sorghum flour) and fermented to an orange alcoholic beverage. It is sweet and slightly hazy with a shelf-life of several days under correct storage conditions. There are many variations in how the beer is made.
For instance Urwaga banana beer in Kenya is made from bananas and sorghum or millet and Lubisi is made from bananas and sorghum Ripe bananas are selected & peeled. If the peels cannot be removed by hand then the bananas are not sufficiently ripe.
Process :
>Raw materials (Ripe bananas)
>Peel by hand
>Remove residue
>Use grass to knead or
squeeze out the juice
>Mix with water (The water:banana juice ratio should be 1:3)
>Mix with cereals
>Mix with ground and roasted cereals to local taste
>Ferment In plastic container.
(for 18 to 24 hours.)
>Filter through cotton cloth
>Pack
>Store for its relatively
short shelf-life. Clean glass or
plastic bottles are used. (The product is kept in a cool place away from direct sunlight.)
SHOULD BANANA BEER PRODUCTION BE ENCOURAGED AT COUNTY LEVELS TO SPUR LOCAL DEMAND OF BANANAS? AND ENCOURAGE LOCAL COTTAGE INDUSTRIES GROWTH IN COUNTIES?
* The only difference between traditional beers & commercial beers is commercial beers have been protected by law allowing for investment and modernization while traditional beers have been discouraged therefore killing investment in their growth.
>All commercial beers were once small scale traditional Brewers
>All commercial Brewers use agriculture products just as traditional brewers do
>Allowing growth of traditional variety of beers will add variety of products in market leading to competition, which inevitably leads to higher quality products and better pricing, more jobs for youth, increased demand for local farms produce(again more jobs for rural areas men, women and youth), more tax revenues for local governments from registered brewers. Is this what our leaders (education, business, or political) say they want for their countries?
> It also inevitably kills market for illegal unregulated brews saving resources spent on putting out small “fires” allowing for.concentration on activities that are national building 🙂
> Banana beer will make ethanol fuel production from banana peels (one of worlds largest source of alternative fuels) extra viable with potential to bring down fuel costs ie costs of living.
*All engine technologies using fuels, be they vehicles or machinery have began moving to fossil-biofuel(ethernal)/bio diesel engines to cut running costs. Adaptors are already commercially being made for heavy commercial trucks and engines so that engines automatically switch to biofuel on stabilization (bioAdaptor)
– For FULL LIST of vehicles that can run on 5%(E5) or 10%(E10) blend of ethanol (bioFuel) and Gasoline as acknowledged by vehicle manufacturer’s worldwide under UN ECE regulations – (see here) .
Does your vehicle fall in this list? ie meaning for every litre of petrol 10% can be ethanol (100% alcohol)
If that ethanol can be produced from banana beer waste ie peels, would fueling/driving cars be made cheaper?
adopted from value addition manuals from FAO and other web resources
Text & Images
©Muoki Kioko 2009-2014
email: muokikioko@gmail.com
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