A blog from University of Borås

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Vietnamese Rice Wine with Snake Taste

People in Vietnam are used to drink beer and spirit. As I heard, in the rural area, it is very common to drink and take rest in the afternoon. The statistics by WHO shows that males (not females) of age 15+ drink more than 27 liter equivalent pure alcohol per year.

Rice wine (with ca 45-50% alcohol content) is a common drink. In addition, they believe if they keep snakes in this alcohol solution for a while it makes you stronger. If the snake is more dangerous and you keep it longer, then the drink become better!

But the processing of this drink with very simple equipment (home distillery) is interesting. Here I put some photos that I took from Mekong region in Vietnam:

1- They soak rice mixed with Baker's yeast (it means the enzymes become active)

2- They put it in jars and keep it for a while (fermentation occurs)

3- Distillation of the fermented mash to collect alcohol (obtaining 45-50% alcohol in water)

4- Kill the snakes and put it immediately in the alcohol and keep it for a while!

5- Cheers!

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