Thursday, August 11, 2005

Sour Grapes? No, Sour Horse Milk...


Bottles of Kumiss, or in Mongolian Cyrillic 'AIRAK', in a supermarket in Ulan Bataar - this drink, which possibly predates beer as a beverage, which fueled the fearsome mounted armies of the Khan, is made with mare's milk and a particularly vibrant bacteria - I experimented by bringing back a few liters to Korea, and innoculating ordinary (skim) cow's milk - within hours I had a slightly milder version of Airak. The original mare's milk version tastes like a mix between strong yoghurt and horse sweat, and varies between 1% and 5% alcohol content (a by-product of bacterial action, unlike yoghurt bacteria which produce lactic acid from lactose sugars in the milk). Airak cannot properly be called 'beer' because it uses bacterial instead of yeast fermentation - but Mongolia has some fine 'western' beers as well - among them 'Borgio' and a microbrew called 'Great Mongol Hops N' Malt'
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