Siwa

It is brewed from baked bread rather than raw grain, and the bread floats in the glass.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS BREWED FROM BAKED BREAD RATHER THAN RAW GRAIN, AND THE BREAD FLOATS IN THE GLASS. Its article lists the ingredients as WATER; A HOME-BAKED AND TOASTED FLATBREAD COMMONLY MADE FROM BARLEY IN THE HIGHLANDS, AND FROM SORGHUM, FINGER MILLET OR MAIZE IN THE LOWLANDS; SOME YEAST; AND DRIED LEAVES OF GESHO THAT SERVE AS A CATALYST. The bread is the malt.
  2. WHICH IS WHY THE BAKING IS THE FIRST BREWING STEP. Toasting a flatbread gelatinises its starch and then browns it, and both of those are things a brewer normally does to grain in a kiln.
  3. MAKE A PLAIN FLATBREAD AND TOAST IT HARD. Flour, water, salt, rolled thin, cooked in a dry pan, then back over the heat until it is dry through and well browned. Not burnt: bitter carries into the beer.
  4. BREAK IT UP AND COVER IT WITH WARM WATER. Hand-sized pieces. It will swell and go to porridge within the hour.
  5. THE GESHO AND THE YEAST GO IN TOGETHER. The article is unusual in naming yeast -- Saccharomyces cerevisiae -- beside the gesho, where tella and tej leave the fermentation to what is already there.
  6. LEAVE IT A FEW DAYS, WHICH IS THE ARTICLE'S OWN FIGURE. THE BREW IS ALLOWED TO FERMENT FOR A FEW DAYS, AFTER WHICH IT IS SERVED. Three is usually enough.
  7. IT IS NOT STRAINED CLEAR, AND THE PIECES ARE NOT A FAULT. The article has it SERVED, SOMETIMES WITH THE PIECES OF BREAD FLOATING ON IT, THE CUSTOMER WILL GENTLY BLOW THEM TO ONE SIDE OF THE BEAKER. Blowing the bread aside is part of drinking it.
  8. IT IS A WEAK BEER BY DESIGN. The article puts it at 2% TO 5% ALCOHOL, which is why it is drunk after manual work rather than instead of it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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