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The Ha Nhi usually make this drink at home so you cannot buy it at the market. If you are invited to the home of a Ha Nhi, you will have a chance to taste the beer.
Ha Nhi beer is brewed from traditional yeast made from the powder of leaves of a secret wild tree, mixed with sticky rice, and brewed with straw.
Called beer, this drink does not look like normal beer.
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The Ha Nhi make beer by choosing the best sticky rice, soaking it in water for one hour, and then cooking it. The steamed glutinous rice is spread out on a flat winnowing basket to let it cool, and mixed with yeast, a fermented mixture of powder made from the seeds of a secret wild tree in the forest.
The steamed glutinous rice is put into a ceramic jar, which is then sealed. After three days, the steamed glutinous rice will ferment and release juice, which is fragrant and sweet.
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Then boiled water will be added to the jar. After 15 days, the beer is available. Every 10kg of sticky rice yields about 7 liters of beer. The longer it brews, the color turns from white to yellow and the taste improves.
Ly Xa Xuy from Mo Phu Chai village, Y Ty commune, said: “It is called beer, but this drink is a traditional liquor of our people. This beer has been around for hundreds of years. Even the oldest people here cannot remember when it appeared.”
Le Ha
