Changaa or Chang'aa is a traditional home-brewed spirit, popular in Kenya. It is made by fermentation and distillation from grains like millet, maize and sorghum, and is very potent.
Changaa or Chang'aa is a traditional home-brewed spirit, popular in Kenya. It is made by fermentation and distillation from grains like millet, maize and sorghum, and is very potent.
After being illegal in Kenya for many years, the Kenyan government legalised the traditional home-brewed spirit in 2010, in an effort to take business away from establishments where toxic chemicals are added to the brew to make it stronger. [1] Under the new law, chang'aa must be manufactured, distributed and sold in glass bottles, and retailers must display health warning signs. Sale to individuals under age 18 is still prohibited, as is sale through automatic vending machines. Anyone making or selling adulterated chang'aa risks penalties of five million shillings, five years in jail, or both. [2] Chang'aa is usually much cheaper and stronger than other alcoholic drinks, making it the beverage of choice for many.
Its production and distribution in urban slums has to some extent continued to be controlled in many cases by criminal gangs like the Mungiki who run protection cartels for illicit brewers. However, in the rest of the country production is still under traditional brewers. Illegally brewed chang'aa could be purchased for around US$0.20 [3] to $0.40 [4] per glass.
The drink is sometimes adulterated by adding substances like jet fuel, embalming fluid or battery acid, which has the effect of giving the beverage more 'kick'. [4] [5] Drinkers have suffered blindness or death due to methanol poisoning. [3] The water used to make the drink in illegal breweries is also often below acceptable health standards and sometimes contaminated with sewage.
The spirit's name, Chang'aa, means literally "kill me quick." [4]
The name Chang'aa was adopted in the 1950s when Oyuga Muganda, an AP in Kisumu, once narrated the story in the presence of Tom Omuga how Pelele (aka Woraj) got its name as Chang'aa.
Women from the Kano area of Kisumu used to ferry fresh milk in pots to sell to Kisumu residents. The colonial government had banned the sale of local liquor (Pelele) and so the women carrying milk also carried Pelele disguised as milk.
One day a white policeman who had been tipped off about the underground trafficking of Pelele stopped the women milk sellers on the road to inspect their pots of "milk". One of the pots had Pelele and not milk.
The policeman ordered all the pots lined on the roadside and asked "Maziwa ya nani?"
An interpreter repeated in Dholuo "Ma Chag ng'a?" (meaning "whose milk is this?").
So the policeman charged the women with transporting and selling Chang'aa. That is allegedly how the name Chang'aa came about.
Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol by volume that aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating or reducing the inebriating effect, carbohydrates, and calories of regular alcoholic brews. Low-alcohol beers can come in different beer styles such as lagers, stouts, and ales. Low-alcohol beer is also known as light beer, non-alcoholic beer, small beer, small ale, or near-beer.
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced.
Malt liquor is a type of mass market beer with high alcohol content, most closely associated with North America. Legally, it often includes any alcoholic beverage with 5% or more alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common usage, it refers to beers of high alcohol content, generally above 6%, which are made with ingredients and processes resembling those for American-style lagers.
Feni is a spiritous liquor type originating in Goa, India. The two most popular types of feni are cashew feni and coconut feni. Depending on the ingredients; however, other varieties and newer blends are also sold by distilleries. The small-batch distillation of feni has a fundamental effect on its final character, which still retains some of the delicate aromatics, congeners, and flavour elements of the juice from which it is produced.
Țuică is a traditional Romanian spirit that contains ~ 24–86% alcohol by volume, prepared only from plums. Other spirits that are produced from other fruit or from a cereal grain are called "rachiu" or "rachie". Țuică is also the foundational element for creating the traditional Romanian vinars from different spirited fruits. In 2013, Romania produced 1.3 million hectolitres of țuică.
Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires the collection of a monetary deposit on beverage containers at the point of sale and/or the payment of refund value to the consumers. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or retailer in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer. It is a deposit-refund system.
Pálinka is a traditional fruit spirit with origins in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, known under several names. Protected as a geographical indication of the European Union, only fruit spirits mashed, distilled, matured and bottled in Hungary and similar apricot spirits from four provinces of Austria can be called "pálinka", while "Tótpálinka" refers to wheat-derived beverages. Törkölypálinka, a different product in the legal sense, is a similarly protected pomace spirit that is commonly included with pálinka. While pálinka may be made of any locally grown fruit, the most common ones are plums, apricots, apples, pears, and cherries.
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries, such as Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Beer arrived in Australia at the beginning of British colonisation. In 2004 Australia was ranked fourth internationally in per capita beer consumption, at around 110 litres per year; although, the nation ranked considerably lower in a World Health Organization report of alcohol consumption per capita of 12.2 litres. Lager is by far the most popular type of beer consumed in Australia.
A liquor store is a retail business that predominantly sells prepackaged alcoholic beverages, including liquors, wine or beer, usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence, off-sale, bottle shop, bottle store or, colloquially, bottle-o, liquor store or other similar terms. A very limited number of jurisdictions have an alcohol monopoly. In US states that are alcoholic beverage control (ABC) states, the term ABC store may be used.
Beer in Africa, especially lager, is produced commercially in most African countries, and indigenous people also make varieties of beer. Beer is served in various locales, from neighbourhood shebeens to upscale bars. Many countries have standardized beer bottle sizes, which are cleaned and re-used, so when buying beer at a store, people often must pay a deposit on the bottle and the price of the beer. An alternative to glass-bottle beers is local beer sold in tetra-pak style paper cartons.
Poitín, anglicized as poteen or potcheen, is a traditional Irish distilled beverage. Former common names for Poitín were "Irish moonshine" and "mountain dew". It was traditionally distilled in a small pot still and the term is a diminutive of the Irish word pota, meaning "pot". In accordance with the Irish Poteen/Irish Poitín technical file, it can only be made from cereals, grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses and potatoes.
East African Breweries Limited, commonly referred to as EABL, is a Kenyan-based holding company that manufactures branded beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Coffee preparation is the process of turning coffee beans into liquid coffee. While the particular steps vary with the type of coffee and with the raw materials, the process includes four basic steps: raw coffee beans must be roasted, the roasted coffee beans must then be ground, and the ground coffee must then be mixed with hot or cold water for a specific time (brewed), the liquid coffee extraction must be separated from the used grounds, and finally, if desired, the extracted coffee is combined with other elements of the desired beverage, such as sweeteners, dairy products, dairy alternatives, or toppings.
Oklahoma allows any establishment with a beer and wine license to sell beer and wine up to 15% ABV, under refrigeration.
A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Some establishments may also serve food, or have entertainment, but their main purpose is to serve alcoholic beverages. There are different types of drinking establishment ranging from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed "dive bars", to 5,000 seat beer halls and elegant places of entertainment for the elite. A public house, informally known as a "pub", is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises in countries and regions of British influence. Although the terms are increasingly used to refer to the same thing, there is a difference between pubs, bars, inns, taverns and lounges where alcohol is served commercially. A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna.
Sulai is a rectified spirit brewed in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. A clear, colourless alcohol, Sulai is known as tharra in north India, handia or pheni in Nepal, and referred to as country liquor in colloquial parlance. It is generally brewed from fermented molasses or occasionally rice.
Gotlandsdricka is a traditional homebrewed alcoholic beverage made on the island of Gotland, Sweden. It is a kind of ale, closely related to the Finnish sahti, and Norwegian Maltøl with a smoky, bitter-sweet, spicy (juniper) flavor. It is similar to gruit.
Keroche Breweries is a Kenyan brewer and alcoholic beverages manufacturer. Founded in 1997 by Tabitha Karanja and her husband Joseph Karanja as a fortified wine maker, the company has grown to be the second largest alcoholic beverages producer in Kenya. The company's headquarters is located in Naivasha, Kenya. The Karanja family are the company's majority shareholders as well as C-Suite executives. The company's flagship brand is Summit Lager. It also brews Summit Malt and KB Lager. The company also produces a range of wines under the Valley Wines brand, ready-to-drink vodkas under its Viena Ice brand and spirits including dry gin, whiskey, brandy and vodka under its Crescent brand.
