Ossetian beer at home is more than just a drink. During cooking, a special prayer is read, and special ingredients give it an incomparable piquant taste. Ossetians drink this beer both at weddings and in moments of sorrow. And this drink has a very rich history.
The legend of Ossetian beer
The history of the hop drink originates from ancient times, when no ritual meal was complete without it. Once an ancient Alan (one of the inhabitants of a nomadic tribe) named Uruzmag, walking through the forest, noticed a funny picture. Sparrow, swallowing a few grains of ripe hops, fell to the ground and began to behave strangely: he rolled on the grass, as if intoxicated by such a treat.
Returning to his wife, Uruzmag told her about what he saw, and she said: "Bring this hops to me." After her husband complied with her request, she cooked the leaven from the hops and added it to the kvass. So, a resourceful woman named Shatana came up with a drunk beer, which made it easy to get drunk.
Beer in Ossetian culture
In general, Ossetian beer, the features of its preparation and its recipe are mentioned in many legends. The locals especially liked the Aeluton variety. They say that lamb carcasses or sheep’s fat tail were used to make this beer - after their digestion, a drink with an amazing fortress was obtained.
To prepare for a noisy celebration, malt was collected from the whole village - from each family by a certain measure. Therefore, in the Ossetian houses there was always a stock of grains for such a case. Beer was brewed mainly from barley - a culture that is easy to grow and unpretentious to weather conditions.
The famous holiday called Dzheorguba also does not do without such a drink as Ossetian beer. Reviews say they mark it in honor of St. George the Victorious - as you know, this saint is the patron saint of Ossetia. It is celebrated in the fall, when all the chores are finished, the harvest is harvested, which means that it is not a sin to enjoy a home-made drunk drink.
Recipe and Technology
Before making Ossetian beer, you need to make malt. For this, raw grains of wheat and barley are poured with clean water (better than spring and tasty) and left in this form for 24 hours or at least for the night. After that, the water is drained, and the wet grains are covered with a lid and put in a warm place for another three days. During this time, they must sprout.
The resulting grains with sprouts are dried, it is better in a natural way and grind into a coarse grinding. Thus, they get the malt necessary for making Ossetian beer.
Ingredients:
For 10 liters of water you will need one and a half kilograms of grains of wheat and barley. And here are some other ingredients needed to make Ossetian beer:
- Yeast - 20-75 grams.
- Sugar is optional.
- Cornmeal - 2 kilograms.
- Hop cones - 50 grams.
Step by step recipe
- After you get malt from the sprouted grains, pour it into a large pot and fill it with water - let it stand for 3-4 hours. Then boil and simmer over low heat for another two hours.
- Try to strain the slightly cooled mixture in the way the Ossetians themselves do, filtering Ossetian beer. A home-made recipe suggests a wicker basket covered with straw. But you can take a regular sieve or colander.
- Combine the filtered liquid with hops and bring to a boil again over low heat.
- Take care of the cornmeal at this time: fry it in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly until it changes color. Be careful: it will change color, darken, but in no case should it burn!
- Add this flour to the liquid with hops and cook for three hours.
- Then remove the pan from the heat and cool a little. Pour into clean dishes.
- Dilute the yeast in a glass of the resulting liquid. Their quantity depends on the desired strength: for a light, "female" beer, only 20 grams will be enough, but a strong "male" drink will require all 75.
- Pour the liquid with the diluted yeast into a common dish and place in a warm place for fermentation. You can still wrap a blanket on top. This process will take at least a day. After that, Ossetian beer strain again. If desired, you can add a little sugar.
As you can see, the recipe for Ossetian beer is not so complicated and does not require any exotic ingredients. The only thing required is to be patient.
Just a beer or a religious attribute?
Of course, today beer is considered just a hoppy drink, no more. But in the consciousness of the Ossetians themselves, it remains one of the main elements of a religious ritual. The ancient priests offered prayers to God, holding in his hand the cup with beer. But over time, they invented araka - another popular Ossetian alcoholic drink, they began to combine beer with it, and it gradually lost its ritual purpose.
In modern Ossetian feasts, beer has become no more “religious” than water or juice. But to this day, it is one of the national symbols. Perhaps no less significant than the Ossetian honor or Ossetian traditions. It may seem unbelievable, but only for us who are not familiar with their culture of people. The process of preparation, preparation, quality of ingredients - everything is of great importance.
The mystery of making beer
It is the sacrament, and not just the process of preparation, that the Ossetians themselves call it. Just imagine: carefully peeled ripe barley is steeped in water and germinated. After that, the grain turns into a real storehouse of enzymes. The malt prepared from it undergoes hydrolysis processes, as a result, its dry substances pass into the liquid, that is, into the wort.
After mixing with hops, the raw materials are evaporated, sterilized and filled with aromas. And after adding yeast, the main mystery begins - the fermentation process. Hop itself is already rich in lupulin, which cleans beer from all that is "superfluous" and harmful, prevents the development of microorganisms and serves as a kind of antiseptic. Hops are also responsible for long-term storage of beer.
Equally important in the recipe is water. The taste of beer directly depends on its composition, purity and quality. Another famous German researcher, Heinrich Julius Klaprot, traveling around the Caucasus, drew attention to the taste and strength of Ossetian beer. He noted that this drink is the best in the whole region and is in no way inferior to the English porter. And after Prince Potemkin received several bottles of beer from Ossetia as a gift, he even ordered a few brewers to write out from there so that they would repeat their “masterpiece” in St. Petersburg.
But what turned out? No matter how hard the masters tried, beer still didn’t turn out as tasty as at home. I also had to bring boiling water from Ossetia. And after that, and hops, and grain, and all other ingredients.
Glassware for beer
Traditionally, Ossetian beer was prepared and served in special vessels. Cooking boilers were from 300 to 1000 liters in volume, and their special blacksmiths made them from huge sheets of copper. Such a boiler was considered perhaps the most valuable thing in the family - after all, it cost like a dozen heads of cattle. Well, beer was served in richly decorated carved bowls. They were made by skilled carvers and talented folk craftsmen.
Until now, the arrival of a dear guest — a minister or the president himself — in South Ossetia is not complete without a cup of intoxicated drink. And every time it turns into a noisy and colorful ceremony.