Drinking Fermented Horse Milk in Mongolia?!

I'm watching the "Tonight Show" -- a talk-show starring Jay Leno here in the U.S. -- and one of the guests was just describing a recent trip he made to Mongolia. He said that "Fermented Horse Milk" is a big drink over there -- that it's everywhere. So now I'm wondering about using that as an adjunct in a beer ... ;-) So do the Mongolians have dairy farms full of horses over there? Gives a whole new meaning to going into a bar and ordering a milk ... no need to ask for it in a dirty glass, I guess.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

I dont think you could ferment any milk with yeast. The only sugar in it is lactose and yeast wont touch it. I would suggest it is fermented with bacteria of some sort. Lacto Baccilus or something like that.

BTW how do milk a horse without getting booted from one side of the stable to the other?

Steve W

-- --

I'd rather spend eternity drinking Keystone....

-Ryan

Hi Bill

I have also recently been to Mongolia (My wife and I travelled from Moscow to Beijing by train and stopped for a few days in Mongolia to stay in a ger (another name for yurt - a big felt tent) out on the Steppes).

The drink is called airag (pronounced " Eric") and I was looking forward to trying it but unfortunately it wasn't the right season for airag. I gather that in the Spring, the mares are in foal and need the milk and they only have enough surplus milk to make airag later in the Summer. We were there in May and there wasn't a single bottle to be found anywhere in Ulan Bataar (phew, that was lucky).

Apparently the milk is placed in a leather bag that hangs in the Ger where it is churned traditionally for 1000 times. This starts the fermentation process that creates the airag.

Whilst I didn't try airag, I did try a cup of Mongolian tea, which consists of mare's milk, water and salt (note: no tea leaves are involved!!!). Whilst drinkable (just) it tasted a little like warm seawater. On the whole, the food and drink was fine in Mongolia - if you like mutton.

Mongolians do not have dairy farms full of horses but are genuine nomads and use horses as a means of transport for everyday use - there are very few roads so very few cars except in Ulan Bataar the Capital. I would assume that wealth is indicated by the number of horses you own.

One of the high spots of the visit was sitting in a ger drinking Mongolian Chinggis beer (a "normal" beer brewed in Ulan Bataar), playing "ankle bones" - a very old Mongolian game, a bit like dominoes but played with the ankle bones of dead sheep!!!

Regards

KGB

snip

snipped very interesting details of KGB's trip in Mongolia

Sounds really neat; I envy you in that regard.

NOW ..., because I had watched a bit of the "Tonight Show", I missed something much more important. I switched channels and caught just the end of a show about BEER, including some microbrewery stuff. It was on the History Channel -- "Modern Marvels", and I caught just maybe the last 5 minutes. It was followed by another "Modern Marvels" show about bars/taverns, and included esoteric stuff like how a few places manage their inventories. _BUT_, that was then followed by a third "Modern Marvels" show about distilling liquor, which was _very_ interesting, and I learned that the Anchor Brewery in California apparently does some small scale commercial distilling; I wasn't aware of that. As I recall, they were distilling rye whiskey -- or at least they showed them stirring mash made from malted rye -- and showed the distillery. Seems like that last show must have been an hour long, and they covered in very interesting detail all of your major liquors: bourbon, scotch, gin, vodka, tequila. If anyone happens to know if and when those shows are going to be shown again, I'd sure appreciate a heads-up.

Thanks.

Bill Velek -- remove the "--NO-SPAM--" from my email address

The last 4-5 minutes were the only time they mentioned craft or microbreweries (or as the "expert" called them, "microbeers."). Still, it was a nice history of beer in the modern era, concentrating on the technology that got beer to where it is today.

And included some of the same footage and facts as the show about beer.

I watched some of that, and it certainly was interesting.

Old Potrero. It's been what, several years now since they started?

You might try poking around on their web site.

Seems like a lot of micros are doing that...McMeniman's has been distilling for a while, and Rogue is making rum at their place in PDX.

---------->Denny

Yeah, the breweries one was more of a mass buttrub for the big guys, the only real non-megaswill brewer they had was Yeungling.

The brewery and saloon were old shows wo they will not been shown again for awile. The distillery show is new and will be on one more time so set your VCR. Distilleries Airs on Saturday, August 7 @ 4pm ET/PT

From water and grain...to mash...still...vat...barrel and bottle--the distilling of alcoholic spirits is a big business and near-sacred religion. Its acolytes eye the color, swirl the glass, inhale the bouquet, sip, then ponder their ambrosia. What's your pleasure? Bourbon, Scotch, Rum, Gin, Vodka, or Tequila? We trace the history of distilling from the one-man/one-still tradition to the Voldstead Act of 1920 that devastated American distilleries to the mega-sales and high-volume distillery of today. TV G

Holy crap! I just saw this at 4:10PM! Thx dude, I was wondering when it'd be on again, and viola!