Opaque Beer Research Articles

A Review on Nutritional Properties and Health Benefits of Finger Millet

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is one of the important small millets with high nutraceutical value in the world. Most of the millet farmers attracted by Finger millet cultivation due to its wide adoptability in different soil types and climate. It also grows well in hot climates with short rainfall periods and cool climates with warm millets. A multitude of small farmers grow finger millet with limited water resources and in many countries this crop is often referred to as “poor people's crop”. The grains of finger millets are very small in size with brown, light brown and white in colours based on different cultivars. The white cultivars have been developed mainly for the baking industry, the brown and light brown types used for porridge while the brown cultivar is utilized for brewing traditional opaque beer in Southern Africa. Finger millet has the highest source of calcium and iron when compared to the other cereals. Finger millet contains high concentration of carbohydrates, dietary fibre, phytochemicals and essential amino acids; presence of essential minerals; as well as a gluten‑free status. Diet is a major focus of public health strategies aimed at maintaining optimum health throughout life, thus preventing early onset of chronic diseases as well as promoting healthier ageing. Many researchers have described that finger millet helps in natural weight loss, strengthens bone, prevents diabetes, prevents anti-ageing, maintains blood pressure levels, protects from disease, improves in hemoglobin status in children etc.,. Studies on the different properties of foods have shown that consumption of certain foods may provide greater health benefits. Finger millet is not only used for human consumption, but it is also used as feed for cattle and birds. Finger millet is used in the preparation of different foods both in natural and malted forms, like porridge, puddings, pancakes, biscuits, roti, bread, noodles, and other snacks. Besides this, it is also used as a nourishing food for infants when malted and is regarded as wholesome food for diabetic patients. Therefore, necessary need to needs to increase production and productivity through various improved technologies to meet our requirements in future and also strengthen public distribution system for achieving nutritional security.

Sustainable Production of African Traditional Beers With Focus on Dolo, a West African Sorghum-Based Alcoholic Beverage

Spontaneously fermented sorghum beers remain by far the most popular traditional cereal-based alcoholic beverages in Africa. Known under various common names (traditional beers, sorghum beers, opaque, native or indigenous beers) they are also recognized under various local names depending on the region or ethnic group. Dolo and pito are two similar traditional beers popular in West African countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. These low-alcoholic beers are nutritious and contribute to the nutritional balance of local populations, as well as to their socio-cultural and economic well-being. The production of African traditional beers remains one of the major economic activities, creating employment and generating substantial income that contributes to livelihoods as well as the countries' economic systems. Their processing (malting and brewing) is still artisanal, based on traditional family know-how. The brewing process involves either an acidification and an alcoholic fermentation phases, or a mixed fermentation combining LAB and yeasts. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been identified as the dominant yeast species involved in the alcoholic fermentation, with a biodiversity at strain level. LAB involved in the processing belong to the genera of Limosilactobacillus, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus, Streptococcus, and Enterococcus. Molds (Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Geotrichum), and acetic bacteria are often associated with the malting and brewing processes. Challenges for sustainable production of African sorghum beer include inconsistent supply of raw materials, variability in product quality and safety, high energy consumption and its impact on the environment, poor packaging and short shelf-life. For sustainable and environmentally-friendly production of African sorghum beers, there is the need to assess the processing methods and address sustainability challenges. Strategies should promote wider distribution and adoption of improved sorghum varieties among farmers, prevent losses through the adoption of good storage practices of raw material, promote the adoption of improved cook stoves by the brewers, develop and adopt starter cultures for controlled fermentation, regulate the production through the establishment of quality standards and better valorize by-products and wastes to increase the competitiveness of the value chain. Appropriate packaging and stabilization processes should be developed to extend the shelf-life and diversify the channels for sustainable distribution of African cereal-based alcoholic beverages.

Determination of volatile compounds during deterioration of African opaque beer using a stir bar sorptive extraction technique and gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry

Opaque beer traditional to African communities undergoes quick deterioration and is consumed within 7 days of its production. The current study has utilized a stir bar sorptive extraction technique followed by GC-HRT determination to trace variations of 84 volatile compounds in four opaque beers commonly brewed in South Africa over the 7-day shelf life period. The major fruity esters were observed to increase up to Day 4 and eventually decreasing until Day 7 where their levels were finally lower than Day 1. Aldehydes reduced drastically and were less than 50% on Day 2 and becoming almost undetectable at Day 7. The common beer alcohols (phenylethyl alcohol and 3-methyl-1-butanol) decreased during beer shelf life while phenolics with undesirable medicinal tastes (creosol and p-cresol) increased up to 24-fold by Day 7. This study might open future research perspectives around opaque beer traditional to African rural communities.

Detection of mycotoxins in opaque beer production

In Zimbabwe opaque beer is one of the most common alcoholic beverages. This study was aimed at detecting aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A (OTA) in commercial opaque beer brewing. Aflatoxins and OTA are mycotoxins produced by fungi. Maize, sorghum malt and opaque beer samples were used for microbiological plating and multi mycotoxin extraction. Aflatoxins, OTA, Aspergillus spp, total viable count, coliforms, Lactobacillus spp, Salmonella, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus were assessed. Mycotoxins were separated using an High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Aflatoxins were not detected in all the samples. OTA concentration for malt was 18 μg/kg, 5.2 μg/kg in beer and absent in maize. Fungi identified in maize were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus carbonarius, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Malt contained Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus carbonarius. Fungi observed in beer were Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. The beer may need heat treatment methods in order to remove the microorganisms identified and prolong shelf life of the product.

Malts: Quality and phenolic content of pearl millet and sorghum varieties for brewing nonalcoholic beverages and opaque beers

AbstractBackground and objectivesThe use of malted sorghum and pearl millet in the production of traditional foods and beverages is ubiquitous in Africa and India. However, there is limited industrial production and little data on the phenolic content and quality of pearl millet and sorghum malts of different varieties. Therefore, this study investigated the proximate content, malt quality, and phenolics of pearl millet (Okashana 2, Kantana, and Kangara) and sorghum (Macia and a landrace referred to as Red sorghum) varieties.FindingsMalting increased the protein in all the varieties, except for Kangara. Germinative energies were >97% for all varieties, except for Red sorghum. Malt quality (reducing sugars, free amino nitrogen, and β‐amylase activity) was highest for Macia followed by Kantana. All pearl millet varieties and Macia had no condensed tannins. The total phenolic content and radical scavenging capacity decreased after malting for all the varieties.ConclusionsMacia and Kantana can be candidates for industrial malting for brewing nonalcoholic beverages and opaque beers. Kantana and Red sorghum had higher amounts of phenolic compounds and can potentially be vectors of delivering phenolics into human diets.Significance and noveltyThis study investigated the phenolic content and quality of malts of different pearl millet and sorghum varieties, which can potentially be used to brew particularly low‐alcohol beverages.

Anaerobic treatment of opaque beer wastewater with enhanced biogas recovery through Acti-zyme bio augmentation

This study investigates the potentially of biologically treating opaque beer wastewater using the bio augmentation technology at the same time harnessing biogas and bio solids as value added products. Wastewater sample were collected in 5L containers and the sludge was separated from the liquid. The liquid and sludge were bio augmented with Acti-zyme with loadings of 5 g/L, 10 g/L and 15 g/L and were left to settle over a period of 30 days under anaerobic conditions. The wastewater and treated effluent BOD, COD, TKN, TP, TSS, TDS and pH were measured using standard methods. Whereas the amount of biogas generated was measured using the water displacement and its composition quantified. The BOD, COD, TKN, TP, TSS, TDS were significantly reduced by 93%, 77%, 87%, 89%, 90% and 90% respectively. The BOD/COD ratio was 0.72 initially and reduced to 0.21 for all the Acti-zyme loadings. Biogas with a methane composition of 65–70% was recovered.

Mycobiota and co-occurrence of mycotoxins in South African maize-based opaque beer

Beer, a beverage consumed throughout the world, is mainly derived from cereals. In this study, fungal and mycotoxin contamination, as well as the physicochemical properties of maize-based opaque beer (umqombothi) obtained from the Gauteng province of South Africa, was investigated. The mean water activity, pH and total titratable acidity of the analysed beer samples were 0.91, 3.76 and 1.20% lactic acid, respectively. The investigation revealed Aspergillus, Penicillium, Phoma and Saccharomyces as the predominant fungal genera with a mean fungal load of 3.66 × 105 CFU/mL. Among the mycotoxigenic fungal species recovered, Aspergillus flavus had the highest incidence of 26%. Previously unreported strains such as P. chrysogenum strain AD25, A. sydowii strain AD 22 and A. tritici strain AD 11 were found. Furthermore, mycotoxin quantitative analysis via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrophotometry showed that deoxynivalenol was the dominant mycotoxin occurring in 84% of the samples. This was followed by enniatin B that occurred in 75% of samples ranging from 12 to 44 μg/L and fumonisin B1 (FB1) (incidence of 53% at a maximum level of 182 μg/L). Generally, there was low occurrence aflatoxins, whereas T-2, HT-2, nivalenol, zearalenone, 3- and 15-acetyl-deoxynivalenol were not detected. All the samples analysed had safe levels of mycotoxins tested but were contaminated by at least two mycotoxins that could pose some additive or synergistic health effects among consumers. On average: a 60 kg adult consuming 1–6 L/day of the beer was exposed to FB1 + FB2 at an estimated 2.20–13.20 μg/kg body weight/day. These values were far above the maximum tolerable daily intake of 2 μg/kg bw/day established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). The study demonstrates that consumption of umqombothi can significantly enhance dietary exposure to multiple mycotoxins among consumers, and therefore accentuates the need for strategies aimed at reducing toxigenic fungal colonization and mycotoxin contamination in the beer processing chain.

Process improvement of opaque beer (chibuku ) based on multivariate cumulative sum control chart

Process improvement of opaque beer (<i>chibuku</i> ) based on multivariate cumulative sum control chart

Aflatoxin contamination in unrecorded beers from Kenya – A health risk beyond ethanol

Samples of unrecorded opaque beers (n = 58; 40 based on maize, 5 on sorghum and 13 on other plants) and recorded wines (n = 8) in Kenya were screened for aflatoxins using a rapid ELISA technique followed by confirmation using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Six of the maize beers were obtained from Kibera slums in Nairobi County. Aflatoxin contamination was detected in six unrecorded beers (10%), but in none of the recorded wines. Remarkably, three of the aflatoxin positive samples were from the Kibera slums.The mean concentration of aflatoxins in the positive samples was 3.5 μg/L (range 1.8–6.8 μg/L), corresponding for an average consumption of 500 mL (1 standard drink) to a margin of exposure (MOE) of 36 (range: 15–58), which is considered as ‘risk’. On the other hand, the alcoholic strength of the aflatoxin positive samples had a mean of 4.3% vol (range 3.5–4.8%) corresponding to a MOE of 2.5 (range of 2.2–3.0) for the equivalent consumption volume. While aflatoxins pose a risk to the consumer, this risk is about 10 times lower than the risk of ethanol.The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives sets no acceptable daily intake for aflatoxins since they are genotoxic carcinogens and instead recommends for the reduction of aflatoxin dietary exposure as an important public health goal, particularly in populations who consume high levels of any potentially aflatoxins-contaminated food. Nevertheless, ethanol still posed a considerably higher risk in the unrecorded beers examined. However, consumers should be informed about aflatoxins, as these are an involuntary and unknown risk to them. In addition, producers should be educated about measures to reduce aflatoxins in alcoholic beverages.

Potential of Zimbabwean commercial probiotic products and strains of Lactobacillus plantarum as prophylaxis and therapy against diarrhoea caused by Escherichia coli in children.

To evaluate the potential of commercial fermented products sold in the country, and strains of Lactobacillus plantarum (L.plantarum) as prophylaxis and therapy against diarrhoea in children. The antimicrobial potential of cultures of lactobacilli enriched from 4 Zimbabwean commercial food/beverage products: Dairibord Lacto sour milk (DLSM), Probrand sour milk (PSM), Kefalos Vuka cheese (KVC) and Chibuku opaque beer (COB); and four strains of L.plantarum obtained from Balkan traditional cheeses against clinical strains of Escherichia coli (E.coli) was assayed using the well diffusion method. Three commercial paediatric antidiarrhoeal drug products: Biogaia (BG), Prolife (PL) and Probio Junior (PJ) and a mutant strain of E.coli [strain 11105 (ATCC) - a vitamin B-12 auxotroph and penicillin G acylase-producing strain] were used as controls. An agar diffusion assay and a competitive exclusion assay were carried out on Mueller Hinton agar. Crude cultures of putative lactobacillus strains obtained from Zimbabwean dairy products (Probrand sour milk, Kefalos Vuka vuka cheese and Chibuku opaque beer) had significantly higher antimicrobial activities against clinical strains of E.coli than strains of L.plantarum isolated from Balkan cheeses (CLP1, CLP2 or CLP3) and crude microbial cultures from commercial paediatric probiotic products (BG, PJ and PL) of a culture of Lactobacillus rhamnosus LGG (P<0.05). The putative Lactobacilli from four commercial Zimbabwean dairy products (Probrand sour milk, Kefalos Vuka vuka cheese and Chibuku opaque beer), and three strains of L.plantarum from Balkan cheeses (CLP1, CLP2 or CLP3) exhibited high antibacterial activities that can be harnessed to control paediatric diarrhoea that is caused by pathogenic strains of E.coli. Studies to characterise the probiotic potential of the live cultures in the products and the new strains of L.plantarum are underway.

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Tchoukoutou is a traditional sorghum opaque beer produced and consumed in Benin. It is obtained from an uncontrolled fermentation of sorghum wort using a traditional starter called “kpete-kpete”. The present study assessed the effects of storage duration on the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics as well as on the functional properties of the heat stabilized starter produced from “kpete-kpete”. The physicochemical characteristics of the stabilized starter were not significantly affected by the storage duration. After 60.0 days of storage, the dry matter, pH and titratable acidity were stable with mean values of 92.5%, 4.76 and 1.33 g/kg, respectively. However, the microbial characteristics of the product were significantly affected by the storage duration. Yeasts, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and total mesophilic aerobic counts were modified following three phases: a latency phase (between 0 and 10 days), an exponential growth phase (between 10 and 40 days) and the decline phase (between 40 and 60 days). As compared to the stabilized starter, the physicochemical characteristics of “kpete-kpete’’ were extensively modified after 15 days of storage. In the traditional “kpete-kpete’’, all the major groups of microorganisms, reached their maximum growth phase after 10 days of storage suggesting that they would have lost their fermentation power afterwards. The fermentation test performed using stabilized starter sampled at different growth phases, revealed that the starter of 25 days of storage possesses better fermentation capacity. In these conditions, the fermentation duration was reduced to 16 instead of 24 h. Key words: Sorghum, opaque beer, tchoukoutou, starter, storage duration.

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The present work aims to optimize the heat drying conditions of a bioactive feed ingredient derived from the African opaque sorghum beer. The bioactive ingredient was dried at various temperatures 35 to 50°C and times 5 to 24 h. The effects of the drying conditions on the dry matter, water activity, pH, titratable acidity, bacteriocin, ethanol, lactic acid, yeasts, lactic acid bacteria contents and antimicrobial activity against indicator pathogens ( Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 27844, methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Salmonella typhi R 30951401, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 35657, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 700728 and Candida albicans MHMR) were studied. Results showed that the temperature was the main factor that affects the bioactivity indicators of the ingredient. The optimal conditions ensuring the best functionality of the ingredient were as follows: Temperature 42°C and drying duration, 24 h. At this optimum condition, water activity (0.49) was low enough to warrant adequate shelf life to the ingredient. Keywords: Bioactive ingredient, drying, optimization, response surface methodology

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This study evaluates the simultaneous effect of dried starter concentration and fermentation duration on the quality characteristics of the African opaque sorghum beer using response surface methodology. The aim was to improve the beer quality and to optimize its fermentation process. Results show that the granule starter concentration and the fermentation duration have significant effects on the dry matter, refractive index, titrable acidity, glucose, raffinose and fructose contents of the beer. The lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and total mesophilic aerobic bacteria counts were significantly modified as a result of these fermentation parameters. The pH was only affected by the fermentation duration. The optimum beer quality could be reached between 10 and 15 h at starter concentration in the interval of 100 to 120 g/L. The use of the dried starter granules revealed to be an efficient alternative to produce sorghum beer with stable quality at a shorter fermentation time. Key words: starter, kpete-kpete, sorghum beer, tchoukoutou.

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This study evaluates the antimicrobial activities of a multi-species probiotic ingredient derived from the African opaque sorghum beer during its propagation in a starchy career model. The aim was to establish the optimum growth conditions that warrant the optimum antimicrobial activities in the product. The antimicrobial activities were tested against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 27844, S. aureus MR 825), Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 700728, Salmonella typhi R 30951401, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 35657), as well as against yeast (Candida albicans MHMR), using agar disc diffusion method. Also, the growth of viable cells and physicochemical parameters during the propagation were monitored. The results showed that the pH and dry matter content of the probiotic ingredient decrease significantly (p˂0.05) during the propagation whereas the lactic acid, the titratable acidity, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), yeasts and moulds counts increase significantly (p˂0.05). From 0 to 12 h, the product failed to inhibit the growth of all indicator strains. From 24 h and onward, the probiotic career inhibited all indicator strains except for K. pneumoniae (ATCC 35657) which could not be inhibited. Clearly, our study showed that 36 h of the propagation were sufficient to generate a probiotic ingredient with optimum antimicrobial activities. Key words: Probiotic, antibiotic, opaque beer, antimicrobial activity.

Technological and Engineering Trends for Production of Gluten-Free Beers

Beer is the main alcoholic beverage consumed worldwide. It is essentially composed of malt, adjuncts or grist, hops, water and metabolites produced by yeast. Produced regularly with barley, it is unsuitable for patients with celiac disease due to the presence of storage proteins known as hordeins. A recent boom in the production of gluten-free beers has been attributed to the awareness of celiac disease and the significant boost in the gluten-free market size. Several strategies have been recognized as suitable gluten-free brewing procedures: by using non-gluten grains, non-grain sources such as sugars, syrups and honey and enzymatic and microbial treatments of barley worts to reduce to non-significant levels (<20 ppm/L), the peptides or epitopes which trigger celiac disease. Since the traditional brewing process uses barley, the use of other grains, such as rice, maize, sorghum, buckwheat or different types of millets, involves differences in both malting and mashing procedures especially in terms of process times and temperatures. Sorghum has been especially recognized for its potential to substitute barley since it is widely used in many countries of Africa to create traditional opaque beers, but compared to barley malt lacks of sufficient diastatic power due to the lower synthesis of both α- and β-amylases, and additionally, the starch requires higher temperatures for gelatinization. Likewise, rice, maize, millets and buckwheat are being used as source of both malt and grist with similar problems as sorghum. Potential future approaches involve the genetic engineering of barley in order to remove the peptides of the storage proteins that cause the allergic reaction on celiac patients and the employment of recombinant yeasts or other fermenting microorganisms that express prolyl endoproteinases which hydrolyze celiac immunoreactive epitopes into non-harmful peptides.

Development and bioefficacy study of plant-based proteins diets for juvenile African catfish

Objectives: The aim of this study is to improve the growth performance of the juvenile catfish (Clarias gariepinus) by using feed formula derived from local feed ingredients.Methodology and results: Three diets with formulas differing in the feed ingredients and biological process were tested. These were: diet 1 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal), diet 2 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal, Corn malt meal) and diet 3 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal, Corn malt meal, Kpètè-kpètè (traditional starter of opaque African beer). Coppens® is an imported efficient feed that was used as control. The fish were fed twice daily for a rearing period of 35 days in a randomized tree blocks. Results of the study showed an overall good survival rate and growth performance of the fish. All the parameters assessed showed significant better values in fish fed with control diet than formulated diets. However, there was no significant difference between values survival rate, weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of the formulated diets.Conclusions and application of results: Results indicated that all the three diets can be used as a fishmeal but their efficiency still needs to be improved. Though with low crude protein ratio (p˂0.05), diet 3 exhibits the same results as the other diets probably because it is fermented and incorporated with malted corn grain. Incorporation of malted cereal flour in fish feeds can improve their efficiency.Keywords: Clarias gariepinus, lactic acids fermentation, malting, plant protein

IMPROVEMENT OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL SORGHUM BEERS QUALITY AND POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF PLANTS EXTRACTS FOR THEIR STABILIZATION: A REVIEW

In Africa, various kinds of traditional alcoholic beverages commonly named sorghum beers or opaque beers, have been recorded and described. These drinks have a central role in peoples' cultures and play fundamental socioeconomic function. Their brewing involves malting, mashing, souring, straining, boiling and two successive steps of fermentation which occur at ambient conditions. A primary lactic fermentation, or souring stage, confers the souring taste and storage longevity. The alcoholic fermentation is usually initiated by pitching wort with a portion of previous brew. The beverage thus obtained is unstable. Since the African sorghum beers fermentation process is run by uncontrolled inoculation under no standard hygienic conditions, producers have a major problem to make a good beer with a long shelf-life. In other hand, recently the disappearance of many active synthetic substances in foods protection has resulted to a renewed interest in naturally occurring substances. In parallel to these disappearances, the regulatory environment incites strongly to increase the use of alternative methods to chemical control. This review aims to summarize works about African traditional sorghum beers stabilization and potential applications of plants extract for their natural preservatives.

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Opaque sorghum beers are the most consumed African alcoholic beverages. Tchoukoutou is one of the Benin opaque sorghum beers. Its fermentation process is carried out using a traditional starter called kpete-kpete. The present study characterized and identified the yeasts isolated from kpete-kpete. A total of 24 samples of kpete-kpete were collected from eight different commercial processing sites in Northern Benin. The mean values of the pH, titrable acidity, dry matter content and refractive index for all samples were respectively 3.58; 0.07% as lactic acid; 16.61% and 7.0. The mean counts of yeasts was 9.24 log cfu/ml. Based on their phenotypic characters and their assimilation profiles, 49 yeasts were isolated and found to belong to five genera with seven species. Seventy one percent (71%) of the isolates were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Key words: Sorghum beer, tchoukoutou, kpete-kpete, yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Indigenous knowledge associated with the production of starters culture used to produce Beninese opaque sorghum beers

Objective : The present study aims to document the indigenous Knowledge associated with the production of starters culture to be used for opaque sorghum beers manufacturing in Benin Methodology and results : A quantitative survey was carried out in the central and the northern regions of Benin. A total of ninety (90) processors of traditional beers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected information was related to the processing method of the starters’ production, its shelf life as well as sociodemographic data on the producers. Five types of starters were identified during this investigation. Apart from the beer itself which can be used as starter, we can distinguish kpete-kpete; the fermentation calabash, the bag and the belt of fermentation. Among them, the fermentation calabash was mostly used by 74% (67/90) of beer producers followed by kpete-kpete 21% (19/90). In some cases, these starters were used in association with each other to speed up the fermentation process. All the producers were women with an average age of 38 years old. Among those women, about 73% (66/90) produce and sell the beer as principal activity. According to 56% (51/90) of the producers, the quality of the manufactured beer depends on the quality of the starter used. Many other factors such as the sorghum variety, the brewing technique can also affect the beer quality. It is reported by 70% (63/90) of producers that the storage duration reduces the fermentative ability of kpete-kpete. Some health-related properties such as the treatment of diarrhoea have been attributed to kpete-kpete by 73% (66/90) of the producers interviewed. Conclusion and application of results : the fermentation calabash is the most used starter by traditional beer producers because of the quality of the derived beer. The kpete-kpete comes in the second position but possesses the advantage of being used by people to cure humans and animals diseases. Further investigations are needed to identify the functional microorganisms involved in the kpete-kpete to better understanding its health-related attributes. Keywords : Indigenous Knowledge, tchoukoutou, kpete-kpete, fermentation, Benin.

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