Handia, zutho and apong: traditional rice beers of India

Beer that never needed a brewery

When people talk about beer in India, they usually mean lager in a bottle or craft ale in a taproom. But many communities in eastern and north-eastern India and in the tribal belts of central India have brewed rice beer at home for generations. It is drunk at festivals, weddings, harvests and village gatherings. It is offered to guests and to the gods.

These drinks are usually low to moderate in strength, cloudy, slightly sweet and sour. They are made in small batches, in earthen pots or bamboo containers, then drunk fresh. Recipes pass down within families, so no two villages make quite the same thing.

The problem every brewer has to solve

Yeast cannot ferment starch. It needs simple sugars. Grain is mostly starch, so every beer tradition needs a way to break that starch into sugar first.

In European brewing the answer is malting: you sprout barley, which builds enzymes, then mash it in hot water so those enzymes turn starch into sugar. Our guide to how beer is made step by step walks through that route.

Most Indian rice beers take another route, closer to Chinese and Japanese rice brewing. They use a dried starter cake made from rice flour mixed with herbs, leaves and roots. The cake carries moulds and yeasts. The moulds produce enzymes that turn the rice starch into sugar. The yeasts ferment that sugar into alcohol, both in the same pot at the same time.

Handia: the rice beer of the central and eastern tribal belt

Handia is brewed in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and parts of West Bengal, especially among communities such as the Santhal, Munda, Ho and Oraon. The starter is a small tablet called ranu, made from rice flour and plant material that each family prepares to its own recipe.

Rice is cooked, cooled and mixed with powdered ranu, then packed into an earthen pot, the handi that gives the drink its name. After a few days the rice turns soft and sweet and the liquid becomes mildly alcoholic. It is diluted with water, strained and served. Handia is milky white, sweet and sour, with a yeasty, rice-pudding character.

Zutho: Nagaland's sprouted rice beer

Zutho comes from the Angami Naga people of Nagaland. It is interesting because it is closer to European brewing. Instead of relying only on a mould starter, brewers sprout rice grains. The sprouted rice is dried, ground and mixed with cooked rice, where its enzymes break the starch down. In other words, it is a form of malting.

The result is a pale, milky drink with a gentle sourness and a light fruity aroma. Zutho is often drunk fresh from bamboo mugs at festivals such as Sekrenyi.

Apong: the rice beer of the Mising and Adi

Apong is brewed by the Mising community of Assam and the Adi community of Arunachal Pradesh. The Mising make two main kinds. Nogin apong is a white beer made from cooked rice and a starter cake. Poro apong is darker, made by mixing the rice with the ash of burnt rice husk and straw, which gives it a smoky, earthy colour and flavour.

Apong plays a central role in Mising rituals and hospitality. It is often served in large brass bowls or bamboo containers. Like handia, it is strained before drinking.

What these beers taste like

If you are used to bottled lager, the first sip can surprise you. Most rice beers are:

• Cloudy, often milky white, because they are not filtered.
• Flat or lightly sparkling, since they are not bottle conditioned.
• Sweet and sour, with lactic acidity from bacteria that ride along with the starter.
• Rice forward, with notes of steamed rice, fruit, sometimes a hint of the herbs in the starter.

They have no hop bitterness at all. Their balance comes from acidity, not bitterness. Tasting them carefully teaches you a lot about how microbes, rather than hops, can shape flavour.

Rice beer and modern brewing

Industrial breweries in India use rice too, but differently. They add broken rice to barley malt as an adjunct to lighten the body and cut cost, relying on the malt's enzymes. Our guide to rice and maize adjuncts explains how that works.

Traditional rice beers remind us that India has its own brewing knowledge, built around local grains, plants and climate. Some craft brewers have started to borrow from them, using local rice varieties or herbs from the Northeast. Rules on making and selling traditional brews differ from state to state and change over time, so any commercial attempt needs advice from a licensing expert.

If you get the chance to taste handia, zutho or apong in its home region, take it, drink modestly and with respect for the occasion. Notice the acidity, the rice and the herbs. Learning to describe a drink like this is the same skill a beer judge uses on a pilsner.

Common questions

Are handia, zutho and apong the same drink?

No. All three are rice beers, but they come from different communities and use different starters and methods. Zutho uses sprouted rice, while handia and apong rely mostly on herbal starter cakes.

Do traditional rice beers contain hops?

No. They get their balance from acidity and the herbs in the starter rather than hop bitterness.

How strong are Indian rice beers?

It varies widely with the recipe, the dilution and how long the brew ferments. Most are light to moderate in strength, but some can be stronger than a typical lager.

Can rice beer be sold commercially in India?

Rules on traditional brews differ by state and change over time. Anyone planning to sell one should check the current state excise rules and take advice from a licensing consultant.