Improvement of African traditional sorghum beers quality and potential applications of plants extracts for their stabilization: a review

Abstract

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.