00:00Everyone be talking about some rice beers of the junk, Humayupur.
00:04Why is everyone suddenly in Delhi's Humayupur drinking rice beer?
00:08Rice beers are not automatically healthier.
00:11If you've been on Instagram lately, you've probably seen these videos.
00:15Small local joints and people trying something called rice beer that's suddenly gone viral.
00:20Rice beer hits hard, b****.
00:23But this isn't new.
00:24Rice beer has been around for centuries across India,
00:27especially in the northeast and other tribal regions of India.
00:31From Assam's Appong to Jharkand's Handia and Odisha's Raghu beer.
00:35It's been a part of community rituals, festivals and daily life.
00:39So what exactly is it?
00:41Rice beer is made by fermenting rice with natural starters, often herbs and roots.
00:46If we compare rice beer and barley beer or the regular beer that we get commercially,
00:53so as far as alcohol content is concerned or calories are concerned,
00:57there are hardly any differences.
00:58The fermentation process is traditional, slow and usually done at home or in small batches.
01:04The result is a mildly alcoholic drink that's cloudy, slightly sour and very different from your regular beer.
01:10But the big question is, is it actually healthier?
01:13So rice beers are not automatically healthier than their wheat or barley counterparts.
01:18However, they tend to be lighter on the gut, primarily because rice as a grain is gluten-free.
01:24But rice beers are not gluten-free because all rice beers will have some amount of wheat or barley in
01:29it.
01:29We are consuming so many calories and more than calories, it's the alcohol content.
01:34See, both contain alcohol and alcohol as per the recent WHO guidelines also.
01:40So, no amount of alcohol is permissible.
01:43Compared to commercial beer, rice beer is often less processed, sometimes lower in alcohol
01:49and may contain natural probiotics because of fermentation.
01:52But let's be clear, it's still alcohol.
01:57Alcohol content again is about 4-6% in rice beer and so is the alcohol content in barley beer
02:07about 8%.
02:09What's really happening here is something else.
02:12The health aspect depends on the ABV of the beer, how much you're drinking
02:16and what is the hydration you're going with when you're drinking your beer.
02:20And this is how a traditional drink rooted in indigenous culture now becoming a viral urban trend.
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