Sustainable Production of African Traditional Sorghum Beers

Traditional sorghum beers remain the most popular beverages for African populations. They are low-alcohol, natural, additive-free, and nutritious beverages that contribute to the diet, sociocultural, and economic well-being of African communities. Their manufacturing represents one of the main economic activities, creating jobs for many women. Despite their sociocultural and economic importance, the production process remains artisanal, using traditional family knowledge, which includes the malting of sorghum and the brewing of the beer. The brewing process can include either separate lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation steps or a combined fermentation involving both lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. This chapter provides an overview of traditional African sorghum-based beers, their production process and characteristics, innovations initiated and introduced, major challenges, and actions to be taken to ensure sustainability of production. The major challenges are the supplying of quality raw materials, mastering the process, quality, and shelf life of traditional beers. To address these challenges and ensure sustainability of production, actions and measures need to be undertaken to (i) promote the widespread dissemination and adoption of improved sorghum varieties at the farmer level, and promote good harvesting and storage practices for sorghum grains, (ii) improve and standardize the manufacturing process through the introduction of appropriate innovations, i.e., equipment, starter cultures to control fermentation, good hygiene and manufacturing practices, packaging, and stabilization of finished products, (iii) regulate production by establishing quality standards for raw material and finished products, and (iv) improve the profitability of the value chain by adding value to the by-products and waste of traditional breweries.