Study of characteristic parameters of traditional process in the production of “Boganda”, a brandy of Congo

Abstract

“Boganda” is an appreciated traditional distilled alcoholic beverage in Congo. It brings an interesting income to producers though its quality is extremely variable from a workshop to another. The production is based on three stages: malting of corn, fermentation and distillation. The corn used initially undergoes, during 5 days, an uncontrolled germination in medium quickly becoming anaerobic, with an increase in temperature up to about 49 ± 3 °C; that causes death of majority of corn germs and formation of various flavours. The obtained fermented malt is distilled without column. The distillate is collected empirically in fractions of volume according to the alcoholic amount corresponding to little distinct stages of temperature up to 98 °C. The final distilled alcoholic beverage has an alcoholic degree of approximately 24.2 ± 3 °GL, the volume of collected distillate being extremely variable. The study of physicochemical characteristics reveals a very great dispersion of parameters of manufacturing process and quality of product.

Keywords: Brandy, ethanol, optimization, “Boganda”.

Int. J. Biol. Chem. Sci. Vol. 2 (3) 2008: pp. 258-271