Processing of Amgba: A sorghum-maize based beer, brewed in Cameroon

Abstract

Amgba is an African traditional maize sorghum based opaque beer mainly considered as food than beverage by Gbaya peoples in Adamaoua region of Cameroon. Despite Amgba’s importance as food, physicochemical composition as well as its process production is still not well understood. To overcome these constraints, the process production of “Amgba” was carried out in order to identify critical points and eventually standardize the production process. To do this, a cross-sectional and descriptive study, including qualitative and quantitative survey, followed by laboratory scale production were conducted. Different products were given to a panel, for sensory analysis and were used to assess physicochemical characteristics. Results show that the main process production seems similar to most African opaque beer production technologies. Irrespective of the amount of added sorghum and maize, multiple regression analyses revealed an inverse significant (P < 0.05) relationship between aroma, taste, visual examination, and overall acceptability of beers. Physicochemical analysis results showed high alcohol content (4.5 to 7%), total titratable acidity varied from 14.4 to 16.2 mg/L, residual sugars (g/L) were found to be in the range of 1.3 to 1.5 (g/L), and total polyphenols form 772 to 802 (mg/L). This data highlights the possibilities for improvement of “Amgba” quality for industrial production. Key words: Beer, sorghum, maize, fermentation.