I prepared changaa for 4 years before proceeding to campus. This was when I was in high school, day school. I would do it every weekend Saturday and Sunday. While the process is the same, we do it differently in our village. Our drum is placed vertically on the fire, in the video, their drum is horizontal. The clay "pot" with a hollow bottom is similar, though we used a more rounded one. We used a smaller clay 'pot' to collect the condensate, while in the video they have used a yellow plastic. We put the sufuria immediately after pouring the fermented mash into the drum. The initial vapour that comes out has the highest concentration of alcohol, we assumed. We covered the sections with wet pieces of clothes made from torn blankets, in the video they have added wet soil. We would keep wetting the blankets to keep it vapour-proof. This economic activity paid my school fees and for a thousand others, and continues to lift families out of poverty. I always feel sad when I see officers rejoice when they arrest or pour brewers mash. Changaa is also addictive, whose addicts are the poor villagers. Brewing changaa also consumes a lot of firewood, lots of it. However, this is someones livelihood, and given that alternatives are hard to come by in an underdeveloped country that is Kenya, the government should treat brewers with some respect. People will always take alcohol and the role of the government is to regulate while trying to ensure that every side benefits equally. Standardisation is required.
This is not just food for thought but an opportunity to establish a safe, local brewing industry for liquor. It could provide people with a decent livelihood while generating revenue for the government.
This is such a good documentary! Thank you for sharing. Other than hygiene, we better hurry up and patent these traditional brews before some foreseeing foreigner steps in to get us agitated when they start producing the same to be marketed internationally. Asante, Jagero. Speaking of which, I would have been there documenting this with you
Fermented molasses is called mead. If you distill the mead you get moonshine which we call changaa. It's illegal only because government has no way of charging tax or checking quality.
we are never told of addiction problems when germans make their beers, the irish with their whiskeys or the french with their cognac. it's only us africans with addiction problems. wonder why? neocolonialism. make the laws for us and you will never hear of addiction. we will make industries by adding value to our abundant produce of molasses, honey, millet/soghum, palm into world class changaa, muratina, kaluvu, busaa, mnazi etc.
Good job bro we need to explore the safety of the drink coz this is science and a money making tool. Let's monetize it and kick out these foreign distillers
A great documentary, very educative. However the videographers could have done better to conceal the brewers' faces. They raised the concern and Jagero assured them their facer not captured totally. However their faces appear in many instances.
Kenya breweries in collaboration with the government are the ones who are against local brew production,because they are cheaper than their products.A condensing steel,aluminum or copper worm pipe immersed in water,with an inlet and outlet from the main tank harvests more alcohol,because it has minimal heat loses,it is also less labor intensive.
Chang'a that is well brued is better than JD or any other exotic drink. Whenever I go to dala I share it with other successful friends who prefer chang'a over the exotic drinks rotting in our drink shelf. Changa is actually medicinal and should be legalised
Very educational. Obviously the big corporations are the ones driving the legality of the brew. Once it's well regulated, we can do away with Chiroc, Johnny and his friends Jameson and jack Daniels
I have often wondered what chang'aa is made of, this video makes the process very clear. As a chemist the difference between the chang'aa brewers and what EABL makes is the hygiene and the standardisation of the brewing process. In the same way you can drink chang'aa everyday and become an alcoholic, the same can happen to someone who consumes the spirits EABL sells everyday, both are serious health hazards when consumed in excess. Prohibition leads to things being done underground in makeshift and potentially dangerous ways. If there are people in Kenya consuming these traditional brews, banning them is clearly not working, they just do it in secret. It would make more sense if the government decided to allow the brewing of the traditional brews in a modern and clean facility where the processes are measured and controlled. There is a part where the interviewer says that the molasses are being heated up and the steam rising is the alcohol - there are no thermometers or instruments to measure how much alcohol is in the vapour they will collect. This is how you end up with methanol when the distillation is not done well, people get poisoned, they go blind or die. If this was in a modern facility some of these things would be regulated and most importantly the process would not be rushed--like when they add chemicals to make the fermentation go faster and it poisons people. The result would be a brew that is not poisonous to the people. But the same warnings EABL and other big companies like Diageo, Heineken, Anheuser-Busch etc gives for those buying their products would apply: "Excessive consumption of alcohol is harmful to your health"; "Alcohol is not for sale to persons under 18 years"; "Do not drink and drive" and "Alcohol consumption is harmful during pregnancy".
the illicit village brew is deemed illegal because they do not pay taxes on sales compared to EABL products that have to pay government hefty taxes as it's a controlled business. Now how do we bring this under control and have it taxed and done legally is the question to be asked.
This conversation is long overdue. But as usual in Kenya/Africa we have weak/stomach-driven leaders who are bribed by foreign alcohol brands to term our own liquor 'ilicit'. Look, every society in the world evolved with some kind of liqour they pertook and it was made from the locally available raw materials- banana, sorghum, potatoes, millet, ginger, name it. It is unfortunate that the African brews have been termed 'illicit' because the government refused to industrialize the sector which has a huge potential for the economy. Our people splash money on imported alcohol brands and think it is fancy to build other economies- consumerism at its best. And btw, nearly all breweries in Kenya are foreign owned so the money we spend in alcohol in Kenya build other people. I don't know when our country will wake up.
Mr. Jagero, you are at the source of this water bothering people. What is actually causing the blockage is it a deliberate action? Can't the locals unblock as community effort.
I don't drink but I feel a liberal African government should have an honest conversation around these local drinking habits of its people. Why is it considered poison and bottle beer is not? Why do western countries like Germany do well even with an open drinking culture, festival? Uganda allows waraji. Etc etc. There is more to this conversation. How is this different from mzungu whiskey?
Jagero I would like to differ with your thinking on how government should blabla.. I assume you run a business, pay rent, pay lisenses, and hop that you have customers, now someone else does that. They don't pay govt taxes, and you know how greedy govt is....
It's a longtime government with British and Irish colonial contract that we can't brew our own. If you doubt me check that newly released beer by an Irish man called 254 our own pure stolen cultural Muratina claiming is theirs lol
Mimi ninashindwa nauyu jagero mara amekuja na story ya vinembe sasa amekuja na jambo ya changa, nikikumbuka vile changa imearibu vijana wengi naata wengi wamepoteza maosha yao juu ya changa wengine wamepoteza kazi kwa sababu ya amuna, wengine wakikosa pesa ya changa unapata kama ni mwanaume anachukuwa vitu zake zanyumba akipeleka ndiyo apewe changa na nguo za bibi na yawa toto atapeleka ili apate changa na ata wewe jangero ninajuwa watuwengi maisha yao yaliaribiwa na chamga kutoka kwenyu aki jagero una faa ichuguzwe sijui kama wewe nichombo ya uwaribifu aworo
Me too am a product of chang’aa what do I mean by that . Chang’aa feed me , dressed me , gave me a roof over my head, paid my school fees . My dad would brew it at the river when my mom would be the casher from 10 shillings to thousands . My parents would even seal it on wholesale . Transporting from my village to far villages, my parents made alot of money from that business. Buying lands and building rental houses , but as time went by I started disliking the business koz sometimes police would come and arrest my parents so I had to cook miss school , sometimes my parents and other villagers would sleep in the bushes with fear if they sleep in the house police will come arrest them . Again what made me hate it even more is when my brother started drinking it without control he became dirty and his cheeks were swollen took him to hospital and we were told chang’aa had burned his liver . So hear I am after kCSe I run away to go away from home so I can try get my parents out of the chang’aa business one thing led to the other after 3 yrs I went back home and ask my parents how much money they had and they were very open with me so I gave the a business idea and they bought it and that how they stopped the business. My brother tody you tell him to taste it he will even attack you , we only go ushago when there is important occasion, our house was fenced and locked nobody stay there though the villager still brew it and in large amounts, I know how to ferment, distill and dilute
Too late for any effort to legitimize Chang'aa in this time and era. The world is already rotten. Thank God we consumed the legit cham during our days.
very authentic we use to be given changaa by our neighbours who brew it just to have a taste ,one day me and my 2 siblings went to still"Kangara" where they use to hide the pot ,little did we know we would get drunk😮😮
Why does everything have to be so damn filthy?wtf man. I mean kudos to the hustle, kudos to the application of basic chemistry but Christ on a bike! Everything is just filthy.
This is stupid and tells why our society is still backwards, regulations and laws exists for a reason even though Kenyan government is not the one would expect to be responsible for managing this safely and can understand why the people from the village would resort to this, I would have expected someone like this who looks educated not to have this kind of views. It's okay to keep traditions or whatever you call it but still needs to exists under the regulations. Unfortunately there have been a lot of cases where people died or affected various families whether directly on in indirectly whatever the percentage doesn't excuse the fact.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I enjoy these mini-documentaries. Very precise and packed with the relevant information. Well done!
This some legit content, coupled by good story telling and production. Good stuff Jagero
Didn't know DWJ, I now love it, it's raw, it's uncut it's beautiful
I prepared changaa for 4 years before proceeding to campus. This was when I was in high school, day school. I would do it every weekend Saturday and Sunday. While the process is the same, we do it differently in our village. Our drum is placed vertically on the fire, in the video, their drum is horizontal. The clay "pot" with a hollow bottom is similar, though we used a more rounded one. We used a smaller clay 'pot' to collect the condensate, while in the video they have used a yellow plastic. We put the sufuria immediately after pouring the fermented mash into the drum. The initial vapour that comes out has the highest concentration of alcohol, we assumed. We covered the sections with wet pieces of clothes made from torn blankets, in the video they have added wet soil. We would keep wetting the blankets to keep it vapour-proof. This economic activity paid my school fees and for a thousand others, and continues to lift families out of poverty. I always feel sad when I see officers rejoice when they arrest or pour brewers mash. Changaa is also addictive, whose addicts are the poor villagers. Brewing changaa also consumes a lot of firewood, lots of it. However, this is someones livelihood, and given that alternatives are hard to come by in an underdeveloped country that is Kenya, the government should treat brewers with some respect. People will always take alcohol and the role of the government is to regulate while trying to ensure that every side benefits equally. Standardisation is required.
Its just laid horizontally to increase the surface area touching the flame. Wan joscience! 😅
Great exposee. A true picture of this integral part of many communities livelihood.
This is not just food for thought but an opportunity to establish a safe, local brewing industry for liquor. It could provide people with a decent livelihood while generating revenue for the government.
True.
This is exactly what happens with tequila in Mexico
This is so helpful as to me as a biochemist. 😊
So impressive Jagero! Keep on enlightening our people
Awesome conversations as always 👌 👍 😎 ❤️. Keep engaging
This is such a good documentary! Thank you for sharing.
Other than hygiene, we better hurry up and patent these traditional brews before some foreseeing foreigner steps in to get us agitated when they start producing the same to be marketed internationally.
Asante, Jagero.
Speaking of which, I would have been there documenting this with you
Interesting name for that lake.
Fermented molasses is called mead. If you distill the mead you get moonshine which we call changaa. It's illegal only because government has no way of charging tax or checking quality.
Pure chemistry. Well done
we are never told of addiction problems when germans make their beers, the irish with their whiskeys or the french with their cognac. it's only us africans with addiction problems. wonder why? neocolonialism. make the laws for us and you will never hear of addiction. we will make industries by adding value to our abundant produce of molasses, honey, millet/soghum, palm into world class changaa, muratina, kaluvu, busaa, mnazi etc.
Great content, very informative keep up the good job
Jagero is doing something different ✅✅✅✅🤝🤝🤝
Those alcohol brewing companies makes sure that this will never thrive because of their market
The thing is liquor has its own curses....pesa nayo utapata mingi nayo ikiamua kutoka inatoka mingi zaidi ama watoto wako wanakua walevi excesa
In my mums village in South East Nyakach, changaaa was the order of the day. We call the place Gao Republic. If you know you know.
I grew up in the village seeing people running away from the police because of this things. Never known how it's done. Great documentary OJ
I love this documentary. I have never seen how this thing is done, not even the final product. I just know it as Chang'aa. I think i can taste it😅
Excellent!
Good job bro we need to explore the safety of the drink coz this is science and a money making tool. Let's monetize it and kick out these foreign distillers
Nice 1 very different from our muratina
A great documentary, very educative. However the videographers could have done better to conceal the brewers' faces. They raised the concern and Jagero assured them their facer not captured totally. However their faces appear in many instances.
The Sugar one or Sukari Nguru makes the best Changaa
All molasses is sugarcane byproduct
The first vopor is let to go , it's methanol which causes blindness. The collected one is ethanol which is moderate
that set up must produce considerable expansion and pressure on that barrel, how do the keep it from exploding.
Very nice 👌
Wow, your post gives food for thought
You would still have conducted the HYDROMETER potency test to determine the alcohol proof concentration.
nice documentary , more of this please
Thanks for watching! 🙏
Kenya breweries in collaboration with the government are the ones who are against local brew production,because they are cheaper than their products.A condensing steel,aluminum or copper worm pipe immersed in water,with an inlet and outlet from the main tank harvests more alcohol,because it has minimal heat loses,it is also less labor intensive.
This is better than those counterfeit zimejaa kwa wines & spirits. By the way most wines n spirits joints sell fake products, very few sell original
Chang'a that is well brued is better than JD or any other exotic drink. Whenever I go to dala I share it with other successful friends who prefer chang'a over the exotic drinks rotting in our drink shelf. Changa is actually medicinal and should be legalised
Molasses is not a plant but a byproduct of sugar cane after sugar processing
Very educational. Obviously the big corporations are the ones driving the legality of the brew. Once it's well regulated, we can do away with Chiroc, Johnny and his friends Jameson and jack Daniels
Its all about TAX and Licenses.
I have often wondered what chang'aa is made of, this video makes the process very clear. As a chemist the difference between the chang'aa brewers and what EABL makes is the hygiene and the standardisation of the brewing process. In the same way you can drink chang'aa everyday and become an alcoholic, the same can happen to someone who consumes the spirits EABL sells everyday, both are serious health hazards when consumed in excess. Prohibition leads to things being done underground in makeshift and potentially dangerous ways. If there are people in Kenya consuming these traditional brews, banning them is clearly not working, they just do it in secret. It would make more sense if the government decided to allow the brewing of the traditional brews in a modern and clean facility where the processes are measured and controlled. There is a part where the interviewer says that the molasses are being heated up and the steam rising is the alcohol - there are no thermometers or instruments to measure how much alcohol is in the vapour they will collect. This is how you end up with methanol when the distillation is not done well, people get poisoned, they go blind or die. If this was in a modern facility some of these things would be regulated and most importantly the process would not be rushed--like when they add chemicals to make the fermentation go faster and it poisons people. The result would be a brew that is not poisonous to the people. But the same warnings EABL and other big companies like Diageo, Heineken, Anheuser-Busch etc gives for those buying their products would apply: "Excessive consumption of alcohol is harmful to your health"; "Alcohol is not for sale to persons under 18 years"; "Do not drink and drive" and "Alcohol consumption is harmful during pregnancy".
the illicit village brew is deemed illegal because they do not pay taxes on sales compared to EABL products that have to pay government hefty taxes as it's a controlled business. Now how do we bring this under control and have it taxed and done legally is the question to be asked.
Gweng'fidich or NyarUgenya❤
My elder sister is addicted to changaa, anauza kila kitu
Pole sana!
Changaa from Ugenya is the real deal. They use sukari nguru
My home 😅😅😅
This conversation is long overdue. But as usual in Kenya/Africa we have weak/stomach-driven leaders who are bribed by foreign alcohol brands to term our own liquor 'ilicit'. Look, every society in the world evolved with some kind of liqour they pertook and it was made from the locally available raw materials- banana, sorghum, potatoes, millet, ginger, name it. It is unfortunate that the African brews have been termed 'illicit' because the government refused to industrialize the sector which has a huge potential for the economy. Our people splash money on imported alcohol brands and think it is fancy to build other economies- consumerism at its best. And btw, nearly all breweries in Kenya are foreign owned so the money we spend in alcohol in Kenya build other people. I don't know when our country will wake up.
Mr. Jagero, you are at the source of this water bothering people. What is actually causing the blockage is it a deliberate action?
Can't the locals unblock as community effort.
It has been blocked by God!
Good stuff
The problem is proper equipment setup ... If not configured properly other chemicals end up in the drink, and the can cause blindness.
You are absolutely right!
Amia UK ama London
The luo speaking part makes one miss home.
I don't drink but I feel a liberal African government should have an honest conversation around these local drinking habits of its people. Why is it considered poison and bottle beer is not? Why do western countries like Germany do well even with an open drinking culture, festival? Uganda allows waraji. Etc etc. There is more to this conversation. How is this different from mzungu whiskey?
I have to start making use of sugarcane and molasses at home
Good idea.
Jagero I would like to differ with your thinking on how government should blabla..
I assume you run a business, pay rent, pay lisenses, and hop that you have customers, now someone else does that.
They don't pay govt taxes, and you know how greedy govt is....
It's a longtime government with British and Irish colonial contract that we can't brew our own. If you doubt me check that newly released beer by an Irish man called 254 our own pure stolen cultural Muratina claiming is theirs lol
fire burn...
you look similar t irish "RED GARDENS"
Mimi ninashindwa nauyu jagero mara amekuja na story
ya vinembe sasa amekuja
na jambo ya changa, nikikumbuka vile changa imearibu vijana wengi naata wengi wamepoteza maosha yao juu ya changa wengine wamepoteza kazi kwa sababu ya amuna, wengine wakikosa pesa ya changa unapata kama ni mwanaume
anachukuwa vitu zake zanyumba akipeleka ndiyo apewe changa na nguo za bibi na yawa toto atapeleka ili apate changa
na ata wewe jangero ninajuwa watuwengi maisha yao yaliaribiwa na chamga kutoka kwenyu aki jagero una faa ichuguzwe sijui kama wewe nichombo ya uwaribifu aworo
Diversity
Thing liet pa 😂😂😂😂
Kabisa bro.
Hygiene its the Main problem . Why Do people even Drink Alcohol , knowing that it's not Right . Whether its Exprsive one or Locally Made
Moonshine
Me too am a product of chang’aa what do I mean by that . Chang’aa feed me , dressed me , gave me a roof over my head, paid my school fees . My dad would brew it at the river when my mom would be the casher from 10 shillings to thousands . My parents would even seal it on wholesale . Transporting from my village to far villages, my parents made alot of money from that business. Buying lands and building rental houses , but as time went by I started disliking the business koz sometimes police would come and arrest my parents so I had to cook miss school , sometimes my parents and other villagers would sleep in the bushes with fear if they sleep in the house police will come arrest them . Again what made me hate it even more is when my brother started drinking it without control he became dirty and his cheeks were swollen took him to hospital and we were told chang’aa had burned his liver .
So hear I am after kCSe I run away to go away from home so I can try get my parents out of the chang’aa business one thing led to the other after 3 yrs I went back home and ask my parents how much money they had and they were very open with me so I gave the a business idea and they bought it and that how they stopped the business. My brother tody you tell him to taste it he will even attack you , we only go ushago when there is important occasion, our house was fenced and locked nobody stay there though the villager still brew it and in large amounts, I know how to ferment, distill and dilute
Too late for any effort to legitimize Chang'aa in this time and era. The world is already rotten. Thank God we consumed the legit cham during our days.
Moonshiner
Is that water clean Jagero????
Hehehe. Nope! It is not bro!
With that heat you think it's dirty
When any liquid boils to vapour, the changaa, all germs are dead. The changaa itself is alcohol an antiseptic which is used for sterilising surfaces.
Which place is this? i need to visit and taste it
You are an officer who wants to go and arrest them😂😂😂We know you even if you wear hijabs
@@DafeMuya😂😂😂😂😂you made my day
Unit Operations @ Nyakach Pacho Amuna to the world😂😂😂😂
Kamano baa
very authentic we use to be given changaa by our neighbours who brew it just to have a taste ,one day me and my 2 siblings went to still"Kangara" where they use to hide the pot ,little did we know we would get drunk😮😮
There's no alcohol in the world that's good for anyone's health.
Yes. Including "communal wine."
chiefs must raid them😂
Why does everything have to be so damn filthy?wtf man. I mean kudos to the hustle, kudos to the application of basic chemistry but Christ on a bike! Everything is just filthy.
Is it gin or rum?😄
correct. gin is similar to vodka but with added flavour agents. Rum is made from sugarcane and molasses
Spirit.
Face nii onge 🤣an ema face na ntie🤣
This is stupid and tells why our society is still backwards, regulations and laws exists for a reason even though Kenyan government is not the one would expect to be responsible for managing this safely and can understand why the people from the village would resort to this, I would have expected someone like this who looks educated not to have this kind of views. It's okay to keep traditions or whatever you call it but still needs to exists under the regulations. Unfortunately there have been a lot of cases where people died or affected various families whether directly on in indirectly whatever the percentage doesn't excuse the fact.