Home-brewed beer of maize meal, bread yeast and sugar, drunk young. It is brewed in Lesotho yards alongside traditional joala, and sold from houses that fly a flag to show the beer is ready.
Home brewing of alcohol is licensed or restricted in most of the atlas’s readership, and this is an informal drum ferment sold outside any regulation.
What goes into it
- maize meal
- sugar
- bread yeast
- water
How it is made
Maize meal is cooked into a thin porridge, cooled, and mixed with sugar and ordinary baker’s yeast in a drum. It ferments for two or three days and is drunk cloudy and still working. Unlike joala there is no malting step — the sugar does the job the sprouted grain would otherwise do, which is why it is faster and cruder.
How long it takes: two to four days
How it is eaten
From a shared container at a homestead flying the flag, or at gatherings.
History
Brewed in Lesotho yards alongside traditional joala, and sold from houses that fly a flag to show beer is ready.
Frequently asked questions
What is Hopose?
Hopose is a wine & spirit from Lesotho: home-brewed beer of maize meal, bread yeast and sugar, drunk young. Brewed in Lesotho yards alongside traditional joala, and sold from houses that fly a flag to show beer is ready.
How is Hopose made?
Maize meal is cooked into a thin porridge, cooled, and mixed with sugar and ordinary baker’s yeast in a drum. It ferments for two or three days and is drunk cloudy and still working. Unlike joala there is no malting step — the sugar does the job the sprouted grain would otherwise do, which is why it is faster and cruder. It takes two to four days.
Can I make Hopose at home?
No, and the atlas gives no method for it. Home brewing of alcohol is licensed or restricted in most of the atlas’s readership, and this is an informal drum ferment sold outside any regulation.
What goes into Hopose?
Maize meal, sugar, bread yeast, water.
How is Hopose eaten?
From a shared container at a homestead flying the flag, or at gatherings.
