MWW 26: Айраг

A bowl and vat of airag

Cyrillic	Айраг
Transcription	airag
IPA	[ˈæ:rək]
Layman’s Pronunciation	AA-ruck
Translation	fermented mare’s milk, kumiss
In Genghis Khan’s time it was ayiraγ.

Airag is the Mongols’ traditional alcoholic beverage, made from fermented horse milk. The first airag I had was given to me, along with a hadag, in a rinsed-out 1.25L coke bottle when I first arrived at site. (Airag isn’t sold in stores; you get it from your rural cousins in a recycled coke bottle.) It wasn't bad but I didn’t like the milk solids that tended to float in it. I recently had some of the new stuff that’s just coming out this summer, and it was smoother. I could also see the little fermentation bubbles in the drops of airag that stuck to the cup. I drank at least three bowls of it. And an hour later I ran to the bathroom three times. Airag is not for the sensitive stomach: even Mongolians sip it little by little at the beginning of summer, until they rebuild their tolerance.

Making Airag

Airag appears early in the summer as mares produce foals, and thus milk. If you take a walk around where there are lots of horses, you can probably see women milking the mares. Why do we not have cow airag? The answer lies in the composition of the milk. Alcohol is made by fermenting sugar. Horse milk has the most lactose (milk sugar), so it gets the most alcohol. (Goat milk has the least, which is why it's the easiest on the stomach.) Airag is usually left to ferment in a leather bag near the door of a ger. (I’ve also seen a guy with a 60L vat of the stuff.) It’s “stirred” by punching the bag. It’s polite to give the bag a punch if you walk into a ger with someone brewing it. Airag continues to appear through autumn, and the autumn airag is considered especially potent. There was also airag at Tsagaan Sar. I don’t know if mares are still giving milk at this point, or if that stuff was somehow saved since autumn. Airag can also be made into a kind of “Mongolian vodka” (Монгол архи) by freeze distillation. You just leave your airag outside and part of the water content (but not the alcoholic content) will freeze and you can lift it out. That stuff is pretty nasty though. It tastes sort of like vodka with a hint of old cheese.

Airag Customs

At parties airag is usually ladled from from a large ceramic vase into a traditional аяга (bowl for eating and drinking). You drink as much as you can, then hand it back to your server, who refills it and passes it to the next guy (or back to you, if you're the only visitor). An amusing tradition is to make the guest sing, while holding the bowl, and sometimes while standing. Usually after a few lines everyone else joins in. Once you’re done (but not before), you may drink the airag.

Perhaps because airag is traditionally ingrained in the culture, and because its alcohol content is low, it’s not looked at the same way as other drinks like beer or vodka. It’s not “bad.” Mongolians just don’t think of it as “booze” and so they give it to little kids and pregnant women.

So since it’s summer again, here’s to the airag!