---
title: "What Is Aludi? The Ancestral Beer of the Georgian Caucasus Mountains"
description: "In Tusheti, a remote region of the Georgian Caucasus, the sacred drink is not wine but aludi: a beer brewed with sun-malted barley and wild hops whose recipe has been passed down from grandmother to granddaughter for centuries."
url: https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/aludi-sacred-beer-georgia-highland-mountains/
date: 2026-07-23
modified: 2026-07-23
author: "Carlos Uhart M."
image: https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cerveza-ancestral-Aludi.jpg
categories: ["Culture", "History"]
tags: ["Ancestral Beer", "Georgia", "História"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# What Is Aludi? The Ancestral Beer of the Georgian Caucasus Mountains

Tusheti is a remote region of the Georgian Caucasus Mountains, home to aludi, the sacred beer that the inhabitants of these villages have been brewing with local barley, wild hops and yeast passed down from batch to batch for generations.

![Ancestral Aludi Beer from the Georgian Caucasus](https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cerveza-ancestral-Aludi.jpg)*Ancestral Aludi Beer*

Georgia is known worldwide as one of the cradles of viticulture. The *kvevri* —clay vessels buried in the earth— have been holding for eight thousand years the wine that Georgians consider part of their national identity.

But Georgia is not a homogeneous country, and in its most remote and inaccessible regions the ritual drink is not wine.

In Tusheti, a cluster of villages nestled in the northern foothills of the Caucasus bordering the Russian republic of Dagestan, the sacred drink is beer.

Not just any beer, but aludi: a barley fermented drink flavored with wild hops, brewed according to rituals that blend pre-Georgian paganism with Orthodox Christian faith, and whose recipe exists in no book because it has never needed to. It passes from hands to memory and from memory to hands.

The existence of aludi comes as no surprise to those familiar with the prehistory of beer. The oldest archaeological evidence of beer production in the Caucasian region dates back thousands of years, in a cultural arc stretching from Mesopotamia to the High Caucasus.

The [cuneiform tablet NMC 7962](https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/cuneiform-tablet-nmc-7962-oldest-beer-receipt-quality-classification/), recently decoded in Copenhagen, documents more than 120 liters of beer distributed over two days in ancient Mesopotamia, with a distinction between good beer and ordinary beer that carries the implicit idea of quality and ritual. Aludi has that same dimension — it is not just food.

## The Natural Barrier That Isolated and Preserved the Tradition

To drink aludi where it is brewed, you must first survive Abano Pass. At nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, it is the highest drivable mountain pass in the Caucasus: a ribbon of dirt and gravel carved into cliffs that snow, rain and landslides tear apart and return each year.

It is not a road in the conventional sense of the word. It is a permanent negotiation between the vehicle and the mountain.

Beyond the pass lies a handful of villages in high-altitude valleys and pastures, surrounded by pine forests patrolled by wolves and bears. In October, snow closes the access until June, cutting Tusheti off from the rest of the world for six months.

Most Tush families now live in the Alvani Valley, already in the plain, with schools, hospitals and internet access, returning to ancestral villages only in summer. A few elders remain through the winter.

That forced isolation, which in modernity is perceived as deprivation, was for centuries the mechanism that kept Tusheti’s traditions intact.

Without access to markets, without regular contact with the outside world, each village developed its own way of doing things: its own aludi recipe, its own flavor profile, its own relationship with the hop plant growing at the edge of the forest.

Geography as cultural preservative. The same logic that led the men of Shackleton’s expedition, trapped in Antarctic ice, to [depend on alcohol as an essential piece of their survival equipment](https://www.thebeertimes.com/endurance-shackleton-alcohol-antartida-historia-cervecera/) — in extreme austerity, fermented drinks are not a luxury.

![Darejani Oshoridze preparing aludi in Shenako, Tusheti, Georgian Caucasus](https://www.thebeertimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/aludi-cerveza-sagrada-georgia-caucaso-tusheti-300x197.jpg)*Darejani Oshoridze*

## Process, Ingredients and Variations

Every village in Tusheti has its own version of aludi, and often every household within a village has its own. There is no canonical recipe. What exists is a recognizable process with local variations at each step.

In the ritual versions, the process begins by soaking the local barley for two or three days, usually in cold mountain rivers or streams. It is then left to germinate in the sun until the grain has activated its enzymes and can become malt.

Grinding is done with a stone mill. The resulting dough is compressed and wrapped, placed in a barrel sealed with a cloth, and three days later the aludi is ready to drink.

The hops are wild, foraged from the surrounding forests. There are no selected varieties or controlled crops; the brewer goes to the forest, gathers what they find and incorporates it into the process.

The yeast is passed from one batch to the next, just as European bakers did before the industrialization of fermentation. Each household thus has its own strain, adapted to the local environment and the specific temperature conditions of that particular kitchen.

The domestic versions, often made by women, may follow different processes. Darejani Oshoridze, the family matriarch in Shenako, makes her aludi by toasting bread over an open flame, submerging it in water, adding hops after an hour and filtering the result into plastic jugs.

The process [more closely resembles that of a kvass](https://www.thebeertimes.com/como-elaborar-un-kvas-ruso-casero/), the fermented bread drink of Eastern Europe, than a conventional beer. The result, however, has its own distinct identity.

One characteristic that sets aludi apart from most commercial beers is that it is served during primary fermentation. The level of carbonation varies from glass to glass.

The flavor profile changes from one jug to the next. It is a living drink in the most literal sense, as its chemistry evolves while it is being consumed.

## Rituals, Gender and Religious Syncretism

Brewing aludi in Tusheti is not simply making beer. It is an act that for centuries was codified within a system of rituals that blends pre-Georgian paganism with Orthodox Christian faith in ways that the outside observer finds difficult to separate.

Tusheti’s villages have separate temples for men and women. Historically, the preparation of ritual aludi was an exclusively male activity.

Brewers could seclude themselves in the forest for weeks before beginning to brew, in a period of preparation that had more of a spiritual process than a logistical one.

Gela Lagazidze, one of the custodians of this tradition, explains it with the conciseness of someone who has reflected on it many times:

> In a place like Tusheti, you need clear rules and defined roles just to survive. Maybe that’s why only men were allowed to make aludi.

The reality, however, is more nuanced than the norm. The domestic versions of aludi — those drunk at home, with family, at celebrations or simply to accompany dinner — were always women’s territory.

Darejani Oshoridze, in her seventies, learned to make aludi from her grandmother, just as her grandmother learned from hers. The chain of transmission passed through no manual.

“Women have always made aludi at home,” says Oshoridze through her granddaughter, who acts as translator and who may be next to inherit this knowledge.

In Tusheti, aludi is drunk at births, funerals and religious festivals. The beer is not a social accompaniment — it is the marker of the moments that matter.

A function it shares with beer in many ancient cultures and which archaeology has documented since the earliest written testimonies of humanity.

## What Does Aludi Taste Like? Sweet, Herbal and Vibrant

The aludi drunk in Shenako is sweet, fruity and lightly herbal. Drunk at room temperature, without refrigeration, as befits a drink that has never seen an industrial cold room, it is delicious.

Variability is part of the experience. There are four different versions of aludi in Tusheti. They differ not only from brewer to brewer, but from glass to glass within the same batch.

Ongoing fermentation means the flavor profile is not static — what you drink in the first glass is not exactly what you drink in the third.

For a palate accustomed to the standardization of industrial beer or even to the consistency sought by craft beer, it is an experience that requires adjusting expectations and opening up to something different.

The dominant flavors cited in the various versions tasted in Tusheti include sweet cereal and fruit notes, an herbal background from the wild hops that recalls an infusion more than the bitterness of a cultivated hop, and a slight acidity resulting from the bacterial activity present in fermentation.

Some batches include local ingredients; black hawthorn, for example, gives the Darko version a natural sweetness and dark coloration that visually distinguishes it from the paler versions.

## Aludi Beyond the Caucasus

On the road into Tusheti, before crossing Abano Pass, there is a café called Above the Clouds.

It is one of the last points of contact with civilization before the road becomes something that tests the driver’s nerves and the vehicle’s brakes. Sauers stopped there, and there he first saw the Darko brand.

Darko is the Tush word for mash. It is also the name of the brand that Mariam Tavberidze, a Tush woman living in the Alvani Valley, uses to commercialize her version of aludi. On the back label of the bottle was her email address.

She learned to make aludi from her grandmother, just like Oshoridze. She then studied the traditions of different families in Tusheti to understand the variations and decide what she wanted to preserve and what she wanted to adapt.

Her version uses black hawthorn as an additional ingredient, giving Darko aludi a differentiated profile from the more basic versions.

> It’s very rare to find women continuing this tradition at home. Usually, it’s only grandmothers who still brew.

The migration of young Tush people to Tbilisi and other cities is the main risk factor for the continuity of domestic aludi. Tavberidze hopes that commercialization will be part of the solution.

If aludi exists as a product with demand, there is an economic incentive for someone to learn how to make it. The logic is the same that has worked with other foods and drinks at risk of extinction around the world.

## Why Preserving Aludi Matters

Aludi is not an ethnographic curiosity or a collector’s item for lovers of the exotic. It is a functional model of what beer was before it became a standardized industry, and as such it has something to say to contemporary craft brewers who work with wild ingredients, spontaneous fermentations and inherited processes.

The yeast passed from batch to batch, the hops foraged in the forest, the malt prepared in mountain sunshine — these are precisely the variables that the most experimental brewers in Europe and North America are trying to recover, or reconstruct, when they talk about beer *terroir*, local identity or beers that could not exist anywhere else.

Aludi has been doing that, without calling it anything special, for centuries. What is at risk is not the technical knowledge, which in theory can be documented. What is at risk is the chain of transmission.

The grandmother who teaches the granddaughter, the yeast that passes from one batch to the next, the relationship between the specific Tusheti forest and the hops growing in that forest.

If that chain breaks, what remains is a historical reconstruction, not a living tradition. The difference matters.

## How to Brew Aludi at Home

Georgia’s Sakspatenti Office registered aludi in February 2025 as a Protected Geographical Indication, documenting for the first time the Tushetian brewing process with precise data.

A water-to-malt ratio of 5:1, a cook of approximately three hours until the wort reaches a light brown color and a sweet, dense flavor, and a minimum three-day fermentation, with full aromas and flavors developing between the seventh and tenth day.

That data is the basis for the two home versions that follow.

### 1. The Domestic Version (Oshoridze Method)

This is the most accessible recipe and the one Darejani Oshoridze practices in Shenako. For a five-liter batch you need four or five slices of rye bread (about 200 g), five liters of water, 30 g of dried hop cones of a low-bitterness variety (Saaz, Hallertau or similar) and 5 g of ale or bread yeast.

Toast the slices directly over a flame or in the oven at 200 °C until well browned but not burnt.

Submerge the toasted bread in the cold water and bring the mixture to heat, holding it between 60 and 70 °C for one hour without reaching a full boil, stirring frequently so the sugars dissolve.

After the hour, add the hops in a muslin bag and raise the heat to a gentle boil for twenty minutes. The resulting liquid has an amber color and a lightly sweet flavor with an herbal background.

Remove the hops, filter the liquid through a clean cloth or fine strainer to remove the bread residues, and let cool to around 25 °C.

At that point add the yeast, dissolve it well and transfer the mixture to a glass or ceramic container. Cover with a clean tied cloth — never an airtight lid, so that fermentation gases can escape — and leave to rest in a warm place, between 18 and 22 °C.

After 24 hours there is already visible activity; after three days the aludi is ready to drink, and between the seventh and tenth day it reaches its most complex flavor.

### 2. The Malted Barley Version

To follow the original process documented by Sakspatenti — the one that starts from the raw grain — the complete process requires ten to twelve days. Soak one kilogram of barley in two liters of cold water for three to five days until it germinates.

Drain it, spread it in a layer of about four centimeters on a damp cloth and cover with a thick wool or cotton cloth, leaving a small opening at the top for air circulation.

In three or four days the grain will have germinated to approximately one centimeter. Spread it in the sun until completely dry, or in an oven at 50 °C for three hours if the weather does not cooperate. Grind coarsely in a food processor or grain mill.

Incorporate the ground malt into five liters of cold water — a 1:5 ratio as specified by the Sakspatenti register for Tushetian beer — and place over heat with constant stirring so the mass does not stick to the bottom.

The cooking takes approximately three hours until the wort reaches a light brown color and a sweet, consistent flavor. Add 30 g of hops in a bag during the last twenty minutes. Let cool to 25 °C, filter through a cloth, add the yeast and leave to ferment covered for a minimum of three days.

The result is closer to the original Tushetian aludi: more body, more complexity and the malt profile with toasted notes that characterizes the beige-golden beer they have been brewing in Tusheti for centuries.

## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

### What exactly is aludi?

Aludi is a traditional beer brewed in Tusheti, a mountainous region of the Georgian Caucasus. It is made with locally grown barley malted in the sun, wild hops foraged from surrounding forests and yeast passed down from one batch to the next. Each village — and often each household — has its own recipe. It is typically served during active primary fermentation, which means its flavor and carbonation vary from glass to glass.

### What does aludi taste like?

The most common descriptors are sweet, fruity and lightly herbal, with a cereal background and gentle acidity. Some brewers incorporate wild fruits such as black hawthorn, which adds dark color and an additional layer of sweetness. Variability is an intrinsic part of the experience: served during fermentation, the profile changes between glasses of the same batch.

### Can women make aludi?

Historically, the ritual preparation of aludi was reserved for men, with a preparation period of spiritual significance. However, domestic brewing was always women’s territory. Today it is primarily women such as Darejani Oshoridze and Mariam Tavberidze who maintain the tradition, both in the family setting and through commercial initiatives such as the Darko brand.

### How can aludi be tasted outside of Tusheti?

The most accessible option is the Darko brand, founded by Tush producer Mariam Tavberidze. For the complete and authentic experience you need to reach Tusheti between June and October — when Abano Pass is open — and look for aludi in village homes and guesthouses. The Above the Clouds café, on Abano Pass itself, also serves it.

### Is aludi at risk of disappearing?

The domestic tradition is threatened by the migration of young Tush people to cities. According to Mariam Tavberidze, “usually, it’s only grandmothers who still brew.” Commercialization through brands such as Darko and the growing global interest in ancestral beers are the main factors that may keep the knowledge alive. The key is that the chain of knowledge transmission does not break.

## Recommended

- [The Endurance and Shackleton’s Alcohol: What Did Antarctic Ice Reveal 100 Years Later?](https://www.thebeertimes.com/endurance-shackleton-alcohol-antartida-historia-cervecera/)
- [Hoegaarden Grand Cru: Tasting Notes and Pairings Recommended by a Beer Sommelier](https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/hoegaarden-grand-cru-tasting-notes/)