Brewing rice wine is a way of life – until it turns deadly

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In much of rural Cambodia, rice wine is an everyday part of village life. But when disaster strikes – like when a bad batch killed 15 in Kampong Chhnang province last December – determining who is to blame is no easy task.

 

By Kong Meta and Daphne ChenFriday, 29 September 2017

When the police came there was little Chheurng Ing could do but watch. First they took away her wine – made from rice that the 48-year-old had cultivated herself in Kampong Chhnang’s Teuk Phos district.

 

A few days later the police came to confiscate her materials – the yeast and bowls and jars she used to brew and distil the liquor under her wooden roof for more than 15 years.

 

Finally, they arrested her husband – a man named Phan Vy, 50, who prosecutors later claimed had added methanol to his wife’s wine in an attempt to make it more alcoholic, sickening more than 90 people in the commune in a mass poisoning last December that left 15 dead.

“I came to live with my mother-in-law after the incident,” said Ing. “I’m scared to live by myself now, especially at night. So many people died.”

 

read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brewing-rice-wine-way-life-many-until-it-turns-deadly

 

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