Process

Baya brewing has been a tradition in Ifugao and it is best appreciated during the Gotad ad Ifugao Festival. The whole process of baya making is, basically, not done during the festival for it takes a month to prepare baya (Ifugao native rice wine) and it takes a longer time to have its best taste.
The process of attaining the heavenly sensation of the baya starts in the preparation of the needed materials and ingredients. First, one and a half kilograms of Ifugao native rice or any variety of ordinary rice and one kilo of glutinous rice is mixed together and cooked. Other people even roast the rice first before cooking which is also preferable. After cooking, the rice mixture then is spread on a ligau (rattan-made winnower), cooled and sprinkled with powdered binokbok (organic yeast). It is evenly mixed using a wooden spatula and placed in a lopahan (rattan-made container) to ferment. The mixture must be kept in a dry and dark room but the initial juice that flows from it must be collected first before keeping. After two-three days, the mixture is now transferred into a jar. One must see to it that the jar that will be used is cleaned and sterilized. After which, it is closed tightly and stored. All throughout the process, it is recommended to avoid contact with acidic food and materials.
Having passed two weeks or more, rice wine can now be extracted. The mixture can produce a certain amount of rice wine depending on the span of time the mixture is stored. The longer the wine is stored, the more wine is derived.
Also, the age of the wine can be determined by its taste. The younger the wine, the sweeter it