"Khoumese is called sometimes _koumiss_ and sometimes milk wine."
From these references it will be seen that koumiss is an alcoholic drink made by the fermentation of mares' milk, but it is also frequently prepared from the milk of the camel and cows' milk. It is stated that a similar preparation to Russian koumiss is made in Switzerland from cows' milk simply by the addition of a little sugar and yeast to skim milk; "it contains more sugar and less lactic acid than Russian koumiss, and on account of the much greater proportion of casein contained in cows' milk, differs considerably from that prepared from mares' milk." Suter-Naef gives the composition of a Swiss koumiss[20] manufactured at Davos as follows:
In Grams. Per Litre Per cent. (by weight). Water 90.346 1019.64 grams. Alcohol 3.210 36.23 " Lactic acid 0.190 2.14 " Sugar 2.105 23.75 " Albuminates 1.860 20.99 " Butter 1.780 20.09 " Inorganic salts 0.509 5.74 " Free carbonic acid 0.177 2.00 "
The ferments used in the preparation of koumiss are stated by Carrick to be of two different kinds, artificial and natural.
"Of the natural ferments two have been resorted to. One is mentioned by Grieve, which he borrowed from the Bashkirs of Orenbourg, and which simply consists in the addition of one sixth part of water and one eighth of the sourest cows' milk to fresh mares' milk; the other has been employed, and was, if I mistake not, first recommended by Bogoyavlensky. It is a very simple if rather a tedious method. New mares' milk, diluted with one third its bulk of water, is placed in the _saba_,[21] and while allowed to sour spontaneously, is continually beaten up. This milk gradually undergoes the vinous fermentation, and in twenty-four hours is converted into weak koumiss. The disadvantage of this mode of commencing fermentation is obvious—viz., the great waste of time in agitation. Hence it is only employed when no artificial ferment is obtainable.
"In starting the process of fermentation in mares' or any other kind of milk, therefore, an artificial ferment is more frequently employed than a natural one. The former is used only for converting the first portion of milk into koumiss; the latter is always resorted to afterwards.