Rice is a major crop of Assam. Using rice as a substrate, different communities in the state produces peculiar fermented and non-fermented products like rice beer, sweets and snacks etc. Production of rice beer involves two steps; starter culture preparation and brewing. The starter culture is made of rice and herbal combinations and believed to act as inoculants for brewing. These products often contain mixed microbial population due to allowance of natural fermentation. Some amylolytic fungi plays important role in saccharification, whereas yeast is the dominant fermenting agent of glucose to produce ethanol. Besides, these products often contain wild yeast and other microbial population due to allowance of natural fermentation which have a significant impact on food quality. A study was undertaken to systematically study the fungi associated with rice beer starter culture. Thirty two yeasts were isolated from twelve rice beer starter cultures collected from six different districts viz., Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Majuli. Morphological identification was carried out with the help of standard literature. Macro- and micromorphological studies revealed the most frequently associated yeasts species viz., Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and Candida spp.

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