Has anyone attempted, either successfully or unsuccessfully, to make the traditional Peruvian drink, Chicha? I recently saw the brew dogs episode where Sam and the rest of dogfish head spent days chewing and chewing and chewing corn to make a decent sized batch of chicha. I know it’s a relatively simple process, but I haven’t seen any home brewers posting about it. Thoughts or comments?
I’ve never tried it, but I remember seeing that episode and thinking, “Gross!”
It seemed odd that the FDA would let them brew and serve a beer where the main ingredient had been chewed and spit put by dozens of people before being used in the beer.
I know the boil probably killed anything off…but it just seemed gross.
Several different tribes in the southwest used to brew a corn beer called “tizwin”. It’s hard to find much information about it, but I have read one description in which they basically malted the corn before brewing. It sounds like they did sort of a sour mash before boiling. I have considered trying it, but haven’t yet. Might be a possible alternative to the chewing and spitting method though. Here is one discussion which definitely includes sprouting (malting) the corn;
http://amertribes.proboards.com/thread/1413
I (sort of) always wanted to try and do a chicha-type deal with Grape-nuts cereal. Its got malted barley in it. Would be neat to see it you could chew it up, spit it out, and then incubate the stuff for a day a la sour mash process to see how sweet it might get. Sparge that, boil it and ferment.
I made a “chichi” once in college, I malted the corn so I didn’t have to chew it, then at pitching time I added cinnamon and apples, it turned out very good as long as it was drank within the first couple days of fermentation, after about five days it reminded me of cat urine or a real dry wine, I only got about one glass cause my brother and his buddy drank the rest of the gallon before I had a chance, it was a positive experience and have thought about making more chichi one of these days
[quote=“stompwampa”]It seemed odd that the FDA would let them brew and serve a beer where the main ingredient had been chewed and spit put by dozens of people before being used in the beer.[/quote]The FDA sets the allowable limit for rat turds in breakfast cereal (it’s not zero), so human spit isn’t a show stopper.
[quote=“stompwampa”]It seemed odd that the FDA would let them brew and serve a beer where the main ingredient had been chewed and spit put by dozens of people before being used in the beer.[/quote]The FDA sets the allowable limit for rat turds in breakfast cereal (it’s not zero), so human spit isn’t a show stopper.
Man so gross, witch lucky charm looks like a rat sh$$?
I’ve never tried to brew chicha, but I tasted it when I was travelling in the Andies. Don’t know if what I tried was brewed traditionally or not. It came as part of a set-meal in a fast food restaurant that served local, traditional food. Roasted guinea pig was the specialty. The chicha was cloudy, a bit sour, and reminded me of apple juice that was starting to turn. Surprisingly low corn flavor to it, I guess the fermentation changed the flavor more than I would have expected it to.
