How to make chew-and-spit chica beer

The folks at Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware show how they made chicha, a South American fermented beverage that sometimes involves chewing maize to convert the starch into sugar.

[#1 posted by mdh, September 15, 2009 1:30 PM]

salivary amylase ftw!

[#2 posted by Anonymous, September 15, 2009 1:31 PM]

Dogfish Head makes great beer, but I wouldn't drink this for a thousand dollars.

[#3 posted by Anonymous, September 15, 2009 1:36 PM]

Funny NYT coverage of the brewing process here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/09beer.html?ref=dining

[#4 posted by lf, September 15, 2009 1:47 PM]

Having myself produced and consumed the vile stuff in it's natural setting, it is nice to see Dogfish giving chicha its due. Perhaps they're overengineering the process, but it's sure to be a tasty adventure.

Five gallon bucket covered by old rag was the prevailing style employed in my part of the Andes. Also you drink it warm.

[#5 posted by Anonymous, September 15, 2009 1:52 PM]

I lived in Peru for 3 years. The chicha I know was made not from chewed corn/ maize but from chewed cassawa/manioc. Is one type from the high Andes and another one from the jungle area?

[#6 posted by Brainspore, September 15, 2009 1:54 PM]

I'm pretty sure you can buy corn syrup right off the shelf in Delaware now.

[#7 posted by Anonymous, September 15, 2009 2:22 PM]

I'm pretty sure you can buy corn syrup right off the shelf in Delaware now."
Yeah, but where can you buy that much spit?

[#8 posted by jacord, September 15, 2009 2:25 PM]

@6: Since Delaware joined the Small States Solidarity Coalition back in '06, corn syrup has fallen victim to the Vermont maple syrup cartels.

But we do have a nice selection of DFH beer in the liquor stores!

I highly recommend a visit to the DFH brewpub / restaurant in Rehoboth. The food is decent, but the beer (and rum, and gin...) is really, really good.

[#9 posted by Bray_beast, September 15, 2009 2:30 PM]

Chew and spit lady beer?

[#10 posted by SednaBoo, September 15, 2009 2:32 PM]

Echoing BrayBeast@8:
Spell check the title please.

[#11 posted by noen, September 15, 2009 2:40 PM]

Unicorn chaser plz!!

[#12 posted by Gspeex, September 15, 2009 2:48 PM]

the BrewPub is in Rehoboth, but I'm pretty sure the brewery is in Milton...(he mentions Milton in the beginning, too...)

[#13 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, September 15, 2009 4:19 PM]

Chasers!

A bunch of talented geezers in the Midlands play "Bei Mir Bist du Schoen."

Roadrunner vs. Mirror.

Animals that are better than you.

[#14 posted by Anonymous, September 15, 2009 7:17 PM]

I've actually had some of the chicha dogfish created this past weekend at the brew pub (in Rehoboth, DE) and it was very good...at the time I wasn't aware of Sam's contribution to the beer, but despite that was a great beer. I'm happy Dogfish keeps pushing the envelope and coming up with great beers, it takes courage and that courage has helped turn them from the smallest brewery in the country to the 22nd biggest brewery in the country now :-)

[#15 posted by shecky, September 15, 2009 10:06 PM]

It's slobberlicious!

What a coincidence!, I was just watching Burden Of Dreams, a Les Blank documentary about the making of the movie Fitzcarraldo, which shows Klaus Kinski substituting evaporated milk for chicha in one scene, presumably to keep him from having another conniption on location.

[#16 posted by Anonymous, September 16, 2009 3:39 AM]

he says the heck outta uh but i could listen to him talk about spit for hours

[#17 posted by Gregory Bloom, September 16, 2009 7:12 AM]

Talk about a sales job! "Okay, we've got this beer made of spit. So just look into the camera and sell this beer to the American public. Make 'em want this beer. Make 'em drool over this beer."

I actually went from being repulsed by my previous impressions of chicha to being willing to give it a quaff.

[#18 posted by Anonymous, September 16, 2009 7:37 AM]

I was so curious to see how they recreated the recipe without using spit... oh well!

I've heard that urine is sterile too, but that doesn't make me any more interested in drinking it.

[#19 posted by Anonymous, September 16, 2009 9:06 AM]

As a Maryland resident and craft beer fan who has vacationed in Rehoboth Beach, I can recommend Dogfish Head products without reservation. Sam and his crew are among this country's finest brewers, and their homey pub (just a few blocks from the Atlantic) is a great place to sit out an afternoon rainstorm!

[#20 posted by Miguel Said Vieira, September 16, 2009 11:24 AM]

Echoing #9, #10: title should be "chicHa".

@5: I don't know inside Peru, but all over Latin America the word chicha can refer to many different beverages. In Venezuela, for instance, there are (at least) two different "chichas" -- one made from corn, the other from rice, and both non-alcoholic. I've also drank two different ones from Peru, and neither of them seemed like the one they brewed. Curiously though, unlike what they say in the video I've never of chicha in Brazil, where I live. But it's a large country, who knows.