bs22619
Active Member
Anyone ever brew chicha? (a fermented drink using corn) (drinkin by the Inca's)
bs22619 said:Anyone ever brew chicha? (a fermented drink using corn) (drinkin by the Inca's)
Technically, chicha is/was make by converting starch into sugar by chewing it, and letting disastase enzymes in human saliva do the starch/sugar conversion - you can do this yourself by chewing bread for a long time, and noting how it gets sweeter. The chewed starch material (maize, cassava, whatever) is spat out and dried, or semi-dried, until the brewer is ready to soak it and ferment it. Some sources say the name chicha is derived from the Spanish word for “spit.”
I just watched the "Chicha" episode on Brew Masters and they said it had some spices and herbs in it as well. I believe they said cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and local Peruvian Spearmint. I don't know if this is all of them, but it is all that I caught. They also filtered it through a hay lined basket to give the Chicha an earthy nuance.
Yeah, funniest thing was he was all bent outta shape about brewing it the traditional way and chewing it. Then he gets down there and nobody chews their own raw corn anymore. The only exampkle he found was the last lady who chewed the germinated corn (much easier to do than the "fresh" corn) and then he comes back and does it differently, LOL!
I wonder if the employees wanted to kill ole Sam when they actually saw the episode and found out nobody in Peru chewed it themselves anymore?
LOL that would be "Chica", Homer!
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