Peruvian Chicha (Corn Beer)
Recipe for Peruvian chicha from the town of Moche, as recorded by John P. Gillin.
From: 1947 C.E. To: 1947 C.E.
Location: Moche, Peru
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Moche, a Peruvian Coastal Community by John P. Gillin, 1947.
Chicha
Fresh chicha (fresco) with little or no alcoholic content is used, if available, as a thirst quencher at breakfast and to be carried in bottles to the fields, etc. This fresh drink is, of course, merely the regular product before it has fermented (when it is called chicha madura).
Judging by its effects (and not on myself alone), well-matured chicha must have an alcoholic content close to that of a heavy ale, perhaps 12 to 14 percent by volume. The strength of the brew is increased up to a certain point proportionately to the amount of chancaca (brown cake-sugar) or sirup mixed with the jora (mash made from sprouted grains of corn).
Except for the probably excessive consumption of alcohol which it induces, chicha in itself would seem to be a comparatively healthful beverage. As will be seen from the standard recipe in a later section, it is made from sprouted corn or other grains. This is not chewed up and spit out as is done in the manufacture of certain beers in the jungle portion of South America. The mash, or jora, thus made it then boiled with water for from 24 to 48 hours, which is, of course, sufficient to kill contaminating germs. The fermentation process serves the same end. Is, however, in the etiquette of drinking that all attention to modern rules of cleanliness disappears.
Recipe
Chicha may be made from a variety of grains or kernels, other than maize, e.g., peanuts, barley, wheat, etc. In Moche it is always made of maize, although sometimes wheat grains are mixed with the maize. It is boiled directly over the fire either in large 50-gallon oil drums or in earthenware pots.
In Monsefú (near Chiclayo) a chicha-making arrangement was observed which consisted of four large pots set into the ground close together but at the four points of a small rectangle. The earth was tamped well up around their outer sides, while a fire was placed in the center and blown with a fan so as to circulate between the pots. This pattern is said to have been used in former times in Moche, but has now completely disappeared. The following is a standard recipe.
Prepare the mass of sprouted maize (chuño de maís macido). Mature maize kernels are laid out on a damp cloth, usually gunny sacking, in a shaded place. Then they are covered with moist leaves or with a second damp cloth. The kernels are sufficiently sprouted in 6 to 8 days.
Make the jora (chuño with water), placing the chuño in the boiler, then adding water.
Boil for 24 hours or longer, up to 48 hours. At one house where the writer observed the process, the jora was being boiled in a 50-gallon oil drum over a cow-dung fire. The woman in charge said that the chuño involved in this batch amounted to 1 ½ arrobas (37.5 lbs.) and that she expected to get "slightly less" than two botijas (200 bottles) of drinkable chicha after discarding the dregs. During the boiling a plentiful scum accumulated on the surface and was flicked off with a rough branch from time to time. During the boiling process more water is added to compensate for that lost by evaporation.
Allow to cool.
Strain the jora through cotton cloth and/or a basket into the botija or other container.
Add chancaca (a type of brown sugar in cakes), sirup, molasses, or cane juice. Chancaca is most frequently used, and the amount depends upon the experience of the maker. Up to a point, the more sugar used, the more alcohol will result.
Allow to stand 4 to 6 days until it has finished "working."
Chicha made in this way will last about a month without turning to vinegar.
Gillin, John P. 1907-1973. Moche: a Peruvian Coastal Community. Washington: U.S. Govt. Pring. Off, 1947.
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