An alert Sarasota Craft Beer reader* tipped me that The New York Times wrote Tuesday about how Dogfish Head, who are known for brewing high-concept beers** has done it again.
According to the Times, Dogfish's founder, Sam Calagione -- a craft beer celebrity and master pitchman who comes up with all these high concepts -- decided to brew chicha, a traditional Latin American corn beer. OK, that's not that weird; many beers (Budweiser) use corn.
But Calagione wanted to make it the traditional way, which involves milling the corn and moistening it in the brewer's mouth.
That's right, Calagione and some helpers (two professors of anthropology and archaeology) chewed up corn, formed it into patties, let the corn sit for some hours and then brewed with it. They say the enzymes in your mouth help convert the starches in corn into sugar, much the same way that steeping malted grains in warm water (mashing) does in the brewing of malt beer. During fermentation, yeast converts the sugars into alcohol.
As Calagione points out, there's nothing unsanitary about the process because the wort is throughly boiled before fermentation.
Well, the chewing of the corn didn't go quite like they planned. You should really read the Times' story; it's quite funny.
*Thanks, Mom.
**See my reviews of Sah'tea -- made with tea and juniper berries -- and Theobroma -- made with chilies and cocoa.
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