Chicha

[seymour]

oldbloke, can she have rice or quinoa? Those work alright, too.

[oldbloke]

Yeh, they're both gluten-free.
We've used quinoa as the starch part of normal cooking a few times, but it's flavour doesn't really grab us and it's a bit tedious. And the grain size is so small I imagine malting it must be awkward, but sooner or later I'll have to try.
Lentils are another possibility in the quinoa area, I guess.
As for rice, I know for saki etc they use some weird enzyme (or fungus?) rather than malting, though I understand it can be malted. I suppose I'll get round to that one, but I'll probably be trying the crazy milk wine recipe from Kania's book sooner than that.

[Laripu]

Have you drank this before and did it float your boat?

I don't know about other brewers, but for me the answers are no and no, but I don't regret the exercise. I had talked about chicha de jora with Peruvian friends, read anthropological and archeological articles about it, seen it in movies like Medicine Man, etc, and so I wondered what it was like to brew, wondered what it would taste like. Answers: extremely tedious and terrible. I've had similar experiences with dark ages gruit, Finnish sahti, Viking wormwood honey wine, Welsh braggot, Prohibition-era Choctaw beer, etc. Learned a lot, made some rich memories, but the resulting beverages were generally rough on the palate. I got into homebrewing as a connection to the past, a way to recreate interesting drinks which were, in most cases creative experessions and everyday staples of cultures which are long-gone or at least much changed. I even go so far as to order obscure seeds from other countries, grow the plants in my garden in order to brew particular recipes.

But, as I think you're insinuating, there are obvious reasons almost every society throughout history when given the taste choice, switched to crisp, clean ales and lagers. They're cheaper, easier, yummier, and nowadays more available.

However, some more interesting reasons are less obvious: the old ingredients were associated with witchcraft, modern-day ingredients were grown/regulated/taxed by the church, purity-laws outlawed experimentation, prohibition laws drove diversity out of the market, restrictive distribution agreements prevent healthy competition, mindless advertising dumbs-down the consumers....I digress. Those are the stories I get into.

A man after my own heart. I like your thinking.

Edit to add: I should have guessed.... another American.

[Laripu]

Have you drank this before and did it float your boat?

I don't know about other brewers, but for me the answers are no and no, but I don't regret the exercise. I had talked about chicha de jora with Peruvian friends, read anthropological and archeological articles about it, seen it in movies like Medicine Man, etc, and so I wondered what it was like to brew, wondered what it would taste like. Answers: extremely tedious and terrible. I've had similar experiences with dark ages gruit, Finnish sahti, Viking wormwood honey wine, Welsh braggot, Prohibition-era Choctaw beer, etc. Learned a lot, made some rich memories, but the resulting beverages were generally rough on the palate. I got into homebrewing as a connection to the past, a way to recreate interesting drinks which were, in most cases creative experessions and everyday staples of cultures which are long-gone or at least much changed. I even go so far as to order obscure seeds from other countries, grow the plants in my garden in order to brew particular recipes.

But, as I think you're insinuating, there are obvious reasons almost every society throughout history when given the taste choice, switched to crisp, clean ales and lagers. They're cheaper, easier, yummier, and nowadays more available.

However, some more interesting reasons are less obvious: the old ingredients were associated with witchcraft, modern-day ingredients were grown/regulated/taxed by the church, purity-laws outlawed experimentation, prohibition laws drove diversity out of the market, restrictive distribution agreements prevent healthy competition, mindless advertising dumbs-down the consumers....I digress. Those are the stories I get into.

A man after my own heart. I like your thinking.

Edit to add: I should have guessed.... another American.

Seymour, given your interest in indigenous drinks, this might interest you.

[Laripu]

Eventually, just for laffs, I intend to work my way through as many legumes as I can get to sprout.
Chickpeas. Peas! Broad beans! Red kidney beans!

Please let us know the details as you do each brew. I'm intensely interested.

[oldbloke]

Eventually, just for laffs, I intend to work my way through as many legumes as I can get to sprout.
Chickpeas. Peas! Broad beans! Red kidney beans!

Please let us know the details as you do each brew. I'm intensely interested.

I have a second batch of maize sprouting now. Germinating more evenly than the first lot - I did drown them, it seems. Will try to get enough malted to make /something/ even if it's only a litre.

[seymour]

Seymour, given your interest in indigenous drinks, this might interest you.

Ah yes, kvass. I haven't made it (yet, anyway) but I've tasted two commercial examples. Again, I can't say I loved it, but it was interesting, drinkable, and cola-like. It's cool to have experienced a staple that millions of people drink across Russia, China, etc.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/deka-nikola/67806/105950/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/monastirsk ... 74/105950/

[super_simian]

mmmm I thought the spit provided amylase, to do the starch conversion the same way it works when you malt.
Anyway, I'm getting very inconsistent sprouting, I suspect round about Tuesday I'll be binning this first lot.

I don't know much about that. It's not like corn kernals normally need human spit to sprout.

oldbloke is on the money; the amylase in saliva let them skip the malting step, effectively going straight from grain to a "mash" of sorts.

[Laripu]

Seymour, given your interest in indigenous drinks, this might interest you.

Ah yes, kvass. I haven't made it (yet, anyway) but I've tasted two commercial examples. Again, I can't say I loved it, but it was interesting, drinkable, and cola-like. It's cool to have experienced a staple that millions of people drink across Russia, China, etc.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/deka-nikola/67806/105950/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/monastirsk ... 74/105950/

Yes, but these are big-enterprise versions of kvass, and they're more like a soft drink, and too sweet. I had the opportunity to taste a bottle conditioned kvass with raisins floating in it....it was a much nicer drink, more like a homebrew. Because it was a little sweet, it needed refrigeration our it would blew up. (And it was 3 times the price.)

When my current kvass has been bottled and consumed, I'm planning one that uses crystal malts for sweetness, and doesn't require refrigeration...but that will be months from now. It will be mashed, with no jar of Russian concentrate.