You know those documentaries about tribes in South America that make alcoholic beverages by chewing up corn and spitting it into a container?  Well, that's basically what chicha is and Dogfish Head has attempted to create some of this.  Known for their extreme approach to beer, Dogfish Head has created some historically-relevant brews already.  Midas Touch was created with some of the residue from beer pots found in King Midas' tomb (and is quite delicious). Chateau Jiahu was made with residue from a 9,000 year old dig in China (and I'm still trying to find some of this).  So, with this pedigree under Sam Calagione's belt, he decided it was time to take on chicha.

A more apt description of chicha is a Latin-American corn beer that is traditionally mixed with saliva to turn the starches in the corn into sugar, which can then be fermented.  What's the easiest way to mix corn with saliva?  Chew it, of course!  So, with corn in hand and a couple interested parties, Dr. Patrick E. McGovern, the scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Clark Erickson, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, they went to work chewing the blue corn into small patties.  They soon realized that this was going to be a very difficult task as their mouths went completely dry as the corn absorbed all the saliva they could produce.  “It’s dismal, I’m not going to lie to you,” Mr. Calagione said. “I’d say everybody is deeply, unpleasantly surprised at how labor intensive and palate fatiguing this stuff has turned out to be.”

Reviews from some Peruvian tasters were not the greatest reviews to get, but I'm sure Sam Calagione won't take it too personally.  They said it tasted like beer and that chicha is sweeter.  I'm sure Dogfish Head won't give up so easily on chicha, back to the drawing board on that one, eh, Sam?

Read the NYTimes Article for a much more in-depth look at what happened with a quite humorous transcript of Mr. Calagione speaking with the corn in his mouth.