Amongst the expected subjects of today's headlines (congressional trudging toward health care reform, another reason to hate banks, the Afghan election debacle, Maureen Dowd's attempt at humor, Thomas Friedman adding nothing of value to the conversation, etc.) was something near and dear to my heart: beer!
Nestled under an article about social class and wine criticism (very interesting in its own right) and next to pictures of crazy bento boxes made by overly meticulous mothers is a piece by Joyce Wadler about Sam Calagione's crazy new idea. Founder of the Dogfish Head brewery, Calagione has a rep for ridiculous beers. I think the average ABV of the DH portfolio is something like 9%. They've got the crazy Midas Touch old ale based on a 2700 year old recipe, the raspberry Fort ale, the blueberry and blackberry Belgian, the chicory stout. Very strange ingredients. Not to mention the ridiculous ABVs of the 120 Minute IPA (originally 20%, then reduced to a "reasonable" 18%) and the World Wide Stout (18%), among others.
Anyway, Crazy Sam's new gimmick is to try his hand at brewing chicha, a fermented maize-based drink, which is a bit weak for him considering chicha usually clocks in at 3% or less ABV. But he's not content to go the modern route, oh no, he insists on doing what Peruvians did centuries ago, which is to personally chew the corn, thereby milling it, moistening it and beginning the enzymatic processes. I don't think they do it this way in Peru anymore. So Crazy Sam calls up some other crazies (Wadler and a couple academics) and they all chew corn for a couple hours until their jaws nearly fall off. It's a lot slower and harder than expected (that's what she said!) and they call it quits after chewing only seven of the intended 20 pounds. This, in addition to a whole lot of barley and some strawberries (of course, he can't resist the berries), eventually ferments into something that doesn't really taste like chicha. All of which is to prove that not all of Crazy Sam's ideas come out great.
Truth be told, however, many of them do result in delicious and interesting brews. The "crazy" moniker I've attached is a bit hyperbolic; he makes some weird beers but there's nothing wrong with that. Actually, I really respect the guy and the brewery.
It's always refreshing to see an NYT article about beer that's not written by Eric Asimov (who authored the aforementioned article regarding wine critics). It's not that I dislike Asimov. I enjoy his writing and he is thoughtfully appreciative of beer, but he is a wine guy, first and foremost. There's a lot going on in the beer world that the NYT readership would appreciate, so they really need to put somebody else on that beat. Cheers to Joyce!
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