2016 Chicha

[The_Professor]

Here is the bill for the Chicha minus showing the yeast and jalapenos:



I think I'm aiming for a 2.5 gallon batch.
4 lbs 14 oz malted purple corn ( Here if you haven't already seen it.)
1 lb acorn flour
1/2 oz cacao nibs in boil

I thought I had some 34/70 in the fridge to use for this but I don't. I'm going to use Nottingham instead.

A few roasted jalapenos (without seeds) and another 1/4 oz cacao nibs will go into secondary.

The idea I had for this was the purple corn with some odd "american" adjunct, cacao, jalapeno, fermented with lager yeast. So I'm mostly there.

There's gonna be another day of delay because the corn won't go through my new barley mill, it's too large to get caught by the grinder. I had to pull out my broken corona mill. A chunk of the grinding plate was broken off when I dropped it. So now it seems to take at least twice as long to mill the corn. I'm getting a decent mix of flour and flakes. Gonna have to get another Corona mill. Seems there are times they may be needed.

I'll add some nice links about brewing Chicha for anyone interested in taking a look.
After reading some of those articles I may have to malt some yellow corn and do a lacto ferment for a somewhat more authentic chicha.

Chicha Link 1
Chicha Link 2
Chicha Link 3
Chicha Link 4
Chicha Link 5
Chicha Link 6

[The_Professor]

The purple corn is milled now. Ready to brew tomorrow.

[The_Professor]

The Chicha is under way now.
First up is the cereal mash with 1 lb of acorn flour and 1 lb of malted purple corn.
Both the cereal mash and the regular mash will be step mash style. I think I need a step mash to get the best results from my home malted corn.

[The_Professor]

I cut my volume closer to 2 gallons rather than 2.5 when I saw my gravities were good but not great.
I'm looking at 13 brix (1.053) OG. I'm a bit surprised I got that with home malted purple corn and acorn flour.
The color is a bit muddy. Could be anywhere from golden to tan when done.
I'm hoping my cacao addition in the boil is just enough to cut the malt sweetness.

[mashani]

Did you decide to go with lacto? That would solve any sweetness problems. So says the man with 2 gallons of lacto beer sitting next to him.

[The_Professor]

Nope, didn't do lacto ferment this time. But I'm sure the corn picked up some lacto in the ziplock.

Considering the lacto fermented chicha did get me thinking about about a lacto triple play. Sumerian beer ("beer bread" with 2 row and raw barley, thyme, cardamom), Chicha (home malted yellow corn), African Millet Beer (roasted sour malt with regular malt red millet). Get a lacto starter going with raw barley in a brine. Kick it off with a gallon batch using 2 row. Then pitch the 3 beers onto the lacto one following the other. Overdose on probiotics.

[The_Professor]

I grabbed a prelim brix today. 8.75 (1.023 for 3.9 ABV so far)
Very small sample. Looks maybe hazy medium purple. Aroma a bit to the sour side. Flavor a bit sour, but not particularly strong. Will go ahead and move to secondary with the roasted jalapeno and cacao nibs this weekend.

[Inkleg]

I enjoy reading all the updates. Keep em coming.

[The_Professor]

I enjoy reading all the updates. Keep em coming.

Thanks Inkleg.

Today I racked the Chicha to secondary.
I added 4 smallish jalapenos (halved. seeds and veins removed, roasted 450 for 10 min), and upped the cacao nobs to 3/4 oz (ground in coffee grinder) since I didn't notice much chocolate from the boil addition (which was supposed to be more bittering than flavor).

After racking off the trub the volume is closer to 1 1/2 gal with no change in the FG. So >4 ABV. I would need to have used maybe twice as much corn to get a good ABV on a larger volume, not used acorn flour as an adjunct, or become a better corn maltster.

The flavor remains a not particularly good or bad slightly sour corny thing. Looks kinda brown in a large volume but light purple in a smaller volume.

[mashani]

Is the acorn flour traditional/normal? Isn't acorn flour really bitter?

[The_Professor]

Is the acorn flour traditional/normal? Isn't acorn flour really bitter?

AFAIK using acorn flour in a chicha is not in any way traditional. As far as being bitter, this is the only time I have ever used acorn flour. I understood that the acorns would be treated to leach out the undesirable bitterness before being made into flour.

[The_Professor]

I just poured a glass of the chicha straight from the fermenter. The aroma is totally roasted jalapeno. For the flavor, there is nothing overpowering. Because I am looking for it I can tell there is a slight chocolate background with a slight roasted jalapeno sitting on top of it. After a minute the aftertaste is a slight spice which gets just slightly warm. Then you think, maybe another sip.

The batch size is under 2 gallons. I'll probably just drink it as is from the fermenter this week.

[Inkleg]

Inkleg "Likes" the above post.

[mashani]

Inkleg "Likes" the above post.

As do I.

[Whamolagan]

+1 to the professor