Chicha de jora

Chicha de jora is the traditional fermented maize beer of the Andes, a lightly alcoholic drink brewed by germinating corn into malt (jora), boiling it into a sweet wort, and fermenting it in large earthenware vessels. Pale straw-gold and slightly cloudy, it is gently sour and cider-like, with only one to three per cent alcohol. It is pre-Columbian in origin and was central to Inca religious and civic life, where it was offered to the gods, the ancestors and the earth. Today it is still brewed at home and sold from rustic chicherías across southern Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, often signalled by a coloured flag or balloon on a pole outside the door.