Mayan end of world brew

[theonetrueruss]

Ok, so I figure it is time to decide what I am going to brew for the Mayan 'end of the world'. As you may know the Mayan calendar ends it's great cycle on Dec 21st 2012. Of course I don't think the world is going to end but it sure sounds like a great excuse to make a special beer.

So... What the hell is appropriate? I figure it is going to be high ABv.. I'm going to shoot for the mid teens (15% or so)... but what flavors to go for?

Does anyone have a clue to traditional Mayan flavors? Any ideas? I figure I better start something early. Figure it's going to need a good 6-12 months to age into goodness.

 

[MalFet]

Chocolate chipotle corn-adjunct lager?

 

[bob1852]

We had discussions in the mead threads about this.....someone proposed a recipe and i think a few already started.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

While it's really from a location further south than where the Mayans built their empire, imperial Chicha sounds appropriate.

 

[KYB]

1.221 OG sounds appropriate.

 

[MaltnHops]

Mayans used to drink a spicy hot chocolate type of drink during rituals. I would go for a chocolate chipotle stout.

 

[teucer]

While it's really from a location further south than where the Mayans built their empire, imperial Chicha sounds appropriate.

Heh, I like that idea.

Mayan flavors and what I think of beer-wise when I ponder them:

- nixtamalized corn (as in masa, which you can buy at any Mexican grocery, or failing that tortilla chip meal) has a subtly different taste from other ways of preparing the corn, and should be considered as a possible substitute for any corn adjunct you're considering.
- the pan-North-American trio of corn, beans, and squash. Consider something like a pumpkin beer, only using a different gourd (butternut squash?) and possibly a maize adjunct.
- bitter chocolate with honey and chili peppers. Stout? Stout. Don't forget the corn adjunct (cornmeal being a common thickener in new world chocolate recipes).
- bitter chocolate with a variety of old-world spices after Spanish contact (no longer Classical Mayan era, but the Mayans aren't all dead) as well as chili peppers.
- chili peppers. Seriously, your favorite chili beer is perfect. Maybe make a chili-pepper cream ale, with a few percent black malt and crystal malt for color (a la Kentucky Common only spicy).
- manioc, which may have been a staple crop of the early and Classical Mayans in lieu of the corn which is dominant among modern Mayan cultures. And it's directly fermentable; a slightly-fermented manioc beer is also a traditional Jivaro beverage.

Adding Aztec and other Mesoamerican influences:

- maguey. You know the agave nectar you can buy as a sweetener? It's concentrated maguey juice. And the Aztecs made an alcoholic wine out of it called pulque, still made in parts of Mexico to this day. (Traditionally it's fermented with Zymomonas bacteria instead of or in addition to yeast.) Brew a pulque or agave braggot.
- Alegria is a traditional sweet that's basically rice crispy treats only with amaranth instead of rice and honey or boiled-down maguey juice as the syrup that binds it all together. Amaranth and honey or maguey adjuncts in a pale ale? Sounds tasty to me...
- A variety of herbs with primarily medicinal purposes found at your local Mexican grocery. Consider replacing your hops with a gruit made from Mesoamerican herbs rather than European ones - perhaps a dark ale with epazote and small amounts of black walnut leaves (normally used as an anti-parasite medicine, but plausibly a bittering herb in small quantities), damiana (more associated with Baja California than with the Yucatan, but tasty and allegedly an aphrodisiac), and gentian (for bitterness)?

 

[windbreaker123]

I have mine ready 12.5 but I'm calling 12.2 I don't know with i will do with the left overs if it doesn't end. But I will think of something.