Brew Masters

Sam Calagione is the Indiana Jones of brewing. I've met him, so I realize he wears no whip, signature hat, or gun. As far as I'm aware, he doesn't make a habit of getting into fist-fights with Nazis either. Too bad, I think it would make good TV.

But Sam does seem to run through life with a sense of determination, running his brewery while cracking jokes and solving beer puzzles. Close enough to Indy for me.

You may have guessed that I recently watched an episode of Brew Masters called "Chicha". That's the episode where Sam goes to Peru, loses his luggage, and tries to track down the greatest treasure of the Incas: their beer.

Predictably, the episode is a riot. The historical method of brewing Chicha requires chewing on corn and spitting it into the mash tun. Sam wants a fairly large batch of the brew, requiring 40 pounds of mouth-moistened corn. The challenge is a serious one that leads to company-wide saliva tests and epic corn chewing and spitting sessions. Dogfish Head must be a fun place to work.

I loved the episode, but I do wish Discovery would produce the show with a little more of a documentary, rather than reality-TV style. I have some nerdy questions:

• What Peruvian spices did Sam add to the beer?
• Assuming that traditional Chicha brewers don't get those nifty plastic vials from White Labs, how is the Chicha wort inoculated? Is it a wild yeast? Do they use magic spoons?
• It looked like the Chicha Sam was served in Peru was fermenting like crazy, giving it a foamy head. Was it very carbonated? How did the Dogfish Head results compare?
• How did the Peruvian brewers cool the wort?
• What are the Chicha pubs like when American beer archaeologists aren't raiding them?
• Why doesn't Sam wear a whip and fedora?

 If you're in Austin, you definitely should consider watching the episode at the Alamo Ritz downtown. To sweeten the deal they even played a few episodes of Drunk History this weekend. Cheers!