Beer Styles

Is chicha de jora a beer? That depends on whom you ask. It's a fermented drink made from malted grain, and in that sense a relative of beer. It isn't a style in the sense of beer competitions, since there's no standard for original gravity, bitterness, or color. That's why the profile below lists no values for it, only for the lager also brewed in Cusco. Cusqueña and chicha aren't easily compared, either.

The closest comparison is probably Finnish sahti, an old farmhouse beer without a fixed recipe, likewise brewed in small batches and drunk fresh. There too, home kitchen takes precedence over commercial standard. The difference lies in the grain: sahti is made from barley and rye, chicha from corn. The comparison only works as a mental shortcut and doesn't replace a proper style description.

Cusqueña, on the other hand, is a clear case. The golden variety is a bottom-fermented pale lager, and the BJCP style guidelines classify it as International Pale Lager. There are also darker and red varieties, plus a wheat beer, the Cusqueña Trigo. One distinctive feature is the altitude: the beer is brewed at roughly 3,400 meters.

Together, the two drinks form a study in contrasts. Chicha is cloudy, sour, local, and short-lived. The lager is clear, mild, and made for broad markets. Taste both in Cusco, and you'll better understand what beer really means: fermented grain, which every culture has shaped into something of its own.