Chicha de jora is the traditional corn beer of the Andes, brewed in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador from jora – maize that has been sprouted and dried, like barley malt. It’s cloudy, pale gold to amber, lightly sour and gently alcoholic. It’s still sold in chicherías across Peru and is part of the country’s food heritage (Torres-Cárdenas et al., 2026). The recipe below uses bought jora; you can also sprout your own.
What Chicha de Jora Is
“Chicha” is a broad Latin American word for fermented (and sometimes unfermented) drinks. Chicha de jora is the malted-corn beer; its Quechua name is aqha. Don’t confuse it with chicha morada, the popular unfermented, non-alcoholic Peruvian drink made by boiling purple corn with fruit and spices.
The process follows the same logic as barley beer: germinating the corn activates enzymes (amylases) that can turn its starch into sugar; warm soaking (mashing) lets those enzymes work; the sweet liquid is boiled, cooled and fermented by yeasts and bacteria.
Chicha in Andean History
Chicha held deep cultural and ceremonial importance in pre-Columbian Andean societies, especially in the Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu), and it remains part of Peru’s food heritage today (Torres-Cárdenas et al., 2026).
Today, in the Cusco region and other highland areas, a pole with a red flag or plastic bag outside a door traditionally signals that fresh chicha is for sale. A common gesture before drinking is the ch’alla: pouring a little onto the ground for Pachamama (Mother Earth).
Amazonian peoples make their own chichas from cassava, traditionally started by chewing, which lets saliva’s enzymes begin breaking down the starch – see masato and Brazil’s cauim.
What’s in It: Yeasts and Bacteria
Chicha is a mixed fermentation. When researchers sequenced 27 samples from 14 chicherías in seven Peruvian provinces, Lactobacillus made up more than half of the bacterial sequences, followed by Weissella, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus and Streptococcus, with Acetobacter as the only acetic acid bacterium. The makeup varied a lot between chicherías (Bassi et al., 2020).
The alcohol comes from yeast: in Argentinian maize chicha, Saccharomyces cerevisiae – the same species as bread and beer yeast – made up more than 90% of the yeast sequences during fermentation (Mendoza et al., 2017). Another study of Argentinian maize chicha found 46 species of lactic acid bacteria across its production steps (Elizaquível et al., 2015).
That mix explains the flavor: yeast gives alcohol and fizz, lactic acid bacteria give sourness, and too much air lets Acetobacter turn it toward vinegar.
Making Your Own Jora (Optional)
Ready-made jora (“maíz jora”) is sold in Latin American shops and online. To make your own:
- Soak 1 kg of whole dried field corn (yellow or white dent corn, not canned or sweet corn) in water for 12–24 hours.
- Drain and spread it in a single layer between damp cloths in a warm place (70–80°F / 21–27°C). Rinse and re-dampen once or twice a day.
- After 3–5 days, when most kernels have rootlets about ½–¾ inch (1–2 cm) long, stop.
- Dry the sprouted corn in the sun or in an oven at its lowest setting, below about 150°F (65°C), until completely dry – too much heat destroys the enzymes.
- Grind it coarsely, like cracked corn.
Mold: remove any kernel with fuzzy mold straight away. If mold keeps spreading, or it smells musty or rotten, throw the batch out – moldy grain can contain toxins that boiling doesn’t destroy.
Tips for Good Chicha
- Control the mash temperature. Hold it around 150–158°F (65–70°C). Much hotter and the enzymes stop working; cooler and conversion is slow.
- Always add a starter. Boiling sterilizes the liquid, so there’s no reliable wild yeast left. Chicherías add sediment from the previous batch; at home, use a little yeast or a cup of your last chicha.
- Cover loosely. Fermentation makes carbon dioxide, so a sealed container can burst – but a wide-open vessel invites vinegar. A cloth or a loose lid is the middle ground.
- Taste daily. Young chicha (2–3 days) is sweeter and milder; the longer it goes, the drier, more sour and stronger it gets.
How Chicha Is Served
- Fresh: ladled from a large clay pot into glasses at cool room temperature in chicherías.
- Frutillada: chicha blended with strawberries, popular around Cusco.
- In cooking: as a braising liquid, famously in adobo arequipeño, a pork stew from Arequipa.
- With food: alongside anticuchos, tamales, humitas and other Andean dishes.
Related Andean and Latin American ferments: Bolivia’s chicha de quinoa, Mexico’s tesgüino and tejuino, and more in fermented drinks like kombucha.