Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [92]
The beverage is designed to ferment in the package or in serving tanks holding the draft versions of this brew. After one day, the beer has developed 1 percent alcohol. It has a creamy texture, much like a thick milkshake or smoothie. The yeast has begun to ferment the sugars into alcohol. The shovelful of malt at the end of the brewing process introduces loads of lactobacillus bacteria to the sweet liquid. At the warm African temperatures, a lactic souring slowly evolves during fermentation. After 24 hours the beer has a slight acidic taste and a slight aromatic character reminiscent of yogurt (but remember, there is no milk in this beverage). The tannins from the sorghum husk contribute a drying astringency to the mouthfeel. The overall flavor is a pleasant blend of sweet and sour. Carbonation is beginning to naturally develop, and the bready aroma of yeast soon begins to emerge. I liked the beer quite a bit, though I imagine that something like this would be even more delicious with a fruit or chocolate flavor served at cold temperatures.
Sorghum beer is healthy. As a matter of fact, it is an important part of the nutritional intake of many Africans; fermented grain is nutritionally superior to nonfermented grain.
The alcohol rises to 2 percent on day two and 3 percent on day three, and then on the fourth day the worm will emerge from the package. This is when you know the beer is at its prime, at about 4 to 4½ percent. Alcohol, acidity and flavor balance to the preference of most Chibuku enthusiasts. The worm? No, it is not the wiggly kind, but rather the foaming fermentation that emerges from the pinhole atop the milk-carton-like container.
Enthusiasts may be found wearing a Chibuku Brewery T-shirt with the slogan “Hari Yemadzisahwira.” I believe it is the Chibuku version of “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.” More accurately, it relates that with good beer, there are friends to be made.
Commercially made Chibuku is quite popular, but the homebrewed stuff is even more so. Instant 24-hour homebrew kits are available throughout South Africa, as well as “all-grain” traditional homebrew kits. But most sorghum beer is made to village standards or family recipes handed down through generations, using 100 percent home-malted sorghum.
The soothing clickety-clack of the railroad tracks and my third Castle Pilsener helped me recall my visit to the beer gardens of Bulawayo the day before. As an editor, I had read and published an article in the 1984 issue of Zymurgy magazine about the beer gardens of Bulawayo. Now, 13 years later, the intrigue materialized as I traveled through Zimbabwe seeking these fabled beer gardens.
When I arrived in Bulawayo, I learned there were no longer any beer gardens in town. I ended up consulting a cab driver parked outside my hotel. “You wanna do what?” he asked incredulously.
“Yeah man, I wanna go to one of those sorghum beer gardens. Can you take me there, and will I be able to find a cab ride back?”
Richard, the cab driver, looked at me a bit perplexed, but then shrugged his shoulders and abandoned himself to my crazy fantasy. “Sure man, but you aren’t gonna find a cab out there to get you back. I’ll tell you what; I’ll stick with you for as long as you want to stay. Buy me beer and let me know when you want to come back.” This was not America!
Off we went to the western suburbs of Bulawayo seeking the Mashumba Beer Garden in Makakoba Township. The streets were dimly lit, but there was no shortage of people walking to everyday