Call it a new fad, but a Southeast Asian beer is growing in popularity despite being made with giant water bugs.
Oh, and these water bugs look like cockroaches, lurk in the water, and they like to bite human toes. The Daily Star came across this particular beer.
Hey, pesky bug, it looks like you’re going down my throat, and I win, huh?
The beer, aptly named Insect Sour, comes from the fruity scent of pheromones from the male Taiwanese giant water bug.
Food Shortages A Reason Behind The Beer?
Hey, folks have been eating grasshoppers and other bugs by covering them with cheese or chocolate for years. Maybe they’ll one day take over future survival foods generations from now.
But why not try a cockroach-like beer and get ready now? This “Konchu Sour” beer from Japan even has a giant water bug on the label. But seriously, some of you peel the label off the bottle anyway, sitting at the barstool.
These toe-biting bugs can grow over four inches long and eat other insects, fish, and small animals like frogs. Japan and other Asian countries consider them mighty-fine delicacies (what’s wrong with oysters, y’all?). That particular male Taiwanese giant water bug gives off a sweet, fruit-like flavor that draws comparisons to a prawn. Asians eat them boiled, swallowed whole, or used as soup/stew seasonings.
Then, somebody came along and figured out the pheromones would make a good beer. If you look at the bottle, you’ll see “giant water bug extract” as the main ingredient.
Now, to drink the 5-percent ABV beer, you got to chill it. Want a bottle? It’ll set you back six bucks. And if you like the swill, I mean, sour taste, why not try the gin that comes from the same “essence” of the giant water bug?
That First Essence Tаgаme Gin is fashioned with juniper berries and has an apple or pear taste.
Bug Extract Not Only Unique Beer Out There
Not a big bug beer guy? Have you ever heard of Chica beer? Ok, now hear me out on this one.
The ancient Peruvian beer was created by chewing up corn and spitting it out. Then, brewers take spit and corn, and voila! They turn it into beer.
Small communities in the South American country produce it from chewed corn and ferment it in large clay pots with fruit and other spices.
American brewers like Dogfish Head have picked up the technique. They make it by getting co-workers to crew purple Peruvian corn before adding it to malted corn and malted barley. Then they do what they do with boiling, chilling, and blending the stuff with strawberries.
Often, you get a 3.1-percent ABV with fruity, spice flavors and a dry-like finish.
