First of all, be kind: Give your vegetarian friends a warning before you decide to pour them some of your ant-beer.
Second, don’t forget to snap a few photos before you toss the ants in the kettle, since surely one of the benefits of brewing with insects would be enjoying that shock value. However, there may be another benefit: Apparently, these particular creepy-crawlies are actually pretty tasty.
Chicatanas is the common name for Atta mexicana, flying leafcutter ants in Mexico, where at certain times of the year the ants are especially fruitful and numerous. Local cooks harvest them, grind them up with spices, and cook them into moles or other sauces. Oaxaca might be the best place to try them, but in this wondrous age of convenience, you can even order chicatanas online—not cheaply, and not all year, but you can find them. (On oaxacanspice.com, for example, three ounces or 85 g will set you back $55.)