- Michael Gebert
- Jared Rouben at Moody Tongue
With breweries opening nearly every week in Chicago, it seems a bit less than news that one of them has installed tanks and is planning to start brewing this week. But on Saturday I went anyway to Moody Tongue Brewing Company in Pilsen, the new brewery launched by former Goose Island brewmaster Jared Rouben, whom I last interviewed about it in August.
Rouben talked about the advantages of having a relationship with the farmer and maltster who is growing and roasting your malt, and how it’s similar to what a baker does with grain while baking bread: “When you’re just purchasing malt, you have very little control. We have the ability to say, Eric, I want a little biscuity flavor, can you roast that malt to get us more biscuit. Or if you want more chocolate, you can roast that grain to get more chocolate. The same with caramel or toffee. And all of a sudden, it sounds like we’re in a bakery, not a brewery.”
