Jared Rouben: I’ve been exploring food and beer since culinary school at the CIA [Culinary Institute of America]. That’s where I first started a brew club, bringing in other breweries and kind of experimenting with beers as a pairing ingredient, as an actual ingredient in food and just enjoying it on its own. And it’s really from there that I started seeing a lot of the flexibility and opportunity with beer and food.
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- Michael Gebert
- Chef Kevin Hickey of Allium brews beer with Jared Rouben at Goose Island in 2012.
When you made beer with Kevin Hickey of Allium, for instance, he basically added aromatics to the beer, and steeped them like tea. But you’ve also used things like carrots in beer. How do you make ingredients like that work in beer?
You’re going to have a tap room in your brewery. Is there going to be a restaurant side to that? It seems like some of the things you’re talking about need food to fully bring out what they’re about.
Two, now with this brewery I have a platform to share culinary brewing with Chicago. Where before I was limited to one keg, or maybe half a batch which could only be enjoyed if you came to the brewpub. Now I have a platform to share culinary beers on a much bigger stage.
