E-Malt.com News article: USA, IL: Forbidden Root brewpub to open in Chicago by the end of September

“It all comes from this notion of botanic brewing, which had a 10,000-year run,” said Robert Finkel, founder of Forbidden Root, a Chicago-based brewery. In the 1800s, “the soda cartridge was invented and that changed everything,” Crain's Chicago Business reported on August 12.

Finkel founded Forbidden Root more than two years ago, aiming to return to botanic brewing with the creation of herb- and spice-based beers. Forbidden Root's brewpub is to open in late September in the old Hub Theater at 1746 W. Chicago Ave. in western Chicago.

Forbidden Root's brews are already on the market. The company contracts with another brewery for production and distributes to about 150 restaurants and 200 retail locations in the Chicago area, and has a growing presence in New York.

The beers—Forbidden Root, Sublime Ginger, Wildflower Pale Ale, Heavy Petal and Shady Character—combine spices from around the world and have flavour profiles all their own.

“It doesn't taste like anything I've ever had,” said BJ Pichman, who was a home brewer for about eight years before he became operations manager of Forbidden Root. “That to me was the most exciting revelation—to know that we were doing something that no one else out there was doing.”

Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association, says botanic brewing is a micro-trend. She has seen a few other breweries around the country try it, but not many.

Herz said there is plenty of success to be found in approaching brewing from the spices first.

“Chefs put in a lot of thought and energy and time to the spicing component in their dishes,” Herz said. “Brewers can have the same types of success using that approach with beers.”

“Forbidden Root has begun to tap into that potential. Its brews have a natural, “root-forward” taste that isn't accidental,” Finkel said. The company builds its brews around the spices, rather than fixating on the type of beer it wants and adding spice later.

Construction plans for the brewpub cater to that priority. It will have a 15-barrel system and a custom-made infuser, allowing the brewers to influence the flavour by deciding when to add spice.

Finkel would not talk specifics, but said “many millions of dollars” have been invested in Forbidden Root.

“The urge to do something you've never done before, to try something you've never tasted, is too tempting,” Finkel said.


14 August, 2015