Chicago may soon be home to the U.S.’s first makgeolli brewery, according to a piece by Chuck Sudo in Chicagoist. What’s that, you ask? Well, you may know it better by its ancient name, takju. No? Well, takju is one of the traditional Korean liquors, along with cheongju and soju. Now we’re getting somewhere; takju is fermented rice or wheat, cheongju is a strained, refined version of takju, and soju is a distilled version of cheongju. So makgeolli aka takju is a cloudy rice wine, essentially, about 6-8% alcohol by volume, which Koreans drink for its reported medicinal value. Bae Sang Myun brewery from South Korea will build a brewery here, importing rice and yeast cakes and turning out around 50,000 cases a month. They hope to open by July; if it takes off locally, breweries in Los Angeles and San Francisco may follow. [Chicagoist]
