Chicago’s first craft rice winery

In 2018, I tried makgeolli for the very first time while living in Seoul and I instantly fell in love with this complex fermented beverage. I soon was an avid visitor of makgeolli bars across Seoul. These bars had long menus as thick as a wine book with a huge range of flavors.

When I came back to Chicago, the imported makgeollis I tried all tasted the same. They were artificially sweetened, watery, and lacked the complexity of flavor I fell in love with.

So, in an attempt to recreate the best rice wines I tried in Seoul, I began to homebrew, using all traditional methods. I failed, failed again, and failed again until finally I had a rice wine I was really really proud of. That’s when Yido was born.

Chicago is a food and drink city. Yet, until Yido, we’ve been the largest city in the U.S.A. that doesn’t have a rice wine brewery (neither sake, makgeolli, nor any other rice alcohol).

What’s makgeolli?

Makgeolli (mock-GOAL-lee) is an incredible, naturally fermented rice wine from Korea. It’s produced using steamed rice, water, and nuruk, a starter culture typically made from pressed wheat.

The nuruk enzymes are able to break down the complex starches in the rice into simple sugars giving yeasts an ample food source to make alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are hundreds of regional varieties, flavors, and traditions with makgeolli. What Yido is doing is just a small peek into the vast world of rice wine.

Cheers!

What is Yido?

Yido is a shortened form of 제2도시 (jay-yi-do-shi) which means Second City in Korean. I’m a Chicago boy and my family has been in Chicago since the early 1960s. Yido is a Chicago project through and through and our name emphasizes our Korean and Chicago roots.