Since being crowned this year’s RedEye Best Bartender, Dan Rook of South Water Kitchen has a few things brewing for the spring at the Loop bistro’s bar. Not only has he been busy crafting a new cocktail menu with housemade shrubs and working with the chef on a cold-pressed bloody mary, but he’s also been collaborating with
on a limited-edition beer that he’s tapping tonight.
Salinger’s Santo, the first beer in Rook’s “Syndicate in Da House” series, is a Belgian specialty ale that’s “dark as night” but “light on the palate,” according to Rook, with a low alcohol by volume percentage (5.5 percent). He was going for a malty beer with a soft hop profile, using pale and rye malt and Hallertau and Crystal hops for a clean and refined flavor, he said.
“We wanted something sessionable; we didn’t want to do a big blow-up-your-palate beer,” Rook said. “I hope there’s a turning back toward an appreciation of malt. It’s just been such a hop fest for such a long time, and hops are a really great way to disguise flaws in beer. … I like malt-centric beers; I drink stouts, browns and porters. So we still wanted to have that personal touch.”
Rook said he wanted a beer that would pair well with South Water’s house burger made with locally sourced beef, Widmer’s aged cheddar, smoked cherry tomatoes, blackened kale and beef cheek-onion jam on a pretzel roll ($20).
“It seemed to make sense, right?” he said. “I mean, think about those ingredients in the beer, and think about that burger—it’s a happy baby.”
Jake Williams, sales manager at Ale Syndicate, said South Water Kitchen was one of the brewery’s first supporters. He said 95 percent of the recipe was written by Rook, and an Ale Syndicate brewer tweaked it slightly to ensure it’s a good representation of the brewery.
“It’s a lot more fun to collaborate with another industry,” Williams said. “That’s why it’s been fun to work with Dan because he’s got a different mindset. He’s thinking more on the consumer level.”
Rook hopes to continue to do collaborations with Ale Syndicate. South Water Kitchen has 10 gallons of Salinger’s Santo, and it’ll be on draft for $8 until it runs out.
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