(CNN) — Kim Kyung-seop recollects going to low-cost bars after class together with his pals, the place they binged on as a lot makgeolli as potential.
“You know the saying, ‘alcohol consumes males?’ It was like that.”
Makgeolli, the milky and infrequently candy conventional rice wine from Korea, was chosen for its worth, not taste.
In 1989, when Kim entered faculty, half a gallon of makgeolli value about 40 cents. He and his pals would sit round a desk, pouring makgeolli from a brass kettle into particular person brass bowls, as is custom.
Kim, now an adjunct professor at Global Cyber University in Seoul, has been instructing makgeolli brewing strategies for 10 years. Yet he remembers his early encounter with the drink being unpleasantly bitter and bitter.
“When we had been with girls, we’d drink beer. But among the many boys, we drank makgeolli.” Makgeolli — with its much less stylish repute — was unfit for impressing girls.
Two many years later, in bars throughout South Korea’s capital, the lackluster drink from Kim’s reminiscence was changing into fashionable, this time within the palms of a younger technology of entrepreneurs and brewers.
“We labored very exhausting to do away with the established photographs individuals maintain of makgeolli,” says Kim.
Kim Min-kyu (no relation to Kim Kyung-seop) is one brewer who had been main the change. He launched his premium makgeolli brewery Boksoondoga in 2009.
Min-kyu’s teetotaler, religious Christian father opposed his plan — particularly after having spent the household fortune supporting his son’s 5 years of coaching as an architect in New York City’s Cooper Union. His father even smashed a clay pot used for brewing makgeolli in a match of anger.
Min-kyu was not deterred. He believed within the power of his grandmother’s makgeolli recipe.
When he was a toddler, he would go to her farmhouse in Yangsan, a city within the southeast. She would combine half-steamed rice together with her selfmade yeast and water. And he would take heed to the quiet effervescent of air because the combination fermented into makgeolli. His fondest recollections had been his grandmother generously sharing the completed brew with the neighbors, after which they might sing and dance.
He satisfied his household that brewing is an extension of structure for him. Applying his coaching, he designed the branding, the advertising supplies and the brewery constructing, whereas his mom brewed the makgeolli, creating the primary bottle of Boksoondoga. Doga means “brewery,” and Boksoon is Kim’s mom’s title.
The timing was fortuitous. Makgeolli was popping out of a century-long darkish age.
Kim Min-kyu is likely one of the trailblazers of Korea’s new makgeolli scene.
Boksoondoga
The historical past of a drink
Makgeolli is a mix of the Korean phrases mak (that means “roughly completed” or “a second in the past”) and geolleun (“filtered”).
While the title first seems in “Gwangjaemulbo,” an encyclopedia presumed to have been written within the nineteenth century, the opaque alcoholic drink doubtless dates again a millennium.
One early twentieth century report claims that it was consumed in each nook of Korea.
“Makgeolli is inherent to Korean tradition, it is the drink of Korean individuals,” Kim Kyung-seop says.
One motive for the recognition is its simplicity. It is a mix of steamed rice, yeast and water, left to ferment for a number of weeks in a clay pot. Many households throughout Korea brewed their very own drinks with their distinctive recipe.
The Japanese colonization through the first half of the twentieth century introduced the top of many cottage industries. The colonial authorities phased out homebrewers in favor of standardized, industrial liquor makers. All alcohol-making was taxed and licenses had been required, even for self-consumption.
Just a few mass-produced drinks dominated the market and, by 1934, homebrewing was outlawed.
World War II and the Korean War left the nation devastated. The new authorities continued the coverage of tightly controlling alcohol manufacturing. As the meals scarcity worsened within the Nineteen Sixties, utilizing rice — makgeolli’s key ingredient — to supply alcoholic drinks was banned.
Manufacturers used wheat and barley as substitutes and makgeolli’s recognition sunk. It was supplanted by trendy soju, a transparent liquor made by diluting ethanol. As the economic system improved and rice provide outstripped consumption, the rice alcohol ban was lifted in 1989 and homebrewing was made authorized once more in 1995. But a lot custom was misplaced.
Pyongyang Pub, a North Korea-themed bar, has opened its doorways within the South Korean capital — and it has raised a number of eyebrows.
Bringing it again dwelling
The restoration of the misplaced artwork of makgeolli brewing can largely be credited to pioneer researchers like Park Rock-dam. Park traveled throughout Korea for 30 years gathering recipes and recreating outdated strategies.
The authorities additionally reversed course on its earlier coverage, embracing conventional alcohol as a proud heritage — and probably profitable — business.
In 2016, the federal government allowed small scale breweries and distilleries to promote their alcoholic drinks by decreasing the brewing tank dimension requirement from 5,000 to 1,000 liters. The subsequent yr, conventional alcoholic drinks got the distinctive privilege of being bought on-line and delivered on to customers.
While the Covid-19 pandemic prevented individuals from going out to bars and eating places, on-line and offline gross sales of makgeolli soared. According to a 2021 report printed by Korea Agro-fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT), a government-operated firm that promotes agricultural merchandise, the makgeolli market grew by 52.1% whereas the overall liquor market shrank by 1.6% in 2020.
Kim Kyung-seop teaches a makgeolli brewing course.
Kim Kyung-seop
In Kim Kyung-seop’s makgeolli class, half of the scholars are entrepreneurs, lots of them girls of their 30s or youthful. Ten years in the past, virtually everybody at school was over 50 and seeking to brew makgeolli as a interest of their retirement.
Since 2009, the variety of makgeolli brewing license holders have elevated by 43%, based on National Tax Service knowledge.
Kim says that opening a makgeolli brewery is way simpler than every other sort of alcohol. While gear for organising a beer microbrewery is round 200-300 million gained ($155,000-233,000), gear for a makgeolli brewery will be acquired for 10 million gained ($7,800), Kim says. Furthermore, it solely takes 4 3-hour courses to brew one thing that is higher than the mass market makgeolli, he provides.
Going international
An Australian citizen, Julia Mellor initially got here to South Korea to show English. Then in 2009, she encountered makgeolli.
Now, her enterprise The Sool Company offers makgeolli courses and consultations for these all for opening their very own brewery, however most of her shoppers are from abroad. She says her enterprise quadruped through the pandemic.
Her shoppers are from international locations just like the US, Singapore and Denmark. Many of them are members of the Korean diaspora. “They watch Korean individuals having fun with it right here and they’re impressed to carry it again to their nation,” she says.
“It was so totally different, so attention-grabbing. It is uncommon to find one thing individuals on this planet have not heard of.”
She organized meetups with fellow fans and finally taught herself Korean as a result of most assets weren’t out there in English.
Participants in a The Sool Company tasting session maintain up their glasses.
The Sool Company
Mellor believes makgeolli will enchantment to overseas audiences.
“It’s very straightforward to homebrew. You merely want rice and nuruk (yeast).”
And for her, propagating the makgeolli carries one other layer.
“This is saving one thing that was getting ready to disappearing,” says Mellor.
Kim Min-kyu says his makgeolli will probably be bought within the US and Austria this yr and different Western consumers have been approaching him. His makgeolli is already successful in Japan, the place it turned common throughout Hallyu, or the Korea-wave within the mid-2000s, a interval when the success of Ok-dramas and Ok-pop opened the door to different cultural exports like kimchi and conventional drinks.
“To overseas customers, this pure fermentation is taken into account wholesome, natural and clear. And it is a sort of alcohol they’ve by no means seen earlier than,” Min-kyu says.
Korean “smooth energy” has expanded past Asia up to now few years. He believes makgeolli can experience this wave.
Making it cool
Despite the fast advance of makgeolli, the South Korean alcoholic beverage market continues to be dominated by soju and beer, which account for greater than 80% of gross sales.
Min-kyu says the best problem dealing with makgeolli makers is the general public notion that the drink is for outdated individuals. Most of his promoting and advertising focuses on altering this notion. In one advert, a sharp-looking male mannequin with shaved head and eyebrow piercings delicately pours the makgeolli right into a champagne flute.
Changing perceptions regarding the meals finest paired with makgeolli is one other impediment.
In Korean tradition, alcohol is nearly all the time consumed with a set meal or snack. For makgeolli, that is jeon, a Korean savory pancake made by frying meat or greens in seasoned flour batter.
“A cool sip of makgeolli after a chew of savory scallion jeon acts as a palate cleanser readying you to totally take pleasure in one other savory chew,” Kim Kyung-seop says.
The combo is particularly common on wet days. The sale of makgeolli and substances for jeon climbs sharply on wet days throughout main comfort retailer chains, based on a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
But premium makgeolli, with its broad spectrum of taste, effervescence and physique can pair effectively with any sort of meals, Min-kyu says.
“I drink it with jajangmyeon (a Chinese-Korean noodle dish) and it pairs very effectively with ice cream too. Because it is a fermented drink, it tastes nice with different fermented meals. I feel it is scrumptious with kimchi and actually flavorful cheese,” Min-kyu added.
Boksoondoga makgeolli was not too long ago the principle providing at a gastropub inconspicuously nestled within the fashionable Hapjeong district of Seoul. Stylish bartenders deftly poured the drink into stemless wine glasses. The prospects, largely younger professionals, savored the drinks whereas stress-free to hip-hop music. In a leather-bound menu, beef tartare was being provided alongside an array of different premium makgeolli manufacturers.
At the tables, extra girls crammed the seats than males did. After every pour, the bartender defined the flavors and the origin. They smiled. They lifted the glass to their lips, rigorously listening to every observe hidden within the drink.
Jihye Yoon and Minji Song contributed to this report