Makgeolli: How Korean rice wine is stepping out of soju’s shadow

(CNN) — Kim Kyung-seop remembers going to low-cost bars after class along with his mates, the place they binged on as a lot makgeolli as doable.

“You realize the saying, ‘alcohol consumes males?’ It was like that.”

Makgeolli, the milky and infrequently candy conventional rice wine from Korea, was chosen for its value, not taste.

In 1989, when Kim entered faculty, half a gallon of makgeolli price about 40 cents. He and his mates 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 International Cyber College in Seoul, has been educating makgeolli brewing strategies for 10 years. But he remembers his early encounter with the drink being unpleasantly bitter and bitter.

“After we had been with ladies, we’d drink beer. However among the many boys, we drank makgeolli.” Makgeolli — with its much less stylish fame — was unfit for impressing ladies.

Twenty years later, in bars throughout South Korea’s capital, the lackluster drink from Kim’s reminiscence was changing into stylish, this time within the arms of a younger era of entrepreneurs and brewers.

“We labored very laborious to eliminate the established photographs folks 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 Metropolis’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 baby, he would go to her farmhouse in Yangsan, a city within the southeast. She would combine half-steamed rice together with her do-it-yourself yeast and water. And he would take heed to the quiet effervescent of air because the combination fermented into makgeolli. His fondest reminiscences 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. Making use of 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 identify.

The timing was fortuitous. Makgeolli was popping out of a century-long darkish age.

The historical past of a drink

Makgeolli is a mixture of the Korean phrases mak (that means “roughly performed” or “a second in the past”) and geolleun (“filtered”).

Whereas the identify first seems in “Gwangjaemulbo,” an encyclopedia presumed to have been written within the nineteenth century, the opaque alcoholic drink seemingly dates again a millennium.

One early twentieth century document claims that it was consumed in each nook of Korea.

“Makgeolli is inherent to Korean tradition, it is the drink of Korean folks,” Kim Kyung-seop says.

One cause for the recognition is its simplicity. It’s a combination 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 Battle II and the Korean Battle left the nation devastated. The brand new authorities continued the coverage of tightly controlling alcohol manufacturing. Because the meals scarcity worsened within the Nineteen Sixties, utilizing rice — makgeolli’s key ingredient — to provide alcoholic drinks was banned.

Producers used wheat and barley as substitutes and makgeolli’s reputation sunk. It was supplanted by trendy soju, a transparent liquor made by diluting ethanol. Because the financial system improved and rice provide outstripped consumption, the rice alcohol ban was lifted in 1989 and homebrewing was made authorized once more in 1995. However a lot custom was misplaced.

Bringing it again residence

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 accumulating recipes and recreating outdated strategies.

The federal government additionally reversed course on its earlier coverage, embracing conventional alcohol as a proud heritage — and probably profitable — trade.

In 2016, the federal government allowed small scale breweries and distilleries to promote their alcoholic drinks by reducing the brewing tank measurement 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 shoppers.

Whereas the Covid-19 pandemic prevented folks from going out to bars and eating places, on-line and offline gross sales of makgeolli soared. In accordance with a 2021 report printed by Korea Agro-fisheries and Meals Commerce Company (aT), a government-operated firm that promotes agricultural merchandise, the makgeolli market grew by 52.1% whereas the full 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 ladies of their 30s or youthful. Ten years in the past, virtually everybody at school was over 50 and trying to brew makgeolli as a pastime of their retirement.

Since 2009, the variety of makgeolli brewing license holders have elevated by 43%, in line with Nationwide Tax Service information.

Kim says that opening a makgeolli brewery is way simpler than some other kind of alcohol. Whereas tools for establishing a beer microbrewery is round 200-300 million gained ($155,000-233,000), tools for a makgeolli brewery could be acquired for 10 million gained ($7,800), Kim says. Moreover, it solely takes 4 3-hour courses to brew one thing that is higher than the mass market makgeolli, he provides.

Going world

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 Firm supplies makgeolli courses and consultations for these excited about 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. A lot of them are members of the Korean diaspora. “They watch Korean folks having fun with it right here and they’re impressed to deliver it again to their nation,” she says.

“It was so completely different, so attention-grabbing. It’s uncommon to find one thing folks on the earth have not heard of.”

She organized meetups with fellow fanatics and finally taught herself Korean as a result of most assets weren’t out there in English.

Individuals in a The Sool Firm tasting session maintain up their glasses.

The Sool Firm

Mellor believes makgeolli will enchantment to international audiences.

“It’s extremely simple to homebrew. You merely want rice and nuruk (yeast).”

And for her, propagating the makgeolli carries one other layer.

“That is saving one thing that was getting ready to disappearing,” says Mellor.

Kim Min-kyu says his makgeolli can be bought within the US and Austria this yr and different Western patrons have been approaching him. His makgeolli is already successful in Japan, the place it grew to become standard 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 international shoppers, this pure fermentation is taken into account wholesome, natural and clear. And it is a kind of alcohol they’ve by no means seen earlier than,” Min-kyu says.

Korean “delicate energy” has expanded past Asia previously few years. He believes makgeolli can journey this wave.

Making it cool

Regardless of the speedy advance of makgeolli, the South Korean alcoholic beverage market remains 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 folks. Most of his promoting and advertising focuses on altering this notion. In a single advert, a sharp-looking male mannequin with shaved head and eyebrow piercings delicately pours the makgeolli right into a champagne flute.

Altering perceptions referring to the meals greatest paired with makgeolli is one other impediment.

In Korean tradition, alcohol is sort of 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 chunk of savory scallion jeon acts as a palate cleanser readying you to completely get pleasure from one other savory chunk,” Kim Kyung-seop says.

The combo is particularly standard on wet days. The sale of makgeolli and substances for jeon climbs sharply on wet days throughout main comfort retailer chains, in line with a report by the Ministry of Economic system and Finance.

However premium makgeolli, with its huge spectrum of taste, effervescence and physique can pair properly with any kind of meals, Min-kyu says.

“I drink it with jajangmyeon (a Chinese language-Korean noodle dish) and it pairs very properly with ice cream too. As a result of 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 lately the primary providing at a gastropub inconspicuously nestled within the stylish Hapjeong district of Seoul. Trendy bartenders deftly poured the drink into stemless wine glasses. The purchasers, principally younger professionals, savored the drinks whereas stress-free to hip-hop music. In a leather-bound menu, beef tartare was being supplied alongside an array of different premium makgeolli manufacturers.

On the tables, extra ladies stuffed 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 word hidden within the drink.

Jihye Yoon and Minji Track contributed to this report