For many new brewers of craft beer, it was love at first sip
Kim Hee-yoon of the Booth, left, Moon Sung-hyuk of Jejujien, center and Kim Tae-kyung of Amazing Brewing Company, all jumped into the craft beer market after falling in love with the many different possible brews. [JOONGANG ILBO]
One glass of beer changed the life of 29-year-old Kim Hee-yoon.
She was working as an herbal medicine doctor, but after tasting a special IPA named after Korea’s mountain Mt. Jiri in a craft beer pub in Korea in 2012, she felt inspired.
Kim now owns “The Booth,” one of the nation’s largest craft breweries.
Something similar happened to 36-year-old Kim Tae-kyung. While getting his MBA in the United States, he fell in love with many different kinds of craft beer. Eventually, he decided to open “Amazing Brewing Company” in Korea with professional brewer Steven Park.
There are now around 50 craft breweries in Korea. Even though craft beer makes up less than 1 percent of the overall domestic beer market, its growing popularity has industry experts expecting that to surge to 5 percent in the near future.
Until three or four years ago, craft beer used to only be found in spots popular with foreigners like Itaewon or Hongdae. These days, however, IPAs and specialty lagers can be found all over Seoul.
Kim was one of the first people to see the potential for craft beer. She opened “The Booth” about two years ago in Gyeonglidan-gil in Itaewon, central Seoul, with Daniel Tudor, a former writer for The Economist and her then-boyfriend Yang Sung-hoo.
“I wanted to introduce people to a new taste they didn’t know about,” said Kim.
Two years later, The Booth has six locations and serves as the local importer for around 80 different foreign beer brands.
Amazing Brewing Company in Seongsu-dong, central Seoul, opened in April. By most evenings, it’s packed. The bar offers five types craft beer brewed at its own facility next door, alongside 60 different craft beers made by other smaller size breweries in and outside of Korea.
There’s no set official definition for craft beer in Korea, but the Brewers Association in the United States defines it as beer made by a brewery that produces less than six million barrels a year (or 953.4 million liters). The brewery also has to have less than 25 percent of its assets belonging to a large company or investment funds and brew its beer using a traditional process and ingredients.
The market for craft beer in Korea first opened in 2002 when laws changed to allow individuals to produce smaller quantities of beer to sell. Soon, many pubs began serving home-brewed “house beer.”
The market widened further after 2010, when more varieties of imported beer began to appear to cater to those who had been exposed to it overseas.
The appearance of more variety, then, seemed to inspire more people to either import more specific varieties of craft beer or brew their own here at home.
At first, the Korean market was dominated by German-style lagers. These days, however, British- or American-style ales lead the way. While lagers are usually lighter and fresher, ales are typically stronger and more assertive. Popular varieties include pale ales (more bitter) and IPAs (hoppier), though fruitier Belgian-style Saison ales are particularly popular at present.
Now, there’s even a movement to make beer from natural Korean ingredients.
Jejusien’s Moon Sung-hyuk was inspired by beer made from Hawaiian Kona coffee, so he decided to make his own using the small tangerines Jeju Island is famous for.
“It was so charming to make beer with the taste special to a region,” said Moon who is originally from Jeju. He created the beer with a friend in 2015, and it was well received. This year, he plans to build his own brewery on Jeju Island to mass produce it.
The charm of craft beer, say these new producers, is in its diversity.
“Beer is an artwork made by malt, water, hops and yeast,” said Kim.
“Depending on what ingredients you combine, and how long you ferment it for under what temperature, you get thousands or tens of thousands of different flavors.”
Moon agrees that the flavor of the same type of beer can differ dramatically from one brewery to the next, which is why people ought to be open-minded when tasting different ones - paying attention to the smell, color and smoothness of the foam.
“Beer is more like a cooked dish than an alcoholic beverage,” said Moon.
“Just like food cooked by different people even with the same ingredients taste different, there are subtle difference in a beer depending on who makes it.”
There’s also an art to pairing craft beer and food. Saisons are said to pair well with salads, while heavier brown ales are a better match for barbecue. Sour ales can cut the power of greasy meals, while many swear by the combination of pale ales and Korea-style fried chicken.
BY LEE YOUNG-HEE [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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