Korea is a drinking culture. For some (locals and foreigners alike) it is a frequent occurrence to eat and drink until the sun comes up. While the food here is ridiculously delicious, the drinks (beer and soju) are not. Perhaps the intense flavors of Korean foods are thought to be well paired with an absolutely bland Korean lager. I like to think they just don't know any better. And how could they know any better when 99% of their market is cramped by just two companies? Hite-Jinro and Oriental Brewing are a duopoly here in Korea and their nearly identical line of boring beers have nearly every store and restaurant in this country on lock.
It didn't take me long at all to throw in the towel and come to a point of refusal of these sad excuses for beer. If the mega stores like Home Plus or Lotte Mart didn't carry small selections of imported beers I probably would have fled to N. Korea (Microbreweries might be the one thing that North Korea is doing better than the South). I'll occasionally shell out the big bucks to purchase a bottle of the good stuff (a bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale is about $7), but the math doesn't add up when trying to quench my thirst and remain within my booze budget. When I've been asked what I miss from home, I have responded beer, family, and friends. If you wonder whether I ordered that alphabetically or by importance, I'll never tell.
Thankfully, this all changed a few months ago. Jestine was looking deep into the future (a quality of hers I admire) and envisioning jobs for us back home. She showed me a job posting for a company in Seattle called Taphandles who make custom tap handles and offer branding services for breweries. Of course I didn't get the job, but it was this day when previously unfamiliar synapses in my brain were introduced to each other and I realized...
I am Bobby and I want to do beer.
Make it, brand it, sell it, drink it, bathe in it.
I no longer merely consume beer. Beer is beginning to consume me.
It turns out it is possible to make beer in Korea and their is a community of foreigners who are doing so. Most of the members are located in Seoul, but I got in contact with one of the few pioneers in Busan, Kevin. He graciously opened up his home/brewery to me and it was this night in late April that I lost my brewginity. That night we brewed Kevin's recipe Kobukson Pale Ale. My contribution was getting in the way, sampling his beers, barraging him with questions, and being a general distraction.
HomebrewKorea also introduced me to a new friend named Graham. Before meeting him, I could see his passion in brewing. This guy was posting on the forum and asking questions months before he even came to Korea.
Jestine and I planned a Beer inspired vacation to Seoul for our extended Buddha's Birthday weekend. On the final day of our excursion we met up with Graham to check out his set up and brew a batch with him. Graham went the extra mile and provided me with a list of his ingredients on hand and software to develop my own recipe based on what he had available. After bouncing a recipe back and forth, we solidified our game plan:
Bobby's IPA - American IPA
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Batch Size: 23.000 L
Boil Size: 27.000 L
Boil Time: 0.000 s
Efficiency: 76%%
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.0%%
Bitterness: 48.1 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 7 SRM (Morey)
Fermentables
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Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Weyermann - Pale Ale Malt Grain 5.250 kg Yes No 85%% 3 L
Carared Grain 400.000 g Yes No 75%% 20 L
Wheat, Torrified Grain 100.000 g Yes No 79%% 2 L
Total grain: 5.750 kg
Hops
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Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Willamette 5.0%% 30.000 g Dry Hop 0.000 s Pellet 0.0
Cascade 6.0%% 30.000 g Boil 15.000 min Leaf 7.9
Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus 15.2%% 30.000 g Boil 60.000 min Leaf 40.3
Yeast
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Name Type Form Amount Stage
Safale S-05 Ale Dry 11.000 mL Primary
The following is an incomplete photomontage of our brew day with Graham.
Here is Graham's super scientific water measuring technology.
Doing work on the "motorized" grain mill.
No home brewing is complete without a few glasses of your own creation. This was a delicious coffee porter that Graham made a few weeks ago (even Jestine loved it).
I'm feeling it at this point.
Not only did I have the opportunity to brew a batch, but I also got to help finish up the end product. Here Graham is cleaning up the dry hopping process before we bottle a different IPA he produced.
Graham collects empties from a restaurant near his house for bottling.
Utilizing gravity.
Utilizing bad form.
Yummy Cascade hops (Shout out to the NW).
Cooling the wort.
As I write this blog post, I am enjoying my first bottle of the Kobukson Pale Ale I brewed with Kevin. It's composed of a wonderful blend of malts with a delicious middle-ground hop balance. The beer pours a beautiful copper color with a fluffy head. The body and carbonation are very refreshing. The aroma and hoppiness are a bit subtle for my taste, but it is supremely fresh and nothing has ever tasted better coming out of a Cass pint glass.
Cheers!
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