Finding Traditional Liquor — A Journey of Brewing
A two-day trip to four local breweries in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea
Words Hur Taewoo
Photos Park Shinwoo
In collaboration with * Sulsulsulsul
* The Sulsulsulsul project runs a two-day tour of a local brewery every month.
Omynara
Omynara sits at the foot of Mount Juheulsan, which leads to Mungyeong Saejae Pass. Oak barrels greet you at the entrance to the brewery, and a huge copper still standing abruptly in the yard looks like an old art installation. The exterior is modest, but the schisandra sparkling wine and brandy made here have won acclaim for their refined flavor. In a region famous for schisandra berries (omija) since the Joseon era, this is the only schisandra wine in the world to have been commercialized.
“Last night, too, I was making liquor until dawn before I went home.” So says Mun Seonghun, the vice president who guides visitors through the brewery, and his passion for schisandra wine comes through in every word. “Grapes only need three to four weeks of fermentation, but schisandra takes a year and a half to ferment alone, and three years to age into wine. We’re still researching to find the perfect way to ferment it.” Omynara brings together what you might call masters of the trade. CEO Lee Jongki was Korea’s first whisky blender and built a long career at global spirits brands. While studying whisky in Scotland, he was inspired to make a proper spirit from Korean agricultural products.
Schisandra is said to have five flavors, and its sugar content is around 12 Brix, about that of soda. But sour, bitter, salty and spicy notes pile on top, so you can hardly taste any sweetness. Fermenting it into a wine with just the right touch of sweetness is Omynara’s challenge. Omynara uses organic schisandra grown in Dongno, Mungyeong, and makes not only well-balanced sparkling wine but also still wine and brandy.
At the tasting room, you can try every product Omynara makes. Given the high prices of schisandra wine and its small distribution network, it’s an opportunity not to miss. Vice President Mun Seonghun suggests starting with the sparkling wines and moving up from the lowest alcohol content. * Omyrose Yeon and Gyeol are pink in color with lively bubbles and a striking balance of sourness and sweetness. They are reportedly popular as easy-drinking wines. The Goundal brandy, aged in white porcelain jars instead of oak barrels, charms with a smooth finish and a long-lasting aroma despite its high alcohol content. The fruit of Omynara’s long years of aging is the kind that makes you refill your glass even after the tasting is over.
Mungyeong Jujo (Mungyeong Brewery)
Along the Geumcheon Stream that runs through Dongno-myeon in Mungyeong, the drowsy air of a quiet village drifts lazily. * Passing through the raised gate of Mungyeong Jujo, where a signboard reads ‘Judamjeong,’ the first things that catch your eye are the liquor jars. Left unglazed with aging in mind, each jar is marked with the type of liquor and its fermentation period. Founded in 2007, Mungyeong Jujo is a brewery that has established itself with traditional liquors given a modern twist. A wide range of drinks has come from here, from traditional unpasteurized makgeolli (rice wine) to schisandra makgeolli, takju (cloudy rice liquor), sparkling yakju (clear rice wine) and rice beer.
Lunch and a tasting are set out on the tables in the Mungyeong Jujo tasting room. We begin lightly, with the schisandra unpasteurized makgeolli and Ohui, a sparkling yakju. The schisandra makgeolli was the brewery’s first made with fruit, and its faint, tangy sourness is distinctive. Ohui, made by adding schisandra to takju and fermenting it, is a traditional liquor that resembles sparkling wine. The clean taste of natural carbonation spreading across the palate makes it a fine aperitif. So far, the drinks were meant to whet the appetite; now it’s time to drink traditional liquor in earnest. The tasting continues with handmade tofu and kimchi made by the brewery itself as accompaniments. First is Munhui, a ** samyangju fermented for 100 days with organic new glutinous rice and traditional nuruk (fermentation starter); next is Clear Munhuiju, made by skimming only the clear liquor from Munhui and aging it for another two years. They are the two signature liquors of Mungyeong Jujo, and the Clear Munhuiju in particular stands out for its subtle sweetness and clean aftertaste. As the meal winds down, all eyes turn to the rice beer the brewery has produced since 2020. It is Fox & Hops, made by adding home-grown hops to makgeolli. The name comes from the fact that getting from Mungyeong to the brewery means crossing Fox Pass. Its heavy body, similar to an IPA, and its hop aroma stimulate the tongue and nose, making it a fitting end to the meal.
* Judamjeong means ‘a place with liquor and conversation.’
** A traditional liquor brewed by adding two rounds of additional ingredients to the base mash is called samyangju.
Maenggae Suldoga (Maenggae Brewery)
We cross the upper reaches of the Nakdong River in Dosan-myeon, Andong, on a tractor. It is the way into Maenggae Village, a stretch of land ringed by the winding river like an island within the mainland. In summer, when the water rises, even this becomes impractical and you have to cross by boat. Maenggae Village boasts scenery so beautiful and romantic that it appears in the verses of Yi Hwang (Toegye), and the * wheat used as the raw material for Maenggae Suldoga’s Jinmaek Soju grows here.
Maenggae Village is a place where people farm and welcome guests. “Originally we only grew wheat. Now and then we also sold produce from neighboring farms,” explains Director Park Seongho, who came here in 2007 and built up the village. “When we first made a distilled spirit, the response was so good that it got more and more popular. Now production can’t keep up with orders. We’re too small to fully automate, so we still brew by hand.” In fact, Maenggae Suldoga’s liquor is produced at a brewery in the town of Dosan-myeon. In Maenggae Village, the wheat used as the ingredient is grown and the liquor is aged. Of the nine breweries in all of Andong that make * Andong soju, Maenggae Suldoga is the only one that brews soju from wheat. A cookbook from the Joseon era, the “Suunjabbang,” mentions soju made from wheat, so the history of wheat soju is surprisingly long.
* Soju is generally made mainly from rice, and Andong soju is no different.
After dropping our bags at the lodging, Somokhwadang, we stroll slowly around Maenggae Village. A sandy beach stretches along the riverbank, and beyond it rise the cliffs of Mount Cheongnyangsan. Just looking at the view puts the mind at ease. The wheat fields cover 10 hectares, and just before the early-summer harvest they create yet another fresh, green landscape, they say. After the walk, dinner and a tasting await. Maenggae Suldoga’s ** Jinmaek Soju comes in several varieties, from 22 to 57 percent alcohol, depending on strength and aging method. The regular Jinmaek Soju is fragrant, with a peppery wheat aroma and a clean taste unlike most soju. The 57 percent cask-strength version aged in oak barrels carries a separate label, *** ‘The Rock,’ and can be called Maenggae Suldoga’s ambitious flagship. It is so popular that this year’s entire batch sold out before its official release. One sip is enough to see why. Grain and oak aromas rivaling a single malt whisky, a well-balanced body and a smooth aftertaste make it superb.
** The 53 percent Jinmaek Soju and the oak-aged Jinmaek Soju won the Double Gold Medal, awarded to the top entries, at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. : Jinmaek Soju
*** In the middle of the river in front of Maenggae Village, a rock that Yi Hwang (Toegye) named ‘Gyeongam’ juts out abruptly. Water striking this rock carries in sand, which forms Maenggae Village’s distinctive sandy beach.
Nongam Jongtaek (Nongam Head House)
Yusanggoksu (流觴曲水), the practice of floating wine cups on a winding stream and drinking while composing poetry, was a refined pastime of the Joseon era. In Andong, known as the land of the seonbi (scholars), * records tell us that Nongam Lee Hyeonbo and Toegye Yi Hwang set their wine cups afloat on a stream of the Nakdong River and took part in yusanggoksu. Nongam Head House (Nongam Jongtaek), at the foot of Mount Cheongnyang, is a place where you can experience both the stories and the substance of that culture.
“I think alcohol is the final destination of food culture,” says Lee Seongwon, the 17th head of the Nongam family. Dressed in hanbok, he greets visitors from afar, upright and full of good humor. “A head family’s house is a place for the humanities, not for manufacturing. But my wife, the head family’s matriarch, tried homemade liquor from other houses and became convinced that ours was better. So we decided to make it.” That is how Ilyeop Pyeonju, ** the sool of a distinguished Andong family with a 650-year lineage, came into the world.
After strolling the yard and admiring the elegant hanok of the head house, you sit on a wooden platform (pyeongsang) and taste Ilyeop Pyeonju. It is brewed by hand in the manner handed down through generations: the nuruk (fermentation starter) is trodden by hand, and the brew ferments for 100 days. The lineup is divided into takju (unfiltered rice wine), cheongju (clarified rice wine) and soju (distilled spirit), and depending on the season, a flower-infused wine is offered as well. The most popular of them is the cheongju. The sweetness of the rice and the fruity notes from the nuruk come together in harmony, sending a range of flavors across the palate. Its shelf life (six months) is longer than that of the takju, making it well suited to keeping and savoring over time. The label, which uses the calligraphy of Toegye Yi Hwang, and the refined packaging that brings out traditional beauty are further points of distinction. Ilyeop Pyeonju may well be the most contemporary take on a head family’s home-brewed liquor.
* Nongam Lee Hyeonbo (李賢輔, 1467–1555) was a civil official and scholar known for his literary skill. He gave up his official posts and returned to his hometown, where he exchanged verses with Toegye Yi Hwang and Geumgye Hwang Junryang and left behind many poems.