For years, expats living in Korea struggled to cope with the shortage of good beer in the country. With a market dominated by big-name domestic brands like Cass and Hite, and imported beers sold at ridiculously high prices, beer-lovers nationwide lived in mourning for years.
However in 2014, the “beer revolution” took place in Korea, which lowered the manufacturing storage capacity (post-fermentation) requirement for breweries to 50,000 liters – prompting the establishment of several smaller craft breweries in the country.
Today, both craft and imported beers are gaining immense traction in the mainstream market in Korea. Here at 10 Magazine, we recently discovered another beer-related trend going on in the country: DIY beers.
Brewing your own beer at home may sound complicated but the process is actually quite simple! All you need are a couple ingredients and a lot of patience.
Where To Buy Your Supplies
The first step to brewing your own beer at home is finding the right supplies. Luckily, several places around Korea sell beer kits and ingredients. Here are a couple we found:
1. Coopers DIY Beer
Coopers DIY Beer sells a variety of products ranging from DIY beer kits, DIY beer brew cans, malt extract cans, fermentables, bottles & caps, and merchandise. Originally from Australia, Coopers opened up their Korean branch recently. You can purchase DIY beer kits on their site, and have your Coopers Beer Kit delivered directly to your house. Their inclusive package allows customers to easily assemble equipment and create the perfect beer according to their personal preferences. For more information on Coopers DIY Beer, check out their facebook or website.
2. Craft Brewer
Craft Brewer sells ingredient kits separately from the equipment kits. Ingredient kits come in 20L and 10L batches with 25 different beer styles. They also sell brewing equipment kits, ingredient recipe kits, malts & grains, malt extracts, hops, yeast, cleaners & sanitizers, and more. Their website is in Korean with English translations. For more information on Craft Brewer, check out their website.
3. Seoul Homebrew
Seoul Homebrew is the first storefront homebrew supply store and distribution center in South Korea. It offers a variety of malted grains, malt extract & sugars, beer ingredient kits, and more. Seoul Homebrew sells beer ingredient kits and equipment kits separately. It has a wide range of beer kits to choose from all at varying prices. For more information on Seoul Homebrew, check out their facebook or website.
4. Goodbeer
Goodbeer sells home beer kits, malt, hops, sensory training kits, and more. They provide a wide range of DIY beer equipment to choose from online. Ingredients and equipment are sold separately. You can customize the flavor of the beer to your personal preferences with variety of different malts and hops. Their website is in both Korean and English. For more information on Goodbeer, check out their website.
5. Beer School
Beer School sells a variety of ingredients and equipment for DIY beer in Korea. They sell over 25 different malt flavors as well as over 25 different hop flavors, allowing you the ability to customize your beer to your preferences rather than choosing a beer off the shelf. Please note, the majority of the website is in Korean. For more information on Beer School, check out their website.
How To Brew Your Beer
Courtesy of Coopers
The process of making beer at home is fairly simple but time-consuming. The process may take around a month because of the fermentation process. Here are the general steps to making your own DIY beer, though when you purchase your DIY beer kit, it will likely include a more detailed explanation!
- Make sure all of your equipment and supplies are clean. Thoroughly clean and sanitize everything that is going to come in contact with your beer as the most common reason for DIY beer to fail is contamination.
- Rinse everything with distilled water.
- Prepare all the items in the beer kit.
- Mix all the ingredients as per the kit’s instructions (20 minutes)
- Leave the mixture to brew (7 days)
- Bottle your beer (40 minutes)
- Let your beer ferment more in the bottles (2 weeks)
- Chill your bottles in the fridge and drink!
Source: wikiHow
Thanks for checking out our guide to DIY beer in Korea. For more information check out the links above! If there is anything we have neglected, feel free to leave a comment down below!