by Daeyoung Shin
Founder of the Maekjoo Mandlkee
Seoul, South Korea


My homebrew club’s name is “Maekjoo Mandlkee”. Together these words mean “Homebrew Beer”. “Maekjoo” means “beer” or “barley alcohol”, and “Mandlkee” means “homebrew” or “to make”.

I believe we are the only homebrew club in Korea (probably not for long). There are many people here who are members, from many different professions and backgrounds—biology professors, electrical engineers, farmers, college students, computer programmers (like me), and so on. All told, we have around one hundred active, enthusiastic members and (at last count) about four thousand periodic members. We communicate mostly through the Internet, and we meet in Seoul once a month. At our meetings, we discuss homebrew recipes, how to get homebrew equipment and ingredients, and of course, we enjoy our beer.

In Korea, homebrewing is not easy. It is very difficult to get good malt and hops, not to mention yeast! There is only one local homebrew supply shop here, but it sells only ten varieties of liquid malt extracts and related equipment (normally fitted to make 8 gallons of beer). If we want to homebrew any other way, we have to make the equipment ourselves or buy it overseas. If we want to make an all-grain batch, we have no choice but to buy all of the ingredients overseas, and the shipping costs are very expensive! Since they sell no Korean homebrewing books, many of our members buy English homebrewing books at Amazon.

However, the situation here is getting better, because the Korean laws were recently changed. Before the new laws, building and operating a microbrewery was illegal. Koreans only had three big breweries from which to choose, and they only brewed lagers. Importing beer was next to impossible, because of the enormous duties and restrictions. As a result, most Koreans simply did not know about the many varieties of beer that are brewed worldwide. Now, after the new laws were passed, many, many Koreans are learning about the numerous styles of beer.

Homebrewing itself was never illegal in Korea, it was simply something nobody ever thought to do, despite the fact that many Koreans (mostly women) know how to make rice wine.

Fortunately for me, I was able to “discover” homebrewing and microbreweries when I was in England a few years ago. My neighbor was a homebrewer, and one day, he invited me over to try his homebrew. When I drank his beer, an English Bitter, I was amazed. It was unlike anything I had ever drunk before. Since he brewed once a month, I became his regular student, and I quickly learned how to homebrew.

When I got back to Korea, I immediately tried to continue homebrewing, but it was very difficult. Fortunately, I met several other Koreans who had been exposed to homebrewing, and we agreed to form a club and publish a website.

Not long after that, the media in Korea began covering our activities. Soon it became a sensation. Nearly every Korean media outlet—local Korean television, cable TV networks, newspapers, magazines—all did news stories about our club. We got so much publicity that our club membership skyrocketed into the thousands.

Still, homebrewing in Korea is not a cheap hobby, and many of us just want to make and drink good beer at a reasonable price. I’ve heard of several Korean companies that are studying the homebrew market. It is for this reason that I hope Korean homebrewers will soon be able to get equipment, grain, hops and everything else locally, and enjoy the great diversity of beer.

Korean homebrewing is just beginning, but our passion for it is very strong!

Our club’s website address is cafe.daum.net/microbrewery . The website is, obviously, in Korean, and you’ll have to install Korean font on your browser to read it. If you are able to manage this, we invite you to visit us online. You can even join our club!