Moon & Lion Brewing

On a recent trip to Korea I stopped for dinner at a restaurant serving slow food and Makgeolli: 해달밥술 (Haedalbapsool). My friend had wanted to take me to a place that serves Makgeolli since she found out about my hobby and this blog. We walked around Yeon nam dong (연암동) in Seoul for a while looking for somewhere that serves Makgeolli. The first place we went to was only serving soju; they have Makgeolli on a seasonal menu, but not this season!  We searched and walked some more to the second place, which was temporarily closed. We thought it was a bummer because they supposedly had house made Makgeolli. On we walked, following my suggestion to go to a place near Hongdae station where I remembered seeing a Makgeolli restaurant two years back. We didn't find the place I had remembered; instead we stumbled upon 해달밥술. From the exterior it looks like a humble 식당 with simple tables and stools and a...

This was my first attempt at adding fruit into the brewing process. I added 150 g of blueberries to a brew with the following ratio:  500 g rice  1 liter water 50 g nuruk  3 g yeast The goal of this test batch was first and foremost to prove that it could be done. 150 g of frozen blueberries were washed and thawed to room temperature. Then, the berries were added to the brew at the same time as the yeast and hydrated nuruk (sugok). The mixture was mixed by hand for about 30 minutes before being covered and placed in a dark cabinet at 75 degrees F. The pictures are in chronological order.   This batch yielded about 48 ounces of concentrated blueberry makgeolli. Upon tasting it was obvious that this was makgeolli, but the blueberry was not so obvious. Aside from the light pink hue and a gentle aroma, there wasn't a strong indication that this was brewed with blueberries. I'll let it age for a few days in the...