Last weekend on Friday, October 28th and Saturday 29th, I went on a media tour of Chungjeongnam-do (Chungnam for short) providence Brewery Trail hosted by Makgeolli School. I was really looking forward to this trip for few reasons. First, I took a day off of work so not being work on Friday was sneaky fun. I pre-celebrated the joy the night before at Honeyhole (another post about this neighborhood bar) with a good friend and talented chef, Mathew Chung. Despite getting home past 1am, I was happily up at 6am to get on the bus to the two-day booze tour. Yes, booze booze booze!!!! Booze day and night. Talk all night about booze and first thing in the morning and I wouldn’t be the only person to do that!
So this trip is hosted by Makgeolli School to promote brewery tourism in different parts of Korea. Most of the breweries were chosen as “Enjoy Brewery” project, which selects exemplary breweries each year to promote brewery, local tourism, and local product businesses in the area to boost the economic activities by several Korean governmental organizations.
There were about 14 of us on the trip who were all selected to write and blog about the trip. We got on this totally ridiculously decked out VIP bus that made me giggle every time I got on the bus. It was equipped with a small coffee machine (not coffee maker, a machine!), and a kimchi fridge. Impressive!
After about 2.5 hours on the highway, we arrived in Shinpyeong-myun (town) in Dangjin City of Chungnam. Shinpyeong brewery was the first one to become part of the Enjoy Brewery Project in 2013. Built in 1933, it is one of few original breweries that started in the early 1900’s and passed down for generations. 
We were first guided to the newly built visitor’s area where the historical artifacts and basis Korean brewing information were nicely presented. We, then, were greeted by the 3rd generation CEO, Mr.Dongkyo Kim.
He walked us through the history of how the brewery started in 1933 when the Japanese colonial rule banned homebrewing his grandfather opened up the brewery to provide the nice fizzy rice wine, makgeolli to the public (and that made up a big part of the tax collected by the Japanese gov’t). Past the dark and gloomy starting story, I loved the personal stories told by Mr.Kim. He showed us very rare pictures of the breweries in the past before the pavement roads and tall buildings were built. Below is a picture of him as a child in front of the brewery riding a carriage. In the background is an outdoor farmers market that opened every 5 days (5일장 / Oh il jang).
As the new generation owner, Mr.Dongkyo Kim redesigned the logo with the help of his mother, who used to be a renown artist, and sister, making it a true family business. He also changed the bottles from plastic to glass for the premium line to give it a more prestige look and feel.
Now, time for tasting! Shinpyeong Brewery produces 4 products under “Baekryun” (White lotus) brand.
Far left is 백련 맑은술 (Baekryun Malkeun sool) as a yakju product at 12% ABV. Flavor was nice mellow sweet front, light body, with a bitter finish.
2nd left is 백련 살균 미스티 막걸리 (Baekryun Misty, Pasteurized) as premium takju at 7% ABV. It was sweet and silky milky body. Pasteurized version tasted a tad bit sweeter than the unpasteurized version. Good drank warm on a cold night!
2nd right is 백련 미스티 막걸리 (Baekryun Misty, unpasteurized). This is the original version of the Misty, which is slightly frizzy, smooth, slightly sweet and mild body. This was my favorite one of the series. The rice used for Misty and Malkeunsool is premium organic rice brand, Haenaru from Danjin. The brew is handmade in small batches and fermented in the hangahri (항아리, clay pot).
The far right is 백련 스노우 막걸리 (Baekryun Snow Makgeolli) at 6%. Easy, light drink with mild frizz, sweet and light body – such a chillaxing drink. 
For a bit of DIY fun, we got to make 2 popular cocktails sold at Chez maak (restaurant bar in Seoul run by Shinpyeong Brewery). Altho, not a big fan of a fruity cocktail, the range of colorful mixers got me excited
.
The first mix was called “First Love” – mixed with banana & raspberry liqueur, cranberry juice, and pomegranate vinegar. The color was pretty light pink and yummy berry banana flavor.
2nd cocktail “Indangsoo” was blue curacao, melon liqueur and lemon juice. Very refreshing, pretty blue ocean color.
After a nice buzz, we moved to a separate brewing facility right next door, which is the original brewing facility location since 1933. Of course, the inside is now replaced with modern equipment and machines but the bones of the facility still gave its authenticity.
There was a separate brewing area for the premium products fermenting in the clay pot, hangahri. These hangahri’s were passed down for generations that instantly radiated history and dedication over the years.
After a quick tour of the brewing facility, we were privileged to have a tour of a historical family estate. It’s a semi-hanok house built in the late 1800’s. It’s going through a renovation right now so we couldn’t go inside. I really loved being able to just stand in the middle of the history listening to the stories of Mr.Dongkyo Kim’s childhood in that house. I almost felt I could see a faint imagery of him at 5 yr old running around in the front yard as the grown up himself was telling the story.
And then the tour ended nicely as my stomach was growling. We walked over to a restaurant (forgot the name of it) right near by the brewery. Nothing fancy, just straight up a local restaurant to feed the local hungries. We were met with a rather impressive 15 banchans laid out in a circle. As main, fermented cabbage stew came out steaming hot.
I never had anything like this before! This cabbage just melted away like air in my mouth!!! HOW? (I sweet talked the head cook and got the secret which I might share if I am feeling nice. :P) The broth was seasoned with salted shrimp extract and paste and wild sesame powder. That was it. Just simple, hearty, instantly warming up your body.
And of course, the meal cannot finish without having some more yummy local makgeolli. What a day. Got buzzed, fed, then more buzzed. Cheers!