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Edited by Shelley DeWees (shelley@groovekorea.com) COvER STORy www.groovekorea.com / October 2014 36 t he cognitive dissonance suffered by microbrew fanatics in Ko- rea eight years ago was so intense that a Budweiser tasted crisp, with a slight hoppiness and a clean finish — almost de- licious, in fact. For hop-heads, the republic was a virtual wasteland, and the standard do- mestic swill made other countries’ shit beer seem downright gourmet by comparison. These days, though, especially where for- eigners congregate, the beer scene is practi- cally unrecognizable from a mere half decade ago. There are roughly a dozen brew-pubs or microbrew specialty bars in Gyeongnidan and nearby Itaewon, and that’s in addition to the countless draft handles featuring craft beers and hundreds of exotic bottled varieties all over the city. Shockingly, even some local family grocery stores have a jaw-dropping se- lection. It all started with a few key events: Ka-Brew, which operates a brewery northeast of Seoul, began importing Alley Kat pale ale to distrib- ute in kegs, as well as brewing a few other varietals in the late 2000s, and in 2007, Ca- nadian expat Robert Titley started Homebrew Korea, an online forum and website where ambitious drinkers shared information to help onE finE ... brEwEry A few brew-pubs had popped up around Seoul, mostly using beer imported from other breweries overseas or brewing small batches on premises. O’Kims Brauhaus, Platinum, Castle Praha and Big Rock proved the market was evolving and gave many Koreans their frst taste of actual beer. Evidencing how far we’ve come, the article is prefaced by an explanation of what a microbrewery actually is, something that would seem superfluous in the abundant climate of today. tHE nEw Kid on tHE blocK: craftworKs tapHousE & bistro Fast-forward two years and the frst reports of what would become “patient-zero” of Korea’s craft beer epidemic were being published. Most would agree this little pub seemed a rather unlikely candidate in early 2011; being hidden in an ugly alley in the backwaters of Gyeongnidan and a non-smoking environment were truly revolutionary characteristics at the time. When the author prophesied, “This bistro will quickly become a Seoul institution,” they must have had no idea how much of an understatement they were making. tHE bEEr situation in KorEa/ my first bEEr + wHat’s brEwin’ Much like top or bottom fermenting yeast (used to make ales or lagers respectively), the beer situation in Korea was improved from both a top-down and bottom-up approach in 2011. President Lee Myung-bak lent a hand signing multiple free trade agreements. Lots of new brews showed up from overseas but the tariffs on ingredients for fermenting at home dropped into the realm of reasonable. Some industrious expats walked us through the steps of crafting our own grog using foodstuffs from Homebrew Korea and Beer School. tHE rEnaissancE is HErE create their own malted treats. But then, in 2010, the gauntlet was dropped and things got real. Entrepreneur Dan Vroon spearhead- ed a group of six other expats and opened Craftworks, the famous gastro-brewery that has since become the cornerstone of what people are calling Korea’s “craft beer valley.” “At Craftworks, I think we were in the right place at the right time,” said Ted Gray, one of these aforementioned partners. “We man- aged to play a role in the beer revolution in Korea. The change is pretty amazing.” And what began as a flurry with these pio- neers soon snowballed into an avalanche. In 2011, a few government policies that had bottlenecked the beer industry were either loosened or removed completely; then-Pres- ident Lee Myung-Bak signed a free trade agreement allowing American and European brews to hit the shelves and Rogue, Ander- son Valley, Lost Coast and many more indus- try veteran brews were instantly up for grabs. To spur things on even further, the old legal framework requiring a brewery to have an im- possibly large 1.8 million-liter capacity to be bEEr KorEan tastEs arE cHanging at brEaKnEcK spEEd, wHEtHEr bEcausE of incrEasEd ExposurE to altErnativEs via ovErsEas travEl or tHE profound rEalization tHat your boozE doEsn’t HavE to tastE liKE dog piss. 03.2009 01.2011 10/11.20 11