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Best container for Brewing – any clean lead-free, glass or food-grade plastic container works fine. Be aware that brewing can draw out chemicals from the container so be sure to use one that’s safe for brewing. Traditionally Makgeolli was made in clay jars – like the ones you put kimchi or gochujang in – which is the most ideal as it allows the brew to breathe.

It’s also a great thing to have at a party, and especially when you make it yourself, your family and friends will love to drink it and have a great time doing it. Making good makgeolli is not very difficult, it just takes a little time and there are a few pitfalls to avoid. Drain rice in a colander for 30 – 45 min. Just completely remove any excess water. Due to this change, the drink somewhat lost its popularity through the 60’s to 80’s.
How To Make Makgeolli At Home
Its Màkku brand is called “rice beer” to abide by certain TTB regulations. However, founder Carol Pak says this can be difficult to explain, since it could be confused with rice lager. As with Japanese sake, many people refer to makgeolli as “rice wine,” even if it is technically beer. Higher temperatures can lead to off flavors. It takes two weeks for mine to ferment out.
You don’t need to be in New York to try craft makgeolli. Hana ships to 41 states, and Sool ships Màkku to 28. Or, of course, you can brew it yourself. Makgeolli is coarsely filtered; some sediment will remain. Sool urges customers to shake its Màkku cans before opening, so the rice sediment creates the hazy, smooth creaminess characteristic of makgeolli.
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Makgeolli fermentation is a biological process, so water high in chlorine or chloramine is unfavorable and should be treated with your preferred method. Open the bottle and cover with cling film or a shower cap then pierce a few hols in the plastic. Very embarrassingly, after deeming the making-makgeolli-at-home kit idiot proof, I made a mistake with it!

The brew is ready to drink immediately but I like to store in the refrigerator for a few days so it can age a little and mellow out even further. FILTERING – Once the brewing is done, we need to filter/strain the Makgeolli. I use my Belgium Libeco linen towel or fine mesh filter bag to strain it. Nuruk 누룩 is the traditional fermentation starter used in this recipe. The traditional one is a round disc typically made from wheat or rice.
DIFFERENCE between Homemade vs Commerical
The commercial availability of makgeolli isn’t new. They are not the kind of artisanal products that Hana and Sool make. Makgeolli (pronounced like “broccoli,” as Johnson explains) is a Korean alcoholic rice beverage that often appears milky or cloudy and is made with fermentation starter nuruk. Once the brewing is complete , we need to filter the Makgeolli. Use a fine linen cloth or mesh filter bag to filter the liquid.

Cover, set the temperature to 160° F, and dry for 3 hours, until the outside of each grain is hard, but the inside is still moist. If you don’t have an electric dehydrator, you can dry your rice for several hours in a shallow basket set in breezy, sunny place. Korea has a long history of homebrewing, and every family used to make their own booze at home, it was much more common than buying it. These days you can buy makgeolli easily at a Korean grocery store or liquor store but when it comes to taste, it can’t be compared to homemade makgeolli.
When to Shake and When to Stir a…
You want your rice at around room temperature before mixing in the nuruk. Nuruk has been a traditional part of Korean alcohol production for centuries. Nuruk is a pre-fermented starter culture that contains a hodgepodge of lactic acid bacteria , brewer’s yeast, and koji. Like sake, the koji in nuruk makes the starches in rice grains available for fermentation. The brewer’s yeast and LAB transform the rice sugars into the tart, alcoholic miracle that is makgeolli. Today I’m going to show you how to make makgeolli, a traditional Korean alcoholic beverage made by combining rice, yeast, and water with a starter culture called nuruk.

Refrigerated makgeolli can last a couple months. Long term storage will result in increased tartness and may become unpalatable. Open the crock and you’ll see a lot of bubbles popping to the surface, and the mixture will be a lot thinner than yesterday.
Over the course of the fermentation period, rice particles will start floating up and down in the liquid and you'll hear activity from the gases. The Makgeolli is ready when most of the grains have fallen to the bottom of the bowls and only a few grains remain on top. The liquid should no longer be bubbling away.

Learn how to make Makgeolli, an alcoholic beverage, at home with this recipe. Mirandi Pohl is production manager at Hana, after having most recently brewed at Queens Brewery. Diving in to learn every aspect of makgeolli brewing has not only been rewarding, she says, but it also has crystallized the similarities and differences between brewing beer and makgeolli. During the Japanese colonization of Korea, making alcohol at home was outlawed and so thousands of family recipes were lost. I personally love traditions and things that are passed down for generations and this sort of lit a fire under my butt.
Priming sugar is unnecessary but can be used. Plastic bottles are good for packaging so that you can feel the pressure build up. I use a 64-oz growler for mine, burping the lid a couple time during the first few days to relieve build up.
You will need to mix it with some white rice. ROOM TEMPERATURE is the most IMPORTANT! – The ideal temperature for brewing Makgeolli is between 64.5℉/18℃ – 75℉/24℃. But within this range, I still found that the overall fermentation success is very closely related to the temperature.
To a 2-quart glass jar or container with a tight-fitting lid, add the reserved rice, nuruk, and 3 cups of cool water. Mix thoroughly with a or gloved hand, then wipe down the sides of the vessel to remove any residue. Place the lid slightly ajar on the container to allow gasses to escape during fermentation, then set aside at room temperature.

Makgeolli is a slightly fizzy, sweet and sour concoction. It’s important to note that the taste changes over time though and is different depending on whether or not aspartame is is used. For the makgeolli kit, you won’t be using this sweetener.
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