Brewing in Korea

[wildtower]

Hi everyone, I'm new to brewing and this being community, happy to have found you guys and your treasure trove of experience and advice.

I'm from Canada but I'm beginning all grain brewing in Korea, which makes sourcing equipment a little challenging sometimes. I have experience making wine from kits and Korean natural rice "wine". Since I can't seem to find any wine grape concentrate in Korea, so sad, I wasn't to explore mead and fruit wine making after I get the hang of brewing beer.

I'm more of a wine drinker, but I want to learn how to make wheat beer for my spouse who loves it and drinks it exclusively. Though I might brew something like an IPA for myself later.

I bought myself an all-grain "kit" for 20L which I divided by 4 to do 4 practice gallons. Based on how accurate I was with my first brew this was a very good decision. My mashing temp was too high and my OG ended up being too low. And I have no idea if my homemade one gallon fermenter lid will work. But I'm having fun so far!

 

[JohnSand]

Welcome!
I'm confident that your lid will work. On a recent batch in a glass carboy I just covered the opening with foil, and a plastic cup for good measure.

 

[T Murph]

Welcome to the community. I see no problem with your lid, looks sufficient to me. You have embarked on a rewarding journey. Making beer, wine and meads is ones expressions and creativity that will bring many enjoyable moments with friends and family. Happy brewing. We'll see you around.

 

[stahlsau]

great job and welcome to korea! Bet its a bit hard to get malted grains there though....good luck!

 

[wildtower]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I have a weekly brew schedule started, and my second brew day was on Sunday. My final gravity was good enough so I bottled my first gallon, no more than a few minutes later one of the (dollar store) grolsch bottles exploded from pressure. So all bottles got dumped into a spare gallon carboy and PET bottles were ordered.

But that didn't stop me from pushing ahead and brewing batch 2 of my 1gal testers. A small sample of my flat first batch was delicious so hopefully second batch is less eventful and also delicious.

I'm really glad I'm doing the 1gal testers, it's been a lot easier to get the hang of mashing with smaller amounts.

Here's a pic of the brews:
2nd jar- second wheat beer batch
3rd jar- first wheat beer batch
1st jar- Korean makgeolli/rice 'wine'

I don't really want my primed beer in that big jar, but it was that or beer grenades.

 

[wildtower]

Welcome!
I'm confident that your lid will work. On a recent batch in a glass carboy I just covered the opening with foil, and a plastic cup for good measure.

I fixed my lid with a little silicone caulking, so it should be airtight now. But you were right, it turned it just fine.

 

[wildtower]

great job and welcome to korea! Bet its a bit hard to get malted grains there though....good luck!

Surprisingly there's a well stocked craft brewing supply store with a great website. So I've had no problem ordering everything I need from there, and there's a wide variety of malts and fancy yeasts.

Wine making will be harder because I can't seem to find any grape extract here no matter how hard I look. So it looks like I'm going to have to try mead and fruit wines to satisfy my wine cravings.

BUT, I wanted to jump into all grain brewing because we want to farm wheat here in Korea, and I wonder if later, in the future, I can try the malting process myself from our own grain.