QU Fermentation Studio x Hana Makgeolli, March Fermentation Courses, & Work at a Rice Wine Brewery

Join us this Sunday's popup QU Fermentation x Hana Makgeolli

Hi friends,

QU Fermentation Studio x Hana Makgeolli

This Sunday I’ll have the pleasure of having a popup at the Korean American rice wine brewery Hana Makgeolli in Greenpoint Brooklyn. While I know many of you are not NYC-based, if you happen to be there or have friends based in New York then you are all invited to join in for a fun time with lots of delicious wild fermented snacks and brews.

QU Fermentation Studio x Hana Makgeolli
Sunday, 2-8PM
201 Dupont St.
Brooklyn, NY
11222

The menu is à la carte but please RSVP here.

Here’s a sneak peak at the menu, TBD. I brought along quite a few ferments with me and honestly I’ll probably bring some back (along with a case of amazing rice wine from HM!). Send my luggage thoughts and prayers at airport security.

Back to NYC

It’s been such a pleasure to be able to find all the ingredients I want here in New York (and more). There’s amazing local ingredients to be found in New York, but also things I couldn’t dream of finding in Berlin from all over the world. I am also reminded of the fact that this city is, as a standard, full of great food and amazing cooks of all stripes, so I am honored and happy that I can come back to the place I grew up in and cook for folks here. This trip has been nourishing in all kinds of ways but one thing that has been important is to interact with my peers from the Asian American community who are paving the way for new kinds of food and beverage businesses in the States. Sometimes it feels a bit like I’m operating in a vacuum in Berlin so it’s great to actually just cook, drink, and eat with folks who need less introduction to what you’re doing, and people who feel a sense of kinship and closeness to the same things you care about.

Brewing at Hana Makgeolli

Speaking of which, this past month I’ve been tagging along the brewing process at Hana Makgeolli and it’s been absolutely lovely to learn from its production team and founder, Alice Jun. In the video below the brewers are in the middle of a stage called Dotsool, the name for the feeding stage of a brew where additional amounts of steamed medium grain rice are added to slowly ramp up fermentation in stages. Feeding the brew in stages will help provide a steady and continuous source of sugar, essentially moderating fermentation into different stages and extending it so there is more time for esters and flavor components to develop. Depending on the kind of wine this additional feeding may be repeated up to four times.

It’s been the most interesting to see how this is done on a small artisanal producer scale, and especially interesting to talk to Alice about how she built Hana Makgeolli from the beginning. Having essentially no available equipment specialized for makgeolli brewing on the market here in the US, there are quite a few pieces of equipment she had built custom or bought from other industries to fit her purposes. It’s been inspiring to get a close-up look at how things run here and see the company grow.

March Courses: Fermentation Fundamentals & Miso Introduction Workshop

Last but not least, March course offerings are open for registration. If you’ve ever wanted to learn to make kimchi, lactofermented fruits and veggies, hot sauce, and wild sodas, Fermentation Fundamentals is here to teach you the basic principles on how to lactoferment pretty much anything. We’ll also be offering two miso introduction classes next month. See you when I get back!

Thanks for reading.

Polly