#12: Another Round
Grab drinks with folks shaking things up across the beverage world
Hello again, sweet readers. Since we last found ourselves in your inbox, the weather remains unpredictable and we’ve turned back the clocks. But have no fear, this month, we’ve got some exciting voices from across the beverage space, sharing passion projects guaranteed to get you curious about different methods of batching, brewing, and imbibing – from traditions passed down generation-to-generation or those created anew. From wild yeasts and funky ferments, to after dinner cocktails or mocktails inspired by menus of a bygone era, we’ve got something for everyone to sip on this holiday season. We can hardly believe we’re coming up on a year of Lunch Rush – we hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as we’ve enjoyed meeting and working with our wonderful collaborators. Cheers to a year of eating, drinking, and learning together, and may the next one be as fruitful as the last.
This month, we’re sharing art from Stephanie H. Shih, whose playful ceramics modeled after Asian American pantry staples interrogate the relationship between cultural and commercial exchange and identity, especially within immigrant communities. We’re stoked to share a conversation between Alice Jun of Hana Makgeolli and Dora Grossman-Weir, exploring the idiosyncrasies of brewing sool in Brooklyn. We’re featuring a digestif primer from Al Culliton that blends the history of desserts past and present into a remarkably adaptable drink for all tastes and temperatures. And, as usual, we’ve got a fresh mix of suggestions and recs from folks shaking things up across the beverage world.
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Bottle Opener
Stephanie H. Shih, Molotov Cocktail (A Better World Is Possible), 2021, ceramic, 10 x 4.5 x 2.5”
Stephanie H. Shih explores the diasporic nostalgia and material lineages of migration and colonization through the lens of the Asian American kitchen. Her painted ceramic sculptures examine the relationship between consumerism, cultural interchange, and identity in immigrant communities.
Shih's fourth solo exhibition, "New World Mall" at Stanley's (Los Angeles), was reviewed by the LA Times, Hyperallergic, and W Magazine. The next major presentation of her work will be a solo booth at NADA Miami 2021.
Something to Chew On
Alice Jun and Dora Grossman-Weir on the Microorganisms & Meaningful Roots of Makgeolli
Alice Jun is a champion for authentic Korean food and drink, and learned to brew makgeolli from her father as a child. She started Hana Makgeolli as a passion project to learn more about traditional Korean brewing methodologies and has since launched Hana Makgeolli as the first and only artisanal Korean brewery in the U.S.
Dora Grossman-Weir is the media and copy editor at Parcelle Wine, an NYC-based wine store that delivers nationwide. Her writing has also been published in Full Time Travel Magazine, Hanging Loose magazine, and Parcelle’s Wine Journal. She would love to tell you where you should get dinner tonight, what you should order, and what sounds good on the wine list.
Dora Grossman-Weir: Can you just tell me a little bit about where the idea to start making your own makgeolli came from?
Alice Jun: Makgeolli is actually a term to describe a type of sool -- sool being a more accurate term to describe the category of a Korean alcohol as a whole. Makgeolli is probably the most familiar to the U.S. and Western markets at large, which is why the brand was called that to start. But the name, admittedly, was something that came about when this was still very much a brewing passion project.
I didn't necessarily think about the fact that we would be making way more than just makgeolli. It’s a term that's typically used to describe sedimented rice wine, but if we're going to get really specific, it’s a term that's just describing rice wines diluted below 10% ABV.
Our Takju that you're drinking now, for example – it's sedimented rice wine, but it's 16% ABV – that's why we refer to it as Takju instead of makgeolli. The naming convention for our brand is maybe something where we lacked foresight.
DGW: That makes sense – it’s like, “Oh no, now I've locked myself into this one thing.”
AJ: But we never let it limit us in terms of what we wanted to make. But in terms of how it all started, I think for me personally, homebrewing was something I learned from my father. It was very much like a fun home hobby. When I left for college in 2011 and came to New York, I started home brewing a little bit on my own. And I think that was the moment where homebrewing became more than something that I was just doing for fun, and something that I was actually genuinely interested in learning more about.
Up until then, I didn't understand the basic chemistry around fermentation. I just knew how much rice and nuruk to use in relation to total volume of water, what it should smell like, and what it should look like. When I started making it on my own, it didn't turn out the way I would want, but that was sometimes interesting. It would create a lot of questions. I started Googling and researching – there’s very little information out there, but the information that is out there speaks a lot to the incredible history of the category. And for me as a Korean-American, who grew up in a relatively white American town, it was suddenly a reason to be interested in and sort of accept my culture again, too.
But I wouldn’t say it was a “cultural pursuit.” I don't necessarily identify with being estranged from a Korean-American identity, as many do. But, there was definitely a struggle growing up, and practicing home brewing helped to bridge that.
DGW: I think anything that starts as something you're doing to connect with yourself and then you can put it back out into the world is very cool. Even just looking at this entire menu – the food too – so much of this is either made locally or it can be made at home, whether it's kimchi, or tofu, or kombucha. It all feels very cohesive.
AJ: Thank you.
DGW: When did you first think to try and either bottle your sool, or produce it in a larger format to sell?
AJ: A larger format within the context of home brewing for me meant 30, at most 40 gallons at a time, and that's not a single 30 or 40 gallon container. It's multiple five gallon or one gallon batches. The point at which I started bottling was because my friends would ask for it. It was just for fun and something to share. When I made the brand and the logo, Hana, when I started putting labels on things and thinking about naming conventions and things like that – that was when I ran out of room in my apartment.
DGW: Yeah. Understandably. I can't imagine where I would fit 30 gallons of anything.
AJ: My one fridge was full of sool and my dining table was like 60% covered in junk.
DGW: Yeah. That's not sustainable.
AJ: So that's when I started being like, “Okay, I need to get it out of the house." But the driver behind the volume was purely from an experimental and curiosity perspective. I wanted to understand, “Well, if I change this one variable, what would happen.” So that’s how it started.
DGW: What were some exciting moments of discovery – whether making it in a larger format, or new flavors, where you were like, “I've done something new, I've created something here.” What were some victories in the process of getting the product to where you want it to be?
AJ: Everyone has a style, and that style is determined by variables like your recipe, fermentation times, what temperatures you're holding at, or what kind of rice you're using. So from the get-go my benchmark was the home brews that my dad made that were super strong and super dry and very bitter and very lactic, that was what I preferred personally. I never really liked just sweet things. Of course, some brews would be better than others, and I would be like, “let me try to figure out why.”
DGW: I’ve never tasted anything like this before. The flavors are so interesting and contradictory – there’s creaminess, and not bitterness, but savoriness. But it’s still pretty acidic, and sweet. I have just never found that in any alcoholic beverage.
AJ: I think the Takju in particular is made to be bold. Its body is very creamy and heavy. Its alcohol is pretty much the original ABV of the total ferment. There's so much fruit. And, in addition to that, the lactic acid that is naturally derived from wild variants of lactobacillus is like super herbal too.
The intention behind the Takju was to show off everything that makgeolli can do. These kinds of flavors are only possible because of the wild nature of the fermentation and because of traditional Korean brewing methodologies – for example, the use of unpolished rice, the way we cook the rice, there's many variables. These are all aspects that make it special and we wanted to kind of explode them in this brew.
DGW: It's very effective. I've been reading a lot about sake recently, and the way the quality is differentiated by whether or not the rice is polished and for how long.
AJ: It’s such a strange thing. I mean, I understand the tradition, but the polishing process is such a wasteful process, which also, in turn, makes the rice so special and precious. I understand why you would refer to brew by the polishing level, because you're sacrificing so much as a brewer in terms of the amount of resources that you have. So of course it needs to be a point, but in sool the rice is never polished.
DGW: Other than avoiding using that time and resources, what does that do to the rice wine itself? Obviously, it's very different than sake.
AJ: The goals of sake and sool are very, very different. In sake, the goal is very singular: purity. And that informs the entirety of the brewing process. It's the reason why you polish away so much of the rice – because you're trying to get to that inner core of the rice that is completely, 100% starch. You're getting rid of any fats and proteins that can lead to creating amino acids or peptides later on that create complexity and flavor. Another thing that informs whether sake is pure or not, is the yeast. Usually they're either using a proprietary or a commercial application of a single variant of yeast, so they’re able to achieve that purity in that singularity.
But in sool, our goal is balance. It's not about purity. You're able to achieve so much more complexity in any given ferment. There are more nutrients available. So when we use unpolished rice, those fats and proteins, when interacting with many hundreds, if not thousands, of variants – of different types of enzymes, different types of yeast, wild lactobacillus – you’re able to create notes of apple, or melon, something akin to what you might be striving for in making spontaneous fermented beers. From our perspective, we truly believe at the end of the day, it's the microorganisms that are driving the process.
DGW: It sounds completely different.
AJ: It's such a shame because like one of our most frequently asked questions is, “so is this sake?” I'm never going to show people that I'm annoyed by it. It's a genuine question and yes, they're both made with rice. But the thing that I cannot, that I refuse to do, is to let people continue thinking that past the point of that initial question. Because in reality, sool is a unique category of alcohol and deserves as much respect and resources and study and interest from global consumers as sake has gotten.
DGW: Our overall American perspective on what rice wine can be is so narrow.
AJ: 100 percent. I think up until somewhere between five and ten years ago, the maturity of the Western consumers' understanding of sake was very, very primitive. There's so much breadth to sake beyond the rice polishing level, there's so much complexity and depth in terms of varieties and how things are made. It has historical and meaningful roots, the same way as grape wines do.
DGW: For me, growing up, my perspective of what wine could be was so connected to grape wine, and in that, connected to the Old World of wine regions. But you can make spruce wine, you can make rice wine, you can make apple wine…
AJ: If the sugar is present, it can be fermentable. Every category really deserves so much respect.
DGW: I’m with you. How much are these current cuvées final products?
AJ: I hope that people enjoy watching the evolution of each of the cuvées and see improvements because that's something that we don't shy away from. Each of them, they’re all made with the same rice, they're all made with the same starter and the same water, no adjustments. So it's just different recipes.
DGW: I keep bringing this back to wine, but people put so much emphasis on the grapes themselves that go into any wine, but can forget the vast importance of the fermentation process – what they're fermented in and for how long, and in what manner, and if they’re filtered.
AJ: The decisions that the winemaker has to make, that's why we have the discussion around natural versus conventional or natural versus traditional wines. The reason why I'm a big champion for natural wine isn't necessarily to say that natural wine will always taste better than traditional wines, cause that's just objectively not true. It just depends on the winemaker and their decisions, and what they chose to do when things went wrong. That is what interests me.
DGW: There’s this one wine I love called Lézer by this woman, Elisabetta Foradori, this awesome Italian winemaker. One year, her crop was just wrecked by heat and rain and weather inconsistency. And she was like, “you know what, I'm going to throw out whatever plans I had for these grapes and try to make something exciting.” She calls it her climate change wine. And every year, the cuvée is super different because she adapts her process as a reflection of the year.
AJ: Exactly.
DGW: What are you excited about as you guys grow – whether it's more cuvées, more locations, distribution?
AJ: I think all of it. We're a little over a year old since we've come to market. It's a lot of growth and it's something that we never expected. I'm really excited about showing people what sool can do when it ages. There are so many things that are yet to be explained or introduced to people, and we will have the very fortunate opportunity – and responsibility – to give people their first introduction to traditional sool. It's not just about bringing them to New York, but bringing them to a broader stage as well – expanded distribution.
DGW: This might be a really ignorant question, but where else can you buy sool in New York or in the U.S.?
AJ: I would say up until the last two or three years, the only styles of makgeolli and sojus available in the U.S. were made in Korea and then imported. They were all very conventional, supermarket brands. They're very different from this style.
Something that's really difficult about this style of brewing is that it's a lot of work. I mean, every form of manufacturing is, but you know with beer, for example, you have access to turnkey systems and technology. If you want to make sool in the traditional and natural way, it's a manual process and it takes time. Before us, I don't think it was worth the risk for many people, but we've got the timing right.
DGW: It's crazy to think about how you built this business with no one else to look toward – no footprint.
AJ: I have a business partner named John Limb who has been my mentor and greatest advocate for so many years prior. We took time and really were careful at every stage to think about the long term effects of things too. I think it's because we were patient that things are working out the way they are, and I think it's the fact that we continue to be patient. That’s why people trust us– our ability to educate them and beyond just what we make – to be able to talk about and represent an advocate for the entire category.
What’s Shakin’?
Al Culliton’s Dessert Digestif
Al Culliton is a writer, historian, and cocktail-focused creative based in Massachusetts. Their work explores the intersection of the American Cocktail, food, and culture from the age of punch through the 1960s and, sometimes, the twenty-first century. They also act as chief correspondent for Al’s Cocktail Club, a society for inquisitive, history-obsessed home bartenders.
“I love serving an array of digestifs toward the end of a dinner party. I favor Italian amaro and aged spirits and I always serve them alongside coffee. In researching nineteenth-century restaurant menus, I’ve been fascinated by the fact that, in those days, ‘dessert’ meant fruit, either fresh or dried, and nuts. The pastry items we now classify as ‘dessert’ fell into an entirely separate category. Going into this holiday season, I’m excited to combine these traditions – after-dinner drinks, coffee, and classic ‘dessert’ – into one new tradition: a bespoke Dessert Digestif mix. The principle is simple: find your own combination of amaro and aged spirit with a liqueur that evokes the Gilded Age concept of dessert. The ratio below is a great starting place, but feel free to tweak it to your liking. If you’re really ambitious, I’m also providing a recipe for a Caffè Digestivo, a mishmash of caffè con panna and a caffè corretto. I hope you and your guests heartily enjoy your signature after-dinner mix.”
Dessert Digestif
Ingredients
2 parts amaro
2 parts aged spirit
1 part liqueur*
Method
Start by trying out different combinations you think you might like before making a full batch. When blending your signature mixture, start small, i.e. use ½ oz. for 1 part. Once you’ve landed on a combination you like, you can use 3 oz. per part to make a 15-oz. batch. In a large measuring cup or pitcher, combine your ingredients using the ratio above. Stir to combine and transfer to a bottle using a funnel. Little bottles of your signature mix would also make a great holiday gift!
*A note on liqueurs: there are a lot of subpar products in this category. A high-quality 750mL bottle of liqueur should cost between $25-45. These products are typically used in small amounts and keep for a long time, so think of it as an investment!
Some suggested combinations…
Bitter bruléed banana
Bitter citrus amaro, such as Averna
Good aged rum, such as Appleton 12 Year
Banana liqueur or crème de cacao, such as Giffard Banane du Brésil or Tempus Fugit Crème de Banane
Smoky piney bowl of walnuts
Alpine amaro such as Braulio or Amaro Argalà
Good Scotch, blended or single malt (level of peaty-ness is up to you, but I liked Ardbeg 10 for this)
Nocino or walnut liqueur, such as Forthave or Nux Alpina
After-dinner mint
A mint-forward amaro, such as St. Agrestis
Cognac, VSOP or older
Chocolate liqueur or crème de cacao, such as Destillare Intense Chocolate or Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao
Caffè Digestivo
Ingredients
Your signature digestif mix (1 oz. per guest)
Heavy cream (1 oz. per guest)
Espresso** (2-3 oz. per guest)
Cinnamon or nutmeg
Method
To warm your digestif mix, first pour a few ounces of hot water into a large rocks glass or similar. Into a conductive vessel, like a metal cup or a small cocktail shaker tin, pour digestif mix. Carefully place the tin into the rocks glass of hot water. Stir the mixture to circulate heat.
Make espresso in an espresso machine or moka pot.
To aerate the cream, put heavy cream into a small jar and shake for about 30-35 seconds; it should be thickened but still pourable.
Combine 1 oz. digestif mix with 2-3 oz. espresso** in demitasse cups (4 oz. is good size here).
Float cream onto top of the drink(s) by slowly and gently pouring it onto the surface. Grate fresh cinnamon or nutmeg on top.
**Note: For a summer friendly version, you can use cold brew in place of espresso
Lunch Break
A dedicated section to boost suggestions from friends & collaborators.
Emily Schultz (she/her, social media manager at BentoBox and famously Not Working On Anything™️): The days are becoming increasingly shorter here in Portland, Maine, so I’m staying focused on all things cozy. That means eating perfectly light and crispy pizza from newly opened Friends and Family – the hybrid wine bar, provisions shop, and all around perfect establishment that’s less than a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Or making the trek to other side of town for the Washington Baths – a new extremely chic sauna that recently opened with a *very* good food and drink list. It means combining my two loves – Casamara Club, a sparkling amaro soft drink, with Faccia Brutto’s Amaro Gorini for a Saturday afternoon spritz while catching up on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And it means living in my oversized Seemore Sausage sweatshirt and Subu slippers, which feel futuristic *and* extremely comfortable. Hope you’re staying cozy, comfy, and away from the S.A.D.
Young Stowe (co-founder of Unified Ferments): I’m turning 30 in a few days which feels nice. I feel thirty; pleasant to see some chaotic experiments from my twenties give fruit to decent/lovely/stable things. Currently def. leaning into cozy things, aka my mom’s pimento cheese made w/ the hoard of Duke’s mayonnaise that I hauled up from South Carolina mid-pandemic. We consume a ton of tea around the office – everything from white2tea is pretty astounding, a great way into the somewhat esoteric world of Chinese puers. Simple, good wine – currently anything from Fond Cyprès brought in by the Super Glou folks. I have a semi-deranged relationship with Hi-Chews in general and the Ramune/cola flavor mixed packs are designed to destroy me. Cola flavored candy has been my fave since I stole some Hello Kitty branded cola gum from my sister when I was nine. Mostly, just currently so proud to see my buddy Zack fulfill his heirloom corn dreams with Sobre Masa – hardest working brilliant bastard I know. <3
Meg Johnson (she/her, wanderer with a love affair for liquid crafts): I've been nomadic for two years and I'm currently in the Netherlands where fries with mayo and a $6 bottle of wine is considered a meal. Some beverage highlights during my travels include the energizing ritual of guayusa tea grown at the edge of the Amazon by the Kichwa people, and smoky mezcals from Oaxaca (Madre's 200ml flask is perfect for sipping on-the-go) with a side of salted chapulines aka grasshoppers... though I'm missing a few of my Brooklyn staples while on the road. Kid Cowboy is roasted by my pal Carson, whom I met at a coffee cupping at Sey, a beautiful gratuity-free (!!) cafe in Bushwick. I also considered and regret not packing a bottle of raw, small-batch Tart Vinegar in my luggage because making yourself a fancy spritz after a long day is the spice of life.
Angel Coleman (she/her, Artist/DJ, New Yorker, and Caribbean-American co-owner of Mad Juicy): 2021 was about actualization for me — maybe it was an existential crisis, or maybe it was just my Capricorn ways, but this year brought the urgency, clarity and purpose needed to see my dreams through. My sister Dren (she/her) and I opened a juice bar, Mad Juicy, a year ago in Harlem, NY — It’s about community, wellness and fun. We also released our debut EP, Dark Summer, which talks about nostalgia and seeing the beauty in darkness. There’s something special about seeing my dreams collide. It’s not exactly what I envisioned, because it’s better. Though there have been hard days, they’re far outweighed by excitement. Being on this journey with my sister is the icing on top.
Thanks for taking a break to sample and sip some new flavors. We hope the changing of the seasons has you feeling in the mood to explore new recipes, brews, and (maybe indoor) routines. As always, thanks for riding along with us this past year, we’ve loved having you. Feel free to reach out to us at hello@lunch-group.com Until next time, readers! 🥂
