양조the brewing book

오양주 — “five-brewed wine” — is the longest and most demanding of the 가양주, the home-brewed wines of Korea. One 밑술 (seed mash) is fed four separate times. Each feeding lays a near-finished wine on top of the last, so the yeast never drowns in sugar and the alcohol climbs higher and cleaner than any single- or double-brew can reach.

Korean brewers are candid that a single canonical 오양주 was never cleanly transmitted; the method here is reconstructed from the documented 오양주 patents and the craft logic of 삼양주 and 청주 brewing. The classical five-ferment cousins are 동파주 (東坡酒) and 무릉도원주 (武陵桃源酒), recorded in the 임원경제지.

Dry to off-dry, deep and rounded, with a clean grain sweetness rather than sugar. The long cold aging draws out a soft, almost nutty 청주 character once the clear wine is drawn off the top.

Drawn clear it is a 약주/청주; stir the lees back with water and it becomes 막걸리. Nothing is wasted.

삼해주 — “three-pig-day wine” — is the single most-recorded wine in the entire Korean classical canon, with 60-some 주방문 across the old texts. The 밑술 is laid down on the first 해일 (亥日, pig-day) of the lunar first month, and fed again on each successive pig-day, roughly twelve days apart. It ferments through the dead of winter.

It was the signature 명주 of old 한양 (Seoul), brewed by the thousand-jar at 마포 독막, and prized enough that Joseon officials petitioned to ban it for draining the capital’s rice. It survives today as Seoul Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 8. Also called 유서주 (柳絮酒), willow-catkin wine, because it is ready as the willows bud in spring.

Soft, fragrant and surprisingly strong — the cold, slow ferment locks in rice sweetness and a delicate aroma while pushing the alcohol up. Drawn clear it is almost sake-pale, thanks to the bran-sieved 분곡 nuruk.

Distilled once it becomes 삼해소주 (~45°), described by its master as smoother than whisky aged a decade.

석탄주 — 惜呑酒, literally “begrudge-to-swallow wine.” The 한국민족문화대백과 explains the name plainly: 그 맛이 달고 향기로워 입에 머금고 차마 삼키기가 아깝다 — “so sweet and fragrant you hold it in your mouth, loath to swallow.” It is also written 석탄향 (惜呑香).

The name appears in the 임원경제지 of 서유구 (c. 1835), which quotes an older 三山方 with the line 甘苦備俱, 含口不忍 — “sweet and bitter in balance; held in the mouth, one cannot bear to swallow.” The same wine is recorded earlier as 황금주 (黃金酒) in the 1450s 산가요록 and 1670s 음식디미방. In 담양 it has been the 홍주 송씨 family’s ancestral rite-wine for nearly four hundred years — said to have entered the household when a royal married in, carrying a palace recipe with him.

Intensely sweet — sources put its sugar near twice that of ordinary wine — yet only ~13–15% alcohol, so it drinks soft and round. A pronounced fruit aroma, often described as 매실 (green plum), from ethyl acetate and phenethyl alcohol thrown off by the cool ferment.

The classical arc is 甘苦備俱: the early bitterness falls away over seven days and resolves into honeyed sweetness. Pairs with 송편, 한과, rich braises — and famously with 담양’s spicy 메기찜.

약산춘 — 藥山春 — was the prized spring wine of the 서성 (徐渻) family of 약현 (藥峴) in old Seoul, counted among the capital’s great 명주. The “춘 (春)” suffix marks a refined, high-strength, long-aged class of wine; 약산춘 took its name from the 약현 neighbourhood.

Recorded across the 증보산림경제, 임원경제지, 음식디미방 and 규합총서. Built like a precise 이양주: an all-멥쌀 base set with water-nuruk, then a dry steamed-rice feeding with little or no water, laid down in the first lunar month and drawn in early April.

Classically described as 향기롭고 맵다 — “fragrant and sharp.” The sharpness is the dryness and alcohol; the all-멥쌀 grain and full attenuation leave almost no residual sugar. Substantial in body yet crisp and clean on the finish.

A refined, food-friendly dry 약주 — the antithesis of the sweet 석탄주.

백하주 — 白霞酒, “white-mist wine” — is one of the oldest and most representative clear 약주, set down in the 고사촬요 as a two-brew (이양법). It is the ancestral style behind modern clear rice wines like 백세주.

Where most of the old wines lean glutinous and sweet, 백하주 is built on 멥쌀 with a balanced water ratio for a pale, dry, clean result — a everyday refined wine rather than a celebratory sweet one.

Pale and nearly transparent, light-bodied, distinctly dry and clean — the 멥쌀 base keeps residual sugar low. A gentle grain-and-nuruk aroma rather than fruit or honey.

Quick to make and easy-drinking; the benchmark for a clean dry house 약주.

벽향주 — 碧香酒, “jade-fragrance wine” — was a celebrated clear wine of 평양 (Pyongyang) and one of the most widely recorded refined 약주 in the classical canon: 산가요록, 수운잡방, 음식디미방, 증보산림경제 and more. It exists in both 이양주 and 삼양주 versions; this is the two-brew.

Reconstructed by the RDA’s heritage-wine project (2010). The all-멥쌀 build and full fermentation make it the driest and cleanest of the named clear wines.

Korean sources single it out as 단맛이 적은 편 — “on the less-sweet side” — i.e. the most clearly dry of the famous clear wines. Clean, fragrant, soft on the throat. Lighter in strength (~13–15%) than the 춘 wines, so it trades a little power for finesse.

One lab analysis of a 증보산림경제 version read ~10.6% ABV — versions vary, so judge by taste.

호산춘 — 壺山春, “sealed-pot spring wine” — appears in the 산림경제 and 주방문 as a potent all-멥쌀 three-brew, described as a 독한 술 (strong wine) that keeps for two or three months without turning. The “춘” name again marks the refined, high-strength class.

Note: today’s commercial 문경 호산춘 is a different, sweeter 이양주 made with double glutinous rice and pine needles (and a famous ~18% 약주). This recipe follows the older 삼양주 documentary version — built for dry strength.

Strong and dry, built from 멥쌀 across all three stages with a roughly 1:1 water ratio. Full but clean, with the keeping-quality that made it a wine you could lay down — the classical note is that it holds for months.

The modern 문경 version, by contrast, is sweeter and pine-scented; if you want sweet-and-strong, brew that, but this one is for dry power.

교동법주 — 校洞法酒 — is the ancestral wine of the 최부자 (Choi) family of 교동, 경주, brewed by the same household for some three hundred years and designated National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 86-3. 법주 means “wine made by the method/rule.”

It is a pure-grain 청주 with an unusual all-찹쌀 build at both stages, raised on the family’s own well-water steeped with goji root. It is not the supermarket “경주법주” (a Japanese-style sake) — that is a different drink entirely.

Bright, clear, micro-yellow (미황색). Clean and strong at 16–18% (originally ~19°, lowered to meet liquor law), with a grain sweetness and a faint acidity held in fine balance — “strong and clean” rather than bone-dry. Almost no perceptible water or sourness.

A winter wine — the family doesn’t brew it in summer. The benchmark for a strong, clean heritage 청주.