Sool (술) is simply the Korean word for alcohol, but it contains within it a tradition of fermented and distilled beverages that stretches back at least two thousand years and covers a range of styles that most of the world has barely begun to explore.
The broader cultural moment these days around Korean culture, food and drink (hat people call the Hallyu wave) has done a lot of work in bringing Sool into the mainstream, even if you don't know it. If you've spent any time eating Korean food at a k-bbq or restaurant, you've probably already been introduced to the ritual of it: pouring for others before yourself, never letting a glass stay empty, the ghhhaa sound, and the easy rhythm between food and drink that's embedded in how Korean meals work. Sool is inseparable from the table.
The version of sool that most people know is commercial soju - those ubiquitous green bottles that have made it the best-selling spirit in the world by volume for years running. That product is real and it has its place, but it's also a relatively recent creation: diluted, sweetened, and designed for volume rather than character - there's a fascinating story about how "Soju" took the name, which we will cover in some articles, but suffice to say its a borrowed word, and isn't actually "real" soju - real, Traditional distilled soju is an entirely different beast altogether.
Traditional soju is cleaner, higher abv (though still around the 25% mark) real natural flavour, sometimes funky, more structured, and made from a fermented grain base without anything added to adulterate it and smooth it down. It's the difference between the "spirit" of green bottle stuff as a category and the traditional spirit as a craft.
Makgeolli, the next well known form of sool, is probably one of our favourite things to talk about. It's Korea's oldest alcoholic drink - an unfiltered, milky rice wine that's low in alcohol, tangy, slightly effervescent, and full of live cultures from the Nuruk fermentation. It's been drunk by farmers after long days, served at outdoor markets, and is currently having a serious cultural moment with younger generations in Seoul in a new movement called 파전과 막걸리 - which literally translates to eating pancake with makgeolli on a rainy day. Makgeolli tastes nothing like anything else, and once you've had a good one, you understand immediately why it's survived for centuries. The problem here in Australia, is that most peoples experience with Makgeolli is from the exported bottles frequently found in k-bbq restaurants, and although some of this can be very tasty, its often, like green bottle soju, filled with artificial sweeteners, preservatives and flavours. They are also pasteurised - which means all of the incredible probiotic benefits of makgeolli (one cup can equal many many yaults!), is lost, as well as some of the more delicate flavours .
Here at Tano, we are the first "brewery" in Australia to produce traditional, made from nuruk, unpasteurised and fully probiotic Makgeolli - and its tasty as! It has an expiration date, so if you grab some, drink it - though some people do actually love letting it sit and become more and more sour over time, and it will still be perfectly drinkable.
Then we come to Cheongju, or Yakju as its also known, which is less well known but deserves to be highlighted again and again. Cheongju is, basically, makgeolli that is pressed and filtered until clear - its made in the exactly same way as sake, some would call it Korean sake, but that's underselling it. Cheongju uses the same fermentation as makgeolli, clarified into a drink that's much more refined. Where makgeolli is earthy and alive, Cheongju is clean and precise. On top of that, with the removal of the sediment, Cheongju has amazing ageing potential and can be aged over years to develop even deeper, nuances flavours. Put it into a barrel, like we've already done, and things become even more exciting.
Now, to blow your mind even further, if you don't know already, this means something pretty special - when we make Makgeolli, we can always let that settle, and take the clear portion of the ferment from the top and still use the cloudy sediment on the bottom as Makgeolli. We can then, if we want to, split that batch of cheonjgu, the wine, and put that into the still - and that's soju.
At Tano we make our Sool with Australian rice and grain, except for when we are using sweet rice, which is our only commiseration - there's just none of it grown commercially here in Australia. We hand craft our own Nuruk as the fermentation starter, which then carries the tradition of sool in its bones, but with an delicious Australian twist.
We have a hundred ideas for our sool here at Tano, and we're looking forward to sharing at least some of them with you in the future.