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Korean · VI The Beverage Tradition

Yakju (약주)

Korea, nationwide; the cheongju and yakju tradition of the Joseon households

‹ The Beverage Tradition

I

Origin

Yakju is the clarified rice wine of Korea, made by saccharifying cooked rice with nuruk, a fermentation starter of crushed, moulded wheat, and allowing yeasts to work in the same vessel. It belongs to the household brewing tradition recorded in the Eumsik Dimibang of Lady Jang Gye-hyang (1670) and the Gyuhap Chongseo of Lady Bingheogak Yi (1809), where wine was made by the women of the family for ancestral rites, guests and the seasons. Brewing at home was long the rule, and the craft is carried today by small breweries and by families who keep the older methods.

II

Description

Yakju is a clear to faintly golden wine of roughly 13 to 18 per cent alcohol, drawn from the fermenting mash of steamed glutinous or non-glutinous rice (Oryza sativa), nuruk and water. It is the clarified liquor, taken from above the sediment, and so it differs from makgeolli, which is the cloudy, unfiltered, lower-strength wine, and from soju, which is distilled. Cheongju is the name for the clear wine in general, while yakju is the term used for the refined, often scented version, sometimes flavoured with flowers, pine, chrysanthemum or ginseng. The wine is mellow, faintly sweet and fragrant, with a clean finish.

III

The Thread

—Both are clarified rice wines in which starch is converted to sugar and alcohol in one vessel, with a mould-grown starter doing the saccharifying. Sake uses koji, a rice mould, and is polished and filtered to a defined style, whereas yakju uses nuruk, a wheat-based starter that brings a broader, earthier fermentation. Japanese
—Both are grain wines fermented with a moulded starter and matured to a mellow, rounded flavour. Shaoxing is aged, amber and often used in cooking, while yakju is typically paler, lighter and served as a drinking wine. Chinese
—Both are low-strength fermented wines made in the home from a single sweet raw material and a patient fermentation. Mead takes its sugar from honey and its yeast from the environment or the cultured pot, while yakju depends on cooked rice and a starter that must first convert starch to sugar. English
IV

Flavour Context

Yakju is drunk with the dishes of the festive and formal table: jeon, steamed fish, braised short rib (galbijjim), japchae and the lightly seasoned namul. Its gentle sweetness and soft acidity cleanse the palate of oil without overwhelming the delicate seasonings, and its low bitterness leaves room for the sesame, soy and perilla of the table. It is traditionally served lightly chilled or at room temperature, poured by the younger into the cup of the elder.

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