Kook Soon Dang Chesnut Makgeollii (750 ml) (Pack 20 Bottles)

Founded in 1952 as Girin Brewery by Sang-myeon Bae, Kooksoondang built its technical identity around a patented raw-rice fermentation method — unsteamed, uncooked rice ground directly with nuruk (the traditional yeast-and-enzyme starter) and fermented at room temperature, a revival of a Goryeo Dynasty technique that no other major Korean brewer employs. This process preserves a measurably richer amino acid and vitamin profile than the steamed-rice methods used across the industry.

The Hoengseong Brewery in Gangwon Province sits at approximately 500 m elevation in a clean-air mountain environment, drawing water from the Gangwon highlands — a cold, mineral-lean source that keeps fermentation clean and allows the chestnut character to read without interference from mineral hardness.

This Chestnut Makgeolli is unfiltered takju: the milky suspension of rice solids and live cultures remains intact, delivering the characteristic cloudy pour. Fermentation uses nuruk as the sole starter, with no pasteurization in the draft format — though retail bottles undergo pasteurization to extend shelf life beyond the raw product's one-week window. No wood aging is applied; the profile is entirely fermentation-derived.

The chestnut addition is the transgression here: where most makgeolli relies on rice and wheat alone, the incorporation of chestnut shifts the fermentation substrate, introducing a nutty, subtly earthy sweetness that sits beneath the lactic grain base — unusual within the category.

As a non-vintage fermented beverage, this is produced for immediate consumption; serve cold, shake gently to redistribute the lees.