North Korea's Red Beer?

Brewing a 'Red' Beer?

(Image from Lee Jae-Won/Reuters)

Rarely here in Seoul do we hear any good news out of the North Country, but this bit might qualify.

In Tuesday's Seoul edition of the International Herald Tribune, I happened across Jon Herskovitz's article, "Brewing beer, Communist style, in North Korea" (March 11, 2008), which I only noticed due to the photo above showing two North Korean women working in a 'factory' for 'producing' beer . . . the young lady closer to the camera having, for some obscure reason, caught my roving eye.

Anyway, yes, it's a factory, for the photo's original caption reads:

"Working at the Taedonggang Beer Factory in Pyongyang"

I usually think of such a place as a brewery for brewing beer, but when in Rome . . . so I guess that the Taedonggang Beer Factory is really a factory. One might not expect the North to 'manufacture' good beer, but the article cites critics, albeit unnamed:

"A few critics who have sampled it in Pyongyang say it is a highly respectable but not award-winning brew."

I had never heard of this beer even though I could have bought some in previous years here in the South, for the article says that the beer "was available in Seoul until last year" and adds that "outsiders say the beer is far superior to the mass-marketed beers in South Korea." Well, that shouldn't be overly difficult.

If I want to sample a brew this year, however, I'll have to go to the Northern capital, Pyongyang, and order one at "a Pyongyang hotel for foreigners, where . . . a small bottle of Taedonggang sells for half a euro, or 75 U.S. cents."

Why isn't it available in Seoul these days?

"Park Myung Jin, an executive for the South Korean distributor Vintage Korea, . . . used to sell the beer in the South . . . [but] stopped selling the beer in 2007 because of a sudden price increase."

How does it taste?

"Taedonggang beer . . . is a full-bodied lager a little on the sweet side, with a slightly bitter aftertaste."

What does it look like?

"On tap, the beer is a golden orange color with a clean, white foam."

Golden orange? Wouldn't that be sort of . . . red? How appropriate.

Would it, technically, be a red beer? According to Sara Doersam, who seems to be an expert:

"Red beers come in the form of both ales and lagers" but use "specific types of specialty malts in the mash . . . [to give] red or amber beers their distinctive color . . . [p]rimarily caramel or roasted malts."

Well, Taedonggang Beer is a lager, so it might even qualify as a red beer in that category, but the article does not say whether any specialty malts are used. Perhaps some reader who knows more can supply this detail about Taedonggang Beer.

I suppose that I shouldn't crave one of these 'red' brews, but I can imagine trying one if given the chance. That chance will likely not again come soon, for Herskovitz tells us:

"North Korea . . . has not completely solved the problem of bottling [Taedonggang Beer, for the] brewery has occasional trouble sealing bottles properly and the glass it uses is fragile . . . [and the] transport system in North Korea is also a mess."

Those difficulties might account for the sudden price increase that distributor Park Myung Jin mentions. Or perhaps the Taedonggang brewmasters have simply become more capitalistic in setting higher prices and seeking larger profits?

If so, then even if the beer is red, it will be less 'red'.