A young brewer from Seoul with no ties to the region moved to Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, and started a brewery. No family connection to the land. No inherited recipe. Just a conviction that makgeolli could be something people hadn’t imagined yet.
That brewery is Nerd Brewery. The brewer is Lee Seung-cheol. The result is a basil sparkling makgeolli that makes you question, for a moment, whether you’re drinking a traditional Korean rice wine or a well-made cocktail.
What’s in the Glass
Fresh basil is cold-brew steeped — the same extraction method used in specialty coffee — to pull deep, clean aromatics without bitterness or heat distortion. Open the bottle and basil arrives before anything else. Take a sip and the sequence unfolds: carbonation rises first, basil spreads through the middle, and a clean tartness closes it out.
5% ABV. 375ml. The carbonation is closer to sparkling wine than the mild fizz most makgeolli carries. The basil isn’t a garnish — it’s structural. And the finish is dry enough that the whole thing feels lighter than it is.
This is makgeolli that doesn’t taste like a compromise between tradition and accessibility. It tastes like a decision.
The Brewery
Nerd Brewery operates out of Sangju, a region better known for dried persimmons and traditional agriculture than craft brewing. That displacement is part of the point. Lee Seung-cheol didn’t go there to follow convention — he went there to build something without one.
The words on Nerd Brewery’s glass door:
NERDS CHANGE THE WORLD.
It’s a small detail, but it says everything about what kind of brewery this is and what kind of drinker it’s made for.
When to Open It
375ml is a deliberate size. Enough for one, comfortable for two. The carbonation and the low ABV make it work across contexts that most makgeolli can’t — a Han River picnic, a dinner table that already has wine on it, a quiet evening that doesn’t need a reason.
Traditional liquor this approachable is either a sign of something being lost or something being found. With Nerd Brewery, it’s the latter.
Editor’s Note
The question makgeolli usually has to answer is: why this instead of beer? Nerd Brewery Basil Sparkling doesn’t bother with that question. It’s asking something different — why not both? — and then making the answer taste like basil and rice and a well-timed bubble. The category it belongs to is less important than the fact that it’s worth drinking. — KayJay
| Brand | Nerd Brewery | Product | Nerd Basil Sparkling | ABV | 5% | Volume | 375ml | Origin | Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province | Ingredients | Glutinous rice (Korean) · Basil · Nuruk · CO₂ | Where to Buy | Daily Shot · Sulmarket · Kihya and other traditional liquor retailers
