More about Hana Makgeolli

Hana Makgeolli brews traditional Korean rice wine in Brooklyn, and it will upend whatever you think you know about makgeolli. Forget the sweet, fizzy cans; these are dry, naturally fermented sool made from just three ingredients: organic rice, water and nuruk, the traditional Korean starter of grain packed with wild yeasts, fungi and bacteria.

Alice Jun learned to brew from her father in the family's Los Angeles kitchen. She started Hana in 2017, opened the commercial brewery in Greenpoint in 2020 with partner John Limb, and it's billed as New York's first Korean rice wine brewery. The name nods both to Alice's Korean name and to the generations of women who brewed sool at home.

The range follows the traditional categories. Takju is the cloudy, sedimented style, led by the flagship Takju 16. Yakju is the clear wine that separates out during fermentation, and there are infused and heirloom-grain versions such as the omija-berry Makgeolli and black-rice Forbidden Takju. Savory, lactic and food-loving, they're as happy with pajeon or kimchi as with a dry-aged steak.