South Korea's Craftbros really knows how to catch one's attention - with labels that feature historic photographs from the culturally iconic LIFE Magazine that was by the way, at one point read by one quarter of all Americans, fuelled by the ethos "To see Life; to see the world.".

More recently, Craftbros began a new series called Once Upon A Time, featuring traditional Korean motifs - if you ever want a masterclass on how to stand out, look no further than Craftbros.

But then again, taking a look at the past experience of the founder of the Korean brewery and distillery (because they also produce Makgeolli, Gin, and more recently Whisky, the last of which makes Craftbros only the third in all of South Korea), it's not much of a surprise.

Founder Kang Ki-Moon (강기문) had started out with a career in advertising, working for one of the most well-known global ad agencies, during which he even won an award at the New York Advertising Festival for an ad he made for diapers - the man could even make diapers interesting! But from there on, Kang began to set out on his own, first starting a designer shoe manufacturer, after which he moved into producing open licensed t-shirts that featured scenes from popular movies such as The Godfather, Top Gun and The Italian Job. Beer was only to follow after his forays into fashion. By then Kang was already the Editor of a popular Korean craft beer magazine, The Beer Post, and whilst Makgeolli and Soju are perhaps more popular in South Korea, Kang had found beer-making to be alot more systematic.

If you know alittle bit about South Korea's beer scene, you might already know that the country is dominated by two large-scale macro companies, OB and HiteJinro, the combined market share of which is upwards of 90%. For decades, making craft beer in South Korea proved exceptionally difficult for legislative reasons - from having to hit incredibly outsized production quotas to sustain a brewing license, to stringent limitations on the sale and distribution of beer. Nevertheless, South Korea's craft beer renaissance would fatefully finally come of age after a decade's worth of rather spontaneous events that pushed the country to open up its policies on the brew. Today the country has an incredibly vibrant and thriving craft beer scene thanks to the tireless efforts of many in the community.

Counting Kang as one of whom would not be too far fetched. In the early years of South Korea's craft beer revolution, craft beer shops and bars had started to appear in the country's most populated areas. In Seorae Village, where Kang was from, there was none. And so Kang decided to change that, first by starting a craft beer shop by the name "Craftbros" in June 2014. His moves since have been rather logical and lock-step. He would start a craft beer bar called Can Maker which would afford drinkers the ability to have their craft beers canned and to-go so they could have it pretty much anywhere - sounds pretty straightforward, but back then only brewpubs could serve beers. He would of course begin coming up with brewing recipes and start off first by having it commercially brewed white-label.

Eventually Craftbros would become a fully-fledged brewery of its own. They'd been chugging away for almost 5 years until perhaps their biggest break came in 2020 when the brewery began collaborating with LIFE Magazine. Empowered with the iconic shot of Marilyn Monroe, Craftbros would populate its craft IPA across the country's major convenience stores and also gain international attention - I told you Kang was pretty damn good at that!

And so you can expect that Craftbros has been on my hit list for some time now, and today we're going to try two New England IPAs from their LIFE series.

Let's go!

Craftbros LIFE Ladder - New England IPA, 6.8% ABV | 크래프트브로스 라이프 IPA 래더 - Review

Tasting Notes

Colour: Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

Aroma: The pine jumps out first, light hit of cut grass with just a slight bit of diesel dankness. It’s got that cold greenhouse thing going on. Soft wafts of pineapple, rounded off by some sweeter apricots. The hoppiness here is really quite aromatic, it’s got this almost fresh pine wood scent as well.

Taste: Really smooth, thick, rounded, almost feels like juice. Lots of orange juice, there’s a good amount of orange pith in there. Light carbonation. There’s a bitterness from that pith. It’s not all that dank - the hops coming through more as an aromatic grassiness. It leans sweeter actually.

Finish: Fades off beautifully, very soft on the finish, plush, with more of that orange juice and just a slight bitterness, surrounded by an aromatic grassiness. Surprisingly it’s even sweeter than it is bitter. Clean finish, just those soft but bold aromatics of orange juice and grass.

My Thoughts

A really solid example of a NEIPA right here! It’s got great aromas that have more depth than usual. On the palate it’s heavy on the orange juice - big, bold flavours but both the sweetness and bitterness is very controlled and not overwhelming. Instead you’re really just getting all that orange juice flavour without so much sweetness or bitterness - just enough to keep it approachable and give it some complexity. The finish is really plush and elegant, the richness of it persists and it just recedes cleanly, leaving just the aromatics.

What I love about this is that the hoppiness really comes through more in the way of piney aromatics rather than full on dank bitterness. So for those of you - like me - don’t like that dank bitterness, this one will be perfectly drinkable for you. Really aromatic, really bold and forward flavours, light on the sweetness and bitterness.

Altogether, really well done here!  

Craftbros LIFE New England Double IPA (collab with Yakima Chief Hops), 8.2% ABV | 크래프트브로스  라이프 더블IPA 야키마치프홉스 - Review

Tasting Notes

Colour: Pineapple Juice

Aroma: It’s more concentrated here, denser, and at the same time a more pronounced pithy bitterness, quite dank too. More on pineapple syrup, with some leaves blended in and tossed in. Still very aromatic, big nose in fact, although a little thinner. It’s like a very concentrated hit of tropical fruit syrup.

Taste: Much more dank and hoppy here - big on the vegetal, grassy and pithy bitterness. There’s a lighter hit of orange juice but that plays second to the vegetal notes. Also there’s a sort of milk creaminess here too. Really smooth and with a good thickness.

Finish: Pretty clean, that milkiness persists, a does the hoppy vegetals of cut grass and citrus pith. There’s a couple of drops of gasoline here too.

My Thoughts

This was definitely alot more dank and hoppy, big on the vegetals of cut grass and pith, although I will say that the bitterness wasn’t at all biting, overly oily or too overwhelming - although if you’re not a fan of bitter IPAs, go for the NEIPA above instead. 

But if you are into hoppy brews, then you probably will really like this because it aces that hoppiness in keeping it pretty balanced, and layered atop this milkiness that’s very creamy and interesting. It’s got a good richness to it too, and feels always very focused. I do think that it balances out the hoppiness very well, bringing out just the vegetals and not so much of the other stuff. I do also like that this is giving some complexity - it’s not just the hoppiness right - there’s some fruit in there, some milkiness in there.

Solid stuff if you like hoppy beers!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot