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Alcoholic drinks from Korea

Dongdongju (bueuiju, floating-ant wine)동동주

Dongdongju is a quick Korean rice wine served with grains of rice floating on top. Its old name, bueuiju, means floating-ant wine, after the grains that look like small ants. Steamed glutinous rice is mixed with nuruk and water in a single stage, and the old recipes say it clears and ripens in about three days.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks8 days – 10 daysFamily: Makgeolli (takju, nongju)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne batch as the Joseon recipes Gosa chwaryo and Sallim gyeongje give it, in old Korean volume units, as summarised in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. The Rural Development Administration's modern recipe is 1 kg of non-glutinous rice, 30 g of improved nuruk, 5 g of yeast and 1.5 L of water.
Glutinous rice1 malSteamed and cooled[aks-dongdongju]
Water, boiled and cooled3 bottles (byeong)In the Sallim gyeongje version; the Gosa chwaryo version soaks the nuruk in the water and strains it[aks-dongdongju]
Nuruk powder1 doe[aks-dongdongju]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (nuruk)

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 days – 10 days

Start
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What changes: Glutinous rice is steamed and spread to cool

Step 1 of 5
Steam and cool the glutinous rice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Rhizopus
Lactic acid bacteria

Gosa chwaryo steams one mal of glutinous rice into jiebap; Sallim gyeongje cools it in a vessel. Output: steamed, cooled glutinous rice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Dongdongju is a quick Korean rice wine served with grains of rice floating on top. Its old name, bueuiju, means floating-ant wine, after the grains that look like small ants. Steamed glutinous rice is mixed with nuruk and water in a single stage, and the old recipes say it clears and ripens in about three days. Made in 5 steps over 8 days – 10 days. The longest step, serve when clear, with the rice floating, takes 5–7 days (Rural Development Administration (농촌진흥청) 2022). Nuruk moulds (Aspergillus, Rhizopus), yeasts (such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and lactic bacteria, as listed for nuruk in general; no source tests the nuruk of dongdongju and Added yeast in the modern recipe of the Rural Development Administration do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5–7 daysReported[rda-dongdongju]Serve when clear, with the rice floating
Temperature20 °C → 25 °CReported[rda-dongdongju]Ferment until clear and ripe

What makes this one different

Dongdongju is a one-stage rice wine, with no second addition of rice, served with the grains floating on the clear wine. English Wikipedia calls it very similar to makgeolli but slightly creamier, with unfiltered floating grains. The grains give both names, dongdong (a small thing floating) and bueui (floating ants).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Hwaseong bueuiju (Gyeonggi)Main ingredients glutinous rice and nuruk, 13 % alcohol. Gyeonggi listed it as intangible heritage in 1987 and removed the listing in 2011.
  • Modern recipe of the Rural Development Administration1 kg of non-glutinous rice, 30 g of improved nuruk, 5 g of yeast and 1.5 L of water in one stage.

Safety

Hwaseong bueuiju is kept about 15 days at winter room temperature or up to a year in a refrigerator.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Dongdongju is thought to date from the Goryeo period, because bueuiju appears in the Mogeun-jip. Recipes are in Joseon works including Gosa chwaryo, Eumsik dimibang, Sallim gyeongje, Yangju bang and Eumsik bangmun. In 1984 the National Tax Service listed it as a Gyeonggi folk liquor. Gyeonggi named bueuiju an intangible heritage on 14 May 1987 and ended the listing in March 2011, because the brewing facility had closed and the holder no longer lived in Gyeonggi.

  1. [aks-dongdongju] Lee Seong-u 1995, revised 2024, 동동주 (dongdongju), Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), Academy of Korean Studies; recipes of Gosa chwaryo and Sallim gyeongjebook
  2. [aks-bueuiju] Yu Ae-ryeong 1995, revised 2024, 부의주(동동주) (bueuiju, dongdongju), Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (한국민족문화대백과사전), Academy of Korean Studies; Gyeonggi intangible heritage listing, Hwaseong makerbook
  3. [rda-dongdongju] Rural Development Administration (농촌진흥청) 2022, 부담 없이 즐길 수 있는 우리 전통주 만들기 (dongdongju recipe), RDA webzine September 2022gov
  4. [wp-nuruk] Wikipedia, Nuruk (microbes of nuruk in general; outline only)wiki
  5. [jung1987] Jung J.H., Jung S.T. 1987, Comparison of the aroma components in the Korean traditional yakjus, Journal of the Korean Agricultural Chemical Society (Applied Biological Chemistry) 30(3):264–271 (abstract)paper
  6. [WP:Makgeolli] Wikipedia, Makgeolli (outline only; dongdong-ju under Similar beverages)wiki