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Alcoholic drinks from Korea

Ihwaju (pear-blossom wine)이화주

Ihwaju is an old Korean rice wine, named for the pear blossom that is out when it is brewed. Rice flour is made into boiled hole-cakes, cooled, mixed with a powdered rice nuruk and packed into a jar with no raw water. The result is a white wine as thick as porridge, eaten with a spoon or stirred into cold water.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks7 days – 21 daysFamily: Makgeolli (takju, nongju)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe modern Rural Development Administration recipe for 1 kg of rice, 300 g of nuruk and 1 g of yeast. The old recipes count rice in mal and nuruk powder in doe (10 doe to the mal), so their amounts do not convert to a fixed batch size.
Non-glutinous rice1 kgWashed, soaked, drained and ground to a fine flour that is sifted once[rda-ihwaju]
Rice nuruk (ihwagok)300 gScraped free of surface mould, powdered and sifted before use[rda-ihwaju]
Yeast1 g[rda-ihwaju]
No raw waterThe Sallim gyeongje method says never to add unboiled water; the rice flour is kneaded with hot water and boiled into hole-cakes[encykorea-ihwaju]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (rice nuruk, ihwagok)

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 21 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Rice soaks overnight, then is pounded and sifted into fine flour

Step 1 of 8
Soak and grind the rice for the nuruk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus oryzae
Moulds
Yeasts

The Sangayorok (about 1450) starts the nuruk in early February with 5 mal of white rice. Output: sifted rice flour for the nuruk.

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

Ihwaju is an old Korean rice wine, named for the pear blossom that is out when it is brewed. Rice flour is made into boiled hole-cakes, cooled, mixed with a powdered rice nuruk and packed into a jar with no raw water. The result is a white wine as thick as porridge, eaten with a spoon or stirred into cold water. Made in 8 steps over 7 days – 21 days. The longest step, ferment in the jar, takes 7–21 days (Hwang B.G. 1995 (revised 2023)) and runs at 15–20 °C (Rural Development Administration (Korea) 2022). Aspergillus oryzae, the only mould grown from the rice nuruk and Hansenula sp., the only yeast grown from the rice nuruk do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–21 daysReported[encykorea-ihwaju][rda-ihwaju]Ferment in the jar
Temperature15–20 °CReported[rda-ihwaju]Ferment in the jar

What makes this one different

Ihwaju is made from rice flour cakes and a rice nuruk, no raw water goes into the jar, and the wine comes out as thick as porridge. Wikipedia's makgeolli article says it is often so thick that it is eaten with a spoon. The rice nuruk carried only one mould, Aspergillus oryzae, and one yeast, Hansenula sp., in Kim's study.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Sangayorok recipe (about 1450)Starts the nuruk in early February; the base wine uses 10 mal of rice, and a second feeding of 1 mal of rice and 5 doe of nuruk powder is set against the jar wall, leaving the middle empty. The jar is kept cool and opened around 15 May, when the taste is very sweet and fragrant.
  • Sallim gyeongje method (as quoted in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture)The nuruk lumps are made on the first pig day (sanghaeil) of the first lunar month, layered with pine needles and kept in a cooler part of the room; the wine is ready in 7 days in spring and 21 in summer, with the jar set in water.
  • Modern recipe1 kg of rice, 300 g of nuruk and 1 g of yeast, fermented 15–20 days indoors at 15–20 °C.

Safety

Keep the wine cold. The Rural Development Administration stores it in the refrigerator. The Sallim gyeongje, quoted in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, warns against putting raw water in the jar. The encyclopedia adds that nuruk lumps kept in a warm place rot at the centre and show blue spots. In Kim's study, wine made by the traditional method kept for a year without heat treatment or preservatives. The abstract reports its enzyme activity and gives no storage temperature or safety test.

History and sources

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

The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture says ihwaju has existed since the Goryeo period and appears in Dongguk Isang-guk jip, Hallim byeolgok, Sallim gyeongje, Imwon gyeongjeji and other texts. The Sangayorok (Jeon Sun-ui, about 1450) gives a recipe, and the Gosa sinseo (Seo Myeong-eung, 1771) gives another.

  1. [kim1993] Kim J.O., Kim J.G. 1993, Microbial and enzymatic properties related to brewing of traditional Ewhaju (전통 이화주의 양조와 관련된 미생물 및 효소적 특성), Korean Journal of Food and Cookery Science 9(4):266–271 (abstract)paper
  2. [rda-ihwaju] Rural Development Administration (Korea), Making traditional liquors you can enjoy easily (부담 없이 즐길 수 있는 우리 전통주 만들기), Green Magazine, September 2022, ihwaju recipegov
  3. [rda-nongsaro] Rural Development Administration (Korea), Nongsaro, Making traditional liquors you can enjoy easily (부담 없이 즐길 수 있는 우리 전통주 만들기), ihwaju sectiongov
  4. [encykorea-ihwaju] Hwang B.G. 1995 (revised 2023), 이화주 (梨花酒), Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studiesbook
  5. [WP:Makgeolli] Wikipedia, Makgeolli (outline only)wiki