The catchphrase, “Do what you love,” holds special significance when it comes to craft brewing, according to Brian Do, the operator of the Hand and Malt Brewing Co.

“Running a craft brewery requires a great deal of passion and love for beer,” said Do, who calls himself chief beer taster.

“If not, a brewer cannot produce beer with consistent taste and quality,” he stressed.

Korea’s craft brewery business is still in an infant stage, with a limited number of mass produced insipid light lagers having dominated the local beer market for several decades.

In recent years, however, small craft breweries have been sprouting up, aided by new brewing regulations implemented this year that allow breweries and brew pubs with the production capacity of 50,000 liters or more, down from 150,000 liters or more, to sell their beers to bars.

The lowered entry barriers will allow more small players to jump into the craft beer market, Do noted.

“Craft beer, which currently takes up less than 1 percent of the entire beer market, will grow to grab 3-5 percent of the market,” he predicted.

Even some big retail giants and beer producers including Shinsegae, which has acquired brew pub Devil’s Door late last year, are eyeing the fledgling market.

Demand for craft beers with crisp, rich and sometimes fruity tastes is also expected to surge in the looming hot summer days, often referred to as a season of beer, according market watchers.

Though there is no published data available, some market players estimate that the craft beer market will grow from 700 million won ($638,000) in 2012 to 10 billion won in 2018.

Running a brew pub was a long-cherished dream for Do.

After studying abroad for most of his younger years, Do came to Korea after graduating in the 1990s and found no diversity in Korean beers. Since then, he has taught himself about brewing while he continued several day jobs, including as a TV reporter at an English TV station and a marketing official for Microsoft Korea.

When he launched the brewery last year, almost everyone said he was crazy to give up his job at Microsoft.

“Despite skepticism, I firmly believed the craft brewery businesses would boom for the next several years,” the brewery owner said.

Hopscotch, a brew pub chain run by Do and his partners, carries the Hand and Malt Brewing Company’s five beers: Extra Special Ale, an English Ale with a rich malty taste; German Wheat, a traditional German wheat beer with a sweet taste and banana flavor; Mocha Stout, a milky stout with coffee flavors; Belgian Wit, a light, refreshing beer; and Slow IPA, a fruity ale with a low alcohol content.

Since the establishment a brewery in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, and the Hopscotch gastro pubs in Gwanghwamun and Gangnam with partners last year, Do’s brewery business has gained popularity steadily through word of mouth, even attracting some TV celebrities, whom he declined to name. 

He works with an American brewmaster Philip Kelm, who has consulted for breweries worldwide including those in Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and the U.S. for more than 15 years, and Brandon Fenner, who used to work as a lead brewer at two leading U.S. breweries, Magic Hat and more recently Maui Brewing Company.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)