New Korean restaurant serving its own booze now open in Toronto

A Korean restaurant that also functions as a brewery making its own makgeolli has just opened its doors in Toronto, and it’s ready to transport people straight to Korea in a whole new way.

Gyopo Brewery is turning the concept of craft brewing on its head, but by embracing old Korean traditions.

“Makgeolli (막걸리) is Korea’s oldest rice-fermented beverage; it’s a craft of patience made with rice, water, and Nuruk (Korean traditional starter),” reads a post on the social media page for Gyopo Brewery, written by head brewer Dohyon Kim.

“At Gyopo Brewery, we bridge the gap between tradition and we’re here to restore its dignity. By blending traditional fermentation with modern beer techniques, we’ve created a ‘Beer-inspired Draft Makgeolli.’ Experience makgeolli as it should be: bold, refined, and beautifully paired with our cuisine.”

Apparently the beer-inspired brewing methods used at Gyopo Brewery result in a distinctively crisp finish to the makgeolli. Their house classic makgeolli is simply called Gyopo. At 6.7 per cent alcohol by volume, it’s intended to be creamy, tart and pure. Gyopo also serves a super dry makgeolli that comes in at 8.9 per cent.

Aside from that, the drink menu at Gyopo Brewery also includes a rice lager called Jasmine, a tart pale ale called Omija and a London porter called Mugwort. There’s also garden pale ale Perilla with lime and perilla flavours, and the Yuza zesty pale ale with notes of citrus and basil.

Gyopo Brewery also serves Korean soju, Korean beer and a few non-alcoholic traditional Korean drinks.

When it comes to the food menu, the brewery’s social media reads, “Our cuisine is centred on Korean jang, traditional fermented seasonings like doen-jang, gan-jang, and gochu-jang. These artisanal foundations are crafted through time to deliver a deep, complex umami in every dish.”

As such, the food menu revolves around Korean “jang” barbecue, with the options consisting of LA galbi AAA beef rib, pork collar, chicken thigh or maitake mushroom.

You can also add on ssam vegetables of lettuce, perilla leaf, flat cabbage, radicchio plus makgeolli ssam-jang, as well as gim rice, steamed rice with Korean seaweed, blended oil and gan-jang.

The food menu even comes complete with helpful beer pairing suggestions so that you can easily experience these novel takes on Korean food and drink.

From the looks of social media, the Gyopo Brewery space was transformed from a laundromat into a restaurant.

Gyopo Brewery is now open at 1456 Dundas St. W.