Beer in South Korea

South Korea is not the beer wasteland I was anticipating (albeit 90% of bars offer nothing but the domestic piss) but I'm desperate for a bit of variety. So far I've only found one bottle shop in the whole of Korea, in Itaewon in Seoul, and it's okay but very limited. I'd love a Chimmay right now. Does anyone know of any other bottle shops, or even websites?
Ta.

 

Here's my personal beer guide that I posted on a Korea foreign teacher's blog:

For anyone new to Korea, who hasn't had time to seek out the good stuff yet, here's everything I know:

HOMEPLUS - The bigger stores in the bigger cities now stock a few American craft beers (Samuel Adams Boston Lager doesn't count!). In Gwangju I found Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA, their Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, Boont ESB and a couple of others. I also found Lost Coast's Indica which tastes like pine needles (very nice). Up until recently these American beers were only available in Itaewon. They sold Duvel and Leffe Brune but it looks like they're being done away with now. There's a couple of Japanese craft ales availble called something like Hitachino Nest. All are okay, but not a patch on the aforementioned and they cost around 7 or 8k each. Larger stores stock England's Old Speckled Hen, which ain't half bad (but not great either), and Smithwick's Red Ale, which is also not unpleasant. Montieth's Celtic Red (New Zealand) is available in bigger stores and so too are Australia's Cooper's green and sparkling red. Oh, germany's Paulaner is available in all Homeplus stores of size.

EMART - The big ones stock some of Germany's finest offerings, including pretty much everything from Weihenstephanen and the entire Schneider Weisse range, albeit it's never all in the same store at once and sometimes never at all. The Eisbock is back in stock. They have a few not bad German lagers like Hacker Pschorr and such. Yongsan Station Emart in Seoul has the best selection I've seen. Konig Ludwig Dunkel lager and Meisse wheatbeer are often available too (the latter is delicious).

ITAEWON - The only dedicated bottle shop I've found in Korea so far is here. It stocks Belgium's Delirium Tremens and Nocturnum (yuck to the latter!), both in 750ml bottles, a couple of Floreffes including their triple and dubbel, Barbok Winter something, and a weird Belgian AIPA, and all the Anderson Valley, Lost Coast beers I mentioned earlier. It also has some Rogue beers. To find this place leave Itaewon subway from exit 3 and follow the main street past a petrol station. It's only a small shop so keep your eyes peeled. It sells wine, cigars and other types of booze as well. There's a downstairs HomeBase shop at the other end of the street on the other side which stocks all the aforementioned American beers. Not so cheap though. There's another couple of small shops which sell nice beers. They have some Japanese craft beers called Coedo Shiro which are okay.

That's it for now. If anyone knows of anywhere else then please, please tell us about it.

 

ITAEWON - Today I bought bottles of Fuller's London Pride, ESB, Porter and Golden Pride. Things are looking up.

 

Oh, that's not good. Do you mean the bar had over 100 different varities of bottled beer? !!!

Young's Double chocolate stout is now available from Homeplus stores. Huzzah!

 

Chimay, for real? I had a couple last week but I'd brought them with me from England. Do you have an Emart in Suwon? I can always find Weihenstephaner and Schneider Weisse in the Daejeon store.

 

Tesco Finest American Double IPA (by Brewdog) now in big Homeplus stores. It's this:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=267465288

Very nice indeed but ₩9,900 a bottle.

There's also a Belgian style wheat beer (ugh):

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=260285581

 

I thought this was going to be shit but it's sound as a pound.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30245/89671/?ba=Hoppsbabo

 

Oh, nice. I'd be well up for that. Can you give me any details about the comapanies?

 

Here's what I just posted on my beer thread in the Waygook forum:

NEWS FOR THE BEER MANIACS IN KOREA

A much wider selection of quality Belgian ale is now available from the little shop in Itaewon behind the Hamilton hotel. On offer are:

*Chimay Yellow
*Chimay Blue
*Trappistes Rochefort 6
*Trappistes Rochefort 8
*Westmalle Dubbel
*Westmalle Tripel
*Duchesse De Bourgogne
*Corsendonk Blond
*Corsendonk Pater
*Malheur 10

As you can imagine they are all really expensive. A small bottle of Chimay costs little under ₩16,000 and the cheapest on that list is the Duchesse De Bourgogne going for ₩9,900. The shopkeeper told me that Chimay was being sold for a whopping ₩46,000 per 33cl bottle in a nearby pub. There were dubbels and tripels but no quadrupels (much to my disappointment) but I put in a request for St. Bernardus 12. I spent ₩41,000 on the three bottles you see here. Call me a sucker but I have hardly anything else to spend money on in Korea.

 

Indeed. I've become very well acquainted with Paulaner and Leffe Brune since I've been here. Back in 2011 I could buy London Pride at my local medium-sized Homeplus but gone are those days. What a shame.

 

Well hey, I saw this today:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/07/177_139791.html

I still haven't made the pilgrimage to Craftworks but I've heard mixed reviews from patrons. There's another one called Magpie but I also haven't been there. Castle Praha have some nice brews but they're not cheap. The only shop I know of in the whole of Korea which has a serious variety of imports is Han's store behind the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon. It's pricey though. Bring as much beer as you can fit in your bag. They're very lax about it here.

Are you just visiting, teaching English or out on deployment with the US army?

 

Oh, have fun. Don't touch the domestic beer though! As for me, I'm off home for two weeks and I can't wait for that first pint. I also can't wait to get away from Korea, haha.