I Regressed and Became Too Good at Brewing - Chapter 42

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 42. Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival (3)
‘How beautiful…….’
Jeong Man-hu, who had come all this way to experience the Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival firsthand, couldn’t help but let out a quiet gasp of admiration.
Even when Me-ari had appeared, even when Me-ari: Autumn had taken the stage, and even when Dal-bodeeu had debuted—he’d never felt anything quite this intense.
Perhaps it was because he’d already experienced those once before, and familiarity dulled the edge.
‘But this is different.’
From the moment Hong-ya—a liquor whose name meant “red night”—was revealed beneath the spotlight, Man-hu’s attention had been utterly seized by that seductive, blood-red spirit.
And he wasn’t alone in his captivation.
Spectators raised their smartphones as if enchanted, and the pathway in front of the booth had become practically paralyzed by the crush of incoming crowds.
Even as a burly man who appeared to be an employee of Songha-dang managed the flow, wiping sweat from his brow, the commotion showed no signs of abating.
‘When was the last time I saw a spirit like that?’
He was the one who had first established the very concept of a traditional liquor Sommelier in Korea.
His palate was razor-sharp—so much so that there were stories, only slightly exaggerated, that he could identify not only the type of Nuruk used but even the humidity level of the distillery during fermentation, all from a single sip.
Yet even he, for all his refinement, had been overwhelmed by nothing more than the simple desire to taste a glass of this spirit.
‘That must be the one Master Brook tasted and marveled over.’
He’d been following Songha-dang’s YouTube channel regularly enough to know.
This was the spirit that had appeared in their most recently uploaded video.
He could still see the moment when Eddie Brook took a sip, his eyes widening as he cried out in amazement.
As he waited his turn, it finally arrived.
“Would you like a taste?”
“Oh, well—ahem. Would it be all right to ask?”
“Of course. Just one moment, please?”
Trickle-trickle~
Hong-ya poured into the glass with a clear, crystalline sound.
In that instant, Man-hu’s brow twitched ever so slightly.
The first thing to strike his senses was the visual revelation.
The liquid flowing down the glass’s inner wall held not a trace of murky opacity—not if you looked with fresh eyes.
‘Yet it doesn’t look like they’ve forced it through any filtration either.’
Like pomegranate juice at its ripest, carefully refined into a lustrous ruby hue—deep and luminous.
At the glass’s center, the red was as dark as the depths of the ocean, but toward the rim, kissed by the light, it bloomed into a soft rose.
‘It’s as if someone painted it.’
The fact that not a single gram of artificial dye had been used, that this flawless, crystalline red had been achieved through nothing but the fermentation control of red Nuruk and Hongkook, struck him as genuinely revelatory.
“Here you are.”
Before he’d finished his contemplation, a glass of clear yet profound crimson appeared in his line of sight.
He lifted the glass slowly.
Then, as one would when tasting wine, he rotated it gently two or three times.
As Swirling took hold, the legs trailing down the glass’s wall were both substantial and silken.
Evidence of a considerable balance between sweetness and alcohol.
And then, as the professor finally brought the glass to his nose and drew in a deep breath—
“Mm… this is lovely!”
His eyes flew open.
What flooded his mind was a perfectly orchestrated explosion of aroma.
As if thousands of crimson-hued fragrance notes were performing an elegant ensemble dance at the tip of his nose.
An exotic bouquet that simply couldn’t be found in traditional clear rice wine.
Yet he didn’t want to push it away.
A scent both familiar and utterly novel.
‘And that’s not all.’
The opening notes were dominated by the bright, tart-and-sweet fruit aroma that rose when ripe wild plums, cherries, and raspberries were crushed together.
The delicate, luminous berry notes one might find in a Pinot wine rapped at his nasal passages like a prelude.
But beneath that fruity foundation, a considerable weight pressed upward with substance and heft.
‘Onggi! That’s where the richness comes from—using Onggi!’
The earthy-grain fragrance only ever released by well-made traditional Onggi—the robust aroma of well-risen Nuruk and the subtle nuttiness of freshly steamed rice—wrapped the fruit aromas in a warm embrace.
And there was more: the peculiar bitter-and-nutty undertone that Hongkook alone could impart, and finally, a cool, bright note flitting past.
The aromas didn’t clash; they layered and interwove, building a perfect pyramid at the tip of his nose.
‘In the past few years, have I encountered a spirit carrying this much narrative depth……?’
His first impression and the bouquet had exceeded his expectations.
But what of the taste itself?
Man-hu finally brought the Hong-ya to his lips and held a careful sip in his mouth.
And in that instant…….
‘Wow! This is—!’
The moment the liquor touched the tip of his tongue, a sharp thrill ran through his entire body. His refined palate immediately began analyzing the flavors contained within the Hong-ya.
At first, it was intensely bold, yet surprisingly delicate.
A pleasant acidity pricked the tip of his tongue, instantly stimulating his salivary glands.
The living vitality inherent in natural fermentation.
This subtle tartness opened the initial impression, which might otherwise have grown heavy, with a refreshing clarity.
As the liquor flowed across the middle of his tongue, a sweetness born from the Hongkook and short-grain rice came rolling in like gentle waves.
It was not the simple sweetness of sugar.
It was a deep umami that emerged from the grain’s aging, combined with a natural sweetness as sticky as honey yet clean on the finish.
But the most remarkable quality lay elsewhere.
‘How could such a clear rice wine produce a taste so profound and weighty?’
The most wondrous aspect was the body and texture.
Even a single sip disappeared from his mouth too quickly, so he made every effort to savor it fully.
The particles of the liquor moved across his tongue with a smoothness and luster as if finest silk had been laid there.
Despite being a clear rice wine, the sensation of fullness it created in his mouth was exquisite.
“Mm!”
A soft murmur escaped his lips unbidden.
Rather than swallowing immediately, he wrung out every last note of flavor with his entire tongue before slowly letting it slide down his throat.
Even the finish that followed was flawless.
The swallow was clean and calm as water, and an enormous density of aroma began to flow backward through the empty space of his mouth and throat.
“Remarkable. Truly remarkable….”
“Does it suit your palate?”
“It’s perfect! This is revolutionary!”
Professor Jeong’s voice trembled softly.
Before him stood Yeon-u, the young craftsman who had brewed this liquor, smiling faintly, yet his heart still raced with excitement.
“I… I apologize for asking, but….”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Is it possible to purchase this Hong-ya here?”
Most booths at the festival promoted spirits that were available for sale, but with exceptional liquors like this, the quantities were so limited that purchase itself was often difficult.
“Yes. Fortunately, we had a few more onggi made, so I brought extra stock with me.”
“Excellent!”
Man-hu cast aside all pretense of professoralism and became thoroughly delighted at the prospect of purchasing Hong-ya.
* * *
“Wow. It’s all sold out already….”
“I know, right?”
Despite having brought a considerable quantity, the Songha-dang booth had no liquor left in stock.
There was still about an hour before the festival’s highlight—the Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival tasting results—would be announced.
“We can’t really stay at the booth any longer either.”
“True. There’s nothing left to sell.”
It had been an oversight.
Songha-dang’s popularity had exceeded expectations, so everything they’d prepared was gone.
And this was meant literally.
Not only the liquor, but all the brochures and leaflets they’d printed in bulk had vanished long ago.
“Should we try to print more right now?”
“No point. Doesn’t seem necessary to that degree. Besides, we’ve already achieved what we set out to do.”
Their objectives for the Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival had been twofold.
One was the promotion of Hong-ya.
Anyone would have called this an unqualified success.
Everyone who tasted it had gasped in admiration.
“Is there anyone in particular who stands out in your memory?”
“I remember the gentleman with silvered hair, dignified in bearing. There was something sharp about his kindness that made him memorable.”
“Ah, that one? I remember him too. After just a sip of Hong-ya, he seemed like a completely different person.”
He had literally stepped backward when asking to purchase Hong-ya, as if transformed by that single taste.
The sight of him leaving with a bottle of Hong-ya had been so joyful to behold.
“It was enough that he enjoyed it so much. Besides, we successfully met with several buyers.”
That was the second objective.
To expand Songha-dang’s economic reach by building relationships with numerous buyers.
Even just today, they had successfully secured contracts with major establishments like hotel restaurants.
Was it not remarkable?
The fact that Songha-dang’s liquor would be paired in a fine-dining tasting course at a five-star hotel, where a single meal started at well over 600,000 won.
“The volume we’ve already contracted is more than sufficient. Beyond this, production would become difficult anyway.”
“How long did they say it would take?”
“About a month, maybe?”
“That’s longer than I expected.”
“Well, they said it goes faster with their company. I checked around elsewhere and some places quoted three months.”
“That’s brutal.”
After discussing it back and forth with Se-jun, we reached the conclusion that we should close down the booth.
There was no point in pushing forward.
Instead, we decided to spend the time exploring the other booths at the Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival.
“Stuck out here in the mountains of Yeongwol, we need to see what kinds of liquors are being made these days, you know?”
“Right, so let’s do a quick market survey.”
As we made the rounds, we discovered quite a few fascinating spirits.
The variety of liquor types had expanded considerably, and so had the range of raw materials.
Leveraging the principle that any source of starch could theoretically become alcohol, they were using not just grains like rice, barley, and wheat, but also diverse ingredients—potatoes, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and more.
Distinguishing the flavors of each one was a genuinely enjoyable experience.
I found myself eager to start brewing a different spirit with the inspiration I’d gathered here, the sooner the better.
That’s when Se-jun and I were still sipping our way through the booths.
“Hm? That one over there looks like beer?”
At one corner of the exhibition hall, where the Korean Traditional Liquor Grand Festival was reaching its peak energy—
A brewpub booth with a sign reading “The Hop” had an eerily desolate atmosphere, with only flies drifting through the empty air.
The two people manning the booth had the expressions of those cornered at a cliff’s edge.
With worry etched across their faces, they stood with their hands clasped tightly together, heads bowed.
The situation was easy enough to read without asking.
“With so many booths around, something like this was bound to happen.”
“Yeah… in a way, for a small-scale brewery, this might be their last chance.”
“I’m curious, but it looks like they’ve run through their last beer keg, so I don’t think we can stop by…….”
But even as I was saying that—
A figure suddenly darted out from between the beer kegs.
Whatever spirit or entity it was—probably naturally cheerful and spirited by nature—now looked like it was merely lingering on, neither fully alive nor fully gone.
Its body drooped and swayed unsteadily.
And though invisible to the eyes of ordinary people, there was a strange crystalline substance that had formed and wound around its head.
“Someone messed with the yeast.”
“I’m sorry? Someone… messed with the yeast?”
Hearing movement, the two of them hurried out and turned to face me.
But their manner wasn’t one of welcoming a customer.
“How did you know the yeast was changed? Oh! Wait, could it be… the owner of Songha-dang?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right.”
“My goodness, what a coincidence!”
They expressed their surprise with both hands covering their mouths, their whole bodies trembling.
But more than their reaction, there was something else occupying my attention.
Just from the aroma alone, without even tasting it, I could tell this would be absolutely terrible.
You’d be better off drinking mass-produced beer from a convenience store.
‘But why can I feel Dokkaebi’s presence there?’
Dokkaebi was supposed to appear only at breweries producing fine spirits—so how could one be clinging to this horrifyingly bad alcohol?
This was something I absolutely had to investigate.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————