Local craft brewers continue pushing boundaries at Korea's beer expo

White Crow Brewing founder Les Timmermans, left, and director/influencer Kevin Grabb share an intimate moment during the Korea International Beer Expo 2026 at Coex in southern Seoul, April 18. Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

“No, no. I do contract work for them,” I explained to the press booth, regarding my relationship to the newspaper you’re reading now. After some deliberations, I was in, albeit with a press pass that reads “Kevin Grabb - Director/Influencer.” Perhaps I should phone my mother and clarify that I am not, in fact, a real journalist.

I was at the Korea International Beer Expo 2026 and, upon entering, it was immediately clear that this wasn't going to be as busy as years past.

Granted, it was 11 a.m. — a time when no normal person would be seeking alcoholic thrills. But those in this grand hall of Coex were not merely “normal people.” We were here seeking the best Korean craft beer on offer and to get it before the aforementioned “normal people” came in like a tidal wave at 3 p.m.

I immediately made a beeline for Daejeon’s The Ranch Brewing, which has an interesting new beer. It’s a Belgian ale/sake hybrid. I’d been to the brewery two months prior and seen its French owner, Fred Huyssen, cultivating his own koji, the fermentation starter for sake. He used the enzymatic power of this koji on barley malt, and then fermented it with Belgian and sake yeasts. This resulted in an 8 percent powerhouse brew and required collaboration with Ho Chi Minh City’s Mua Sake. The pint? A bone-dry, yet full-bodied ale with the silkiness of a premium sake and the fruitiness of a nice Belgian. Keep an eye open for this one, folks.

I then headed to the booth for White Crow, run by fellow Canadian Les Timmermans, to try … something. I’d told him the week prior to merely hand me something good when I showed up, and he didn’t disappoint. Timmermans was beaming with an ear-to-ear smile, for he had won the gold medal the night before in the American Sour category for his new Summit Session. As far as contemporary beer styles go, sours and hazy IPAs seem to dominate taphouse menus and sours are extremely competitive, so winning this was no small feat.

White Crow’s sour is a great summer affair, infused with guava and lime. It also clocks in at 4 percent alcohol, which gives credence to its “session” label — meaning sessionable, as in easy to drink over a long period. Timmermans explained that this beer is meant to be taken up to the “summit” on a hike and enjoyed as a treat at the top. This makes sense, given White Crow’s brewery is in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, and overlooks the Taebaek Mountain Range, which hosts more than a few ski resorts. The beer is just sour enough without turning off the average hiker or drinker, again living up to its sessionability. This is due to using a special yeast from Canada’s Lallemand Yeast Co. named Philly Sour. It is the only yeast on Earth that, in tandem, converts sugar into alcohol whilst also producing lactic acid. Fun fact: This yeast strain was isolated from a graveyard in New Orleans.

I love to travel and have been to Ulleung Island in the East Sea twice. If you haven’t been, you should absolutely go. That said, Ulleung Brewery didn’t exist when I went last, so this was my next priority. I have no scientific proof of the following claim, but I have to imagine that Ulleung Island has the cleanest water in the country. Ulleung Brewery takes water from the Nari caldera for use in its beers.

I asked one of the brewers about the importance of water in beermaking and he explained that the group of owners had actually looked around the entire country for a place for their brewery and ultimately decided on Ulleung Island due to the water coming down from the caldera of the island's volcano. The mineral content of this water is perfect for the beer they brew. He handed me a weizen beer and it was stellar. It’s easy to think of beer as malt and hops, but, like coffee, one must keep in mind that it is mostly water — as high as 90 percent of the content of a can.

Given that this is an “international” beer expo, it didn’t take me long to find something interesting. Or rather, they found me. I’d decided to wear my Kaohsiung shirt that I’d bought on my honeymoon last November. I had planned on talking to the Taiwan Head Brewers (THB), but before I could make my move, they spotted my shirt and waved me over.

My first question for them was, what is Taiwanese beer? They stressed the importance of using local ingredients to differentiate Taiwanese beers from imports that flow into their island. There is zero malt and zero hop production there, so all of that is imported, which doesn’t make for a very interesting stamp on its identity.

Enter tea.

As mentioned, I’d been to Taiwan recently and had actually had a few tea beers and, I hate to admit, hadn’t loved them. As a coffee-drinking Canadian in coffee-drinking Korea, I’d never really taken to tea. I’ll drink it, I like it but I simply couldn’t wrap my head around the tea beers I’d had there.

When THB told me that a full 30 percent of their sales are a variety of tea beers, I was blown away. They handed me a bottle of jasmine IPA and I can say I’m now a convert. The marriage of jasmine flowers in the tea and the American hops creates a floral whirlwind of flavor. Whereas the beers I’d had in Taiwan were basically alcoholic, astringent tea, this version used tea to support the beer and it worked in harmony. Consider me a tea beer fan now.

I could pretend that I remember, in great detail, the subsequent beers I’d had that Saturday in Coex, but, much like a Chicago deep dish pizza, I was heavily sauced.

In keeping with this analogy, beer is very much like pizza in that it brings people together, and even when it’s not amazing, it’s still pretty damn good. There were a dozen other breweries I couldn’t get to, with 100 more beers left unsipped. I thereby leave it to you, dear reader, to fill that role and drink all those beers I couldn’t at KIBEX in 2027 in the near future. Fair warning, though, you may have to look a little harder than your local CU. Cheers.

Kevin Grabb is a Canadian homebrewer and YouTuber. His channel Korea Brewing Adventure covers Korean alcohol from production to consumption.