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| Gangneung's Budnamu Brewery is one of the 16 brewers participating in this weekend's Gyeongpo Beach Beer Festival. / Courtesy of Budnamu Brewery |
By Jon Dunbar
Beer and the beach makes for a good combination, as those in Gangneung in Gangwon Province may well know.
Gangneung's Gyeongpo Beach is playing host to a beer festival this weekend. The Gyeongpo Beach Beer Festival brings together 16 craft breweries from across Korea for three days of boozy festivities.
Participating brewers include locals Gangneung Brewery and Budnamu Brewery, as well as Sokcho's Mont Beer Brewery and PyeongChang County's White Crow Brewing. Other well-known names include Gapyeong County's Kabrew, Incheon's Caligari Brewing and Goyang's The Table Brewing Company. The many others also represent more distant cities like Ulsan, Changwon and Daejeon.
It is a gathering, one that would have been impossible 10 years ago when the craft brewing scene was far from mainstream. Craft beer has spread to every corner of the Korean Peninsula, rescuing consumers from the mass-produced lagers provided by macrobrewers such as Cass, Hite and OB.
A late addition to the festival was wine importer Allvintage Wine. Other attractions include food trucks, beach activities such as Frisbee golf, beer yoga and a water gun fight. Buskers will perform during the day and DJs will play on Friday and Saturday night.
While the festival is held on the beach, next door is a pine grove where participants can seek shade.
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| A couple enjoys beer in the shade of trees near Gangneung's Gyeongpo Beach. / Courtesy of Gyeongpo Beach Beer Festival |
For this festival, event organizers are serious about cutting down on plastic waste, especially in consideration of the beach environment, introducing the "Almost Plastic-Free" concept.
"As you know, most beer festivals use a lot of plastic cups, which cause environmental pollution," a festival organizer said in an email. "To protect the beautiful beaches, seas and pine grove, organization of this festival decided to produce polylactic acid cups, with each participating brewery promising to purchase and use these cups instead of plastic cups."
Polylactic acid is a plastic substitute made of organic corn starch. It takes between six months to a year to break down and leaves no harmful substances.
The use of reusable tumblers is also encouraged.
Tickets are available on Hanatour for 19,000 won, which covers four drinks plus a small souvenir. Non-ticket holders can also access the festival, although prices are cheaper with a ticket purchased, organizers say.
