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According to North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the country’s Taedonggang brewery is touting a new brewing process that uses wheat instead of barley, and “is better than existing beers in terms of its taste and smell,” and has ‘already gained positive reviews from North Korean citizens.”
Yah think?
First of all, it’s probably not very smart for any citizen of North Korea to criticize the state run brewery …just sayin.’ And we’d love to know if this totalitarian enclave has much access to large reserves of malted barley to begin with.
But just as with North Korea’s challenging nuclear ambitions, this new lager might be seen as a serious escalation in the beer standoff with their neighbors to the south…
The Taedonggang brewery has been covertly developing this quaffable secret weapon since at least 2015, after the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s much reported criticism that imported “South Korean beers lacked taste.”
Not surprisingly (and probably smartly as well) the North Korean media is presenting the new beer as a victory in Kim Jong-un’s plan to lift living standards in the Communist country, explaining the new beer’s development as the result of a “round-the-clock battle” to make life “more enjoyable for the people”.
The Korea Times has reported that the Supreme Leader Kim is a serious beer lover who at least on one occasion made an unsuccessful attempt to woo the Munich-based Paulaner brewery into setting up a branded brewing operation and beer garden in North Korea.
As of the time of publishing the Supreme Leader had not responded to American Craft Beer’s request for comment…
