Autumn in Ulju: Boksoondoga Hand-crafted Makgeolli from Old Earthenware Jars

The Season of Pears and Hanu Bulgogi in Ulju — Boksoondoga Hand-crafted Makgeolli

Boksoondoga Hand-crafted MakgeolliMakgeolli · 6.5% · 935㎖Boksoondoga

Late September 2026 falls in the pear harvest season. The Rural Development Administration's Nongsaro data by maturity period lists the harvest of mid-season pears as mid-September through mid-October, a standard that applies to varieties nationwide. The Ulsan Metropolitan City Agricultural Technology Center introduces pear brands that the agricultural cooperative has nurtured by taking advantage of the geographic benefit of being close to consumer markets, including Seosaeng Ganjeolgot pear (서생간절곶배), Ulsan Bobae (울산보배) and Samnam pear (삼남배). According to the 2024 statistical yearbook, Ulsan's pear cultivation area is 411 hectares and its annual output is 7,246 tons. Ganjeolgot, named in the brand, is introduced as the place on the Korean Peninsula where the sun rises first, one minute earlier than Homigot (호미곶) in Pohang.

Boksoondoga opened in 2010 in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, as an agricultural cooperative corporation. It started not with a business plan but with family circumstances. When the father's business foundered, the mother, master brewer Park Bok-soon, wanted to start something new with the brewing skills passed down since the grandmother's time. Until then, she had been making makgeolli as a pastime and handing it out to neighbors in containers like water jugs. Selling homemade liquor would have been bootlegging, so she obtained a business license, and the first contract was with a golf course in Gyeonggi-do. In an interview with Esquire Korea, CEO Kim Min-gyu looked back on that time, when they made 100 bottles and 10 sold, and said that his mother, master brewer Park Bok-soon, brews the liquor while his father, co-CEO Kim Jeong-sik (김정식), serves as owner.

The “Bok” and “soon” in the name come from the name of the mother who brews the liquor, master brewer Park Bok-soon. The last two syllables are the characters for city (都, do) and house (家, ga); the official website explains that they carry the hope that urban and rural areas will always be together, and CEO Kim Min-gyu also says it means a medium connecting the countryside and the city. The brewery building in Sangbuk-myeon was designed by co-CEO Kim Min-gyu himself, who graduated from The Cooper Union's School of Architecture in New York and runs an architecture firm. He carried the idea of fermentation from liquor to architecture and defined “fermentation architecture” as the process by which space turns useful to people. The building is black because its exterior is coated with the ash of rice straw burned in the paddies after harvest.

The Sool (더술닷컴) describes Hand-crafted Makgeolli as an unpasteurized makgeolli made by hand and a traditional liquor in the gayangju (home-brewed liquor) style. The liquor is brewed in old earthenware jars in the traditional way, using only Korean rice. The rice is milled at a rice mill near the brewery, and CEO Kim Min-gyu said that many makgeolli on the market don't even use Korean rice, so he considers using local rice a big part of the work. The jars are all 50 to 70 years old, and since they are unglazed, each must be washed, dried, and then disinfected by burning rice straw inside. In effect, brewing one jar of makgeolli takes three jars. The carbonation rising in the bottle isn't added artificially; it is natural carbonation produced by the living, breathing nuruk over a long fermentation.

Boksoondoga Hand-crafted Makgeolli is 6.5% ABV in a 935 ml bottle. The Sool says it is so richly carbonated that it recalls champagne, and lists a gold medal at the 2015 San Francisco International Wine & Spirits Competition and the 2018 K-DESIGN AWARD among its honors. Because there is so much carbonation, there is a particular way to open it. The producer's official English site instructs you to turn the bottle upside down and shake it to mix the sediment, leave it in the freezer for 10 minutes, then, holding the bottle nearly on its side, slowly open and close the cap three to five times to release the carbonation before drinking. The same guide adds that the lower the temperature, the more refreshing it is, and as the temperature rises the refreshing quality falls and the acidity strengthens, so adjust the temperature to your taste.

The Sool names scallion pancakes (pajeon), fried chicken, bossam, jokbal and seafood as foods that go well with it. There is no material yet on pairing it with Eonyang hanu bulgogi or freshly picked pears, so what follows is a suggestion worth trying. Eonyang (언양) and Bonggye (봉계) in Ulju-gun were designated in 2006 as Korea's only hanu bulgogi special zone, and Eonyang is the area where the high-quality charcoal long produced there in abundance met hanu beef to give rise to Eonyang bulgogi. The Bonggye Hanu Bulgogi Festival has been held around October, and in 2025 it ran October 24–26 at the Bonggye multipurpose event site. After charcoal-grilled meat, take a sip of champagne-like fizz, and for dessert have a pear in season at this time of year, such as the Seosaeng Ganjeolgot pear.

The brewery is at 183-45 Soyajeong-gil, Sangbuk-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, and the official site says it is close to Ulsan KTX Station and Seo-Ulsan IC. Boksoondoga also has shops at major train stations connecting regions; the Ulsan Station branch at 177 Ulsanyeok-ro, 1st floor, Samnam-eup, Ulju-gun, is convenient to stop by on a train trip. As of the official site in September 2026, the fermented makgeolli experience class runs only by group reservation for 10 or more people, must be booked at least two weeks ahead, and small-group experiences are not offered. In a 30- to 60-minute session, participants brew their own makgeolli with rice and nuruk, the actual ingredients of Hand-crafted Makgeolli, and taste traditional liquors. Inquiries go to customer center 1577-6746. Boksoondoga was selected for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' “Visiting Brewery” (찾아가는 양조장) program in 2018, and the selection validity period registered on The Sool runs through 2027. In 2026 it also released Munsu Takju (문수탁주) in collaboration with K League 1 club Ulsan Hyundai.

When to drinkOn an autumn evening with charcoal-grilled hanu in front of you, chill it, let out the carbonation, and pour slowly from the first glass.

Where to drink it now

A place to visit · Ganwoljae Silver Grass Plain, Yeongnam Alps (영남알프스 간월재 억새평원)

Ganwoljae is a silver grass plain spread across a mountain pass at 900 meters above sea level on the Yeongnam Alps ridgeline, covering 330,000 square meters (about 100,000 pyeong). The Korea Tourism Organization's Daehanminguk Guseokguseok (대한민국 구석구석) travel site presents it as a landscape where silver grass, which blooms when autumn comes, meets the sky. It is a place where the silver grass keeps its autumn colors into late autumn, even after the foliage has fallen.

You have to walk more than an hour up a forest road from the Complex Welcome Center (복합웰컴센터) to reach the silver grass plain. Because the introduction page carries a note that its information was last updated in January 2019, it is wise to check trail conditions once more before you climb.

If you have time after coming down, it is worth looking around Eonyang as well. Eonyang Eupseong Fortress (언양읍성) dates to 1617, the 9th year of Joseon's King Gwanghaegun, and was designated a Historic Site on December 27, 1966; it stands at 55-8 Seongan 2-gil, Ulju-gun. Eonyang Alps Market (언양알프스시장) took its present name in 2014, continuing the Eonyang market (언양장) opened in 1915, and its address is 19 Jangteo 1-gil, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun. A five-day market has also long been held there on days ending in 2 and 7.