I recently tried a traditional Korean fermented rice drink called Makgeolli, it’s defined as a rice beer. How do I classify this? As Specialty Grain - Other?
A search here shows 2/3 are currently under Traditional Ale - Other and the rest Saké - Namasaké.
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Wasn’t Makgeolli one of the Rice wine which didn’t pass the vote to add 2 years ago in the big style mashup?
When did this become rate able? Definitely was not in the past, as far back as 2011 when I lived in South Korea. In fact I had bought and added about 12 when I was told they couldn’t be rated here.
Oh, I didn’t know it. Why wasn’t it rateable?
No idea, likely some “can of worms” line of reasoning. Saké good, (Chinese/KoreaN) rice wines bad style.
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I would think that Korean people would be really offended if their fermented rice drink was to be classified under a Japanese drink category!
Let’s rename the Sake family style to RICE BASED FERMENTED BEVERAGES then 
TBH they aren’t even close in my mind and tastes. Not that I like sake either.
Should be a separate style IMHO, nothing like saké. A new brewery making makgeolli recently started in Brooklyn, the two I tried were pretty good. My wife and her friend, who is Korean, recently made some homebrewed makgeolli. Let me just say I am glad it is now being professionally brewed.
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Bumpty bump.
After posting in this thread I forgot about it even when I tried one and rated it. But Korea is having a big cultural moment, so the noodle place I went to dinner last night had two house brand versions (one flavoured with chestnuts) and then I picked up a different brand at a shop today. I think I know the brewer of that one (it’s here as a cidery) so I’ll add it in time. But I want to ask whether the current situation is OK because there might be a torrent coming down the pipe. And I don’t say that just because I quite liked the one I had.
A bunch of Makgeolli are currently rateable here. Most of them are listed as “traditional ale - other”, some are “Saké - Namasaké”. There is - of course there fucking is - one that’s a Rogue hazy IPA. For what it’s worth, Untappd throws in their options of “Historical Beer - other” and “Specialty Grain”. Is there a conclusion here? Or should we just make sure to use the tag?
I think those have flown under the radar. The Admin handbook has them as unrateable here on RateBeer:
Thanks for pointing out a tag, that should speed up the process of marking them unrateable and nuking the ratings.
Fair enough I guess - and I did kind of ask with that in mind. But for what it’s worth what I’ve had so far certainly seems more of a kindred beverage to beer than saké, kvass, cider or mead. And that the Bohae “cidery” 's only entry (which is verified and from 2018) is a 16% ABV plum wine.
Hi,
If I remember correctly this entry was a simply based on lack of knowledge of the product from our side, as well as lack of people on the ground in Korea.
To me it makes no sense to disqualify makgeolli. They fulfill every criteria of being beer, and are closely linked to other styles we allow. If we disallow them it will be quite confusing where to draw the line.
To me keeping them as Traditional Ale - Other is the best option.
I agree on keeping them rateable in the Traditional Ale - Other category.
I’m glad this decision has been made now that I’ve gotten rid of a dozen or more 5 years ago after folks said it wasn’t!
I’ve got no problem with it over all, other than that was not the stance of the website to include admin handbook.
With that said is the Plum Wine really allowed as well?
https://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/bohae/38173/
I think it’s important for the website to evolve. Do you remember when dry-hopped beers weren’t allowed?!?
@joet how could we go about amending the admin handbook to reflect that Makgeolli is an allowed entry?
That sucks (provided this is indeed a decision) 
I guess that no matter how commendable after thorough effort the handbook was, it was impossible to cover all aspects in full.
Plum wine does not seem at all to belong here, afaik only apples (+quince) and pears are allowed fruit wines.
I see these have not been nuked so far. I have a lot of sympathy for the view that times change and we change with them (unflavoured). Is there a brouhaha in the admin forums about this or are we carrying on with adding them and tagging them in case they are nuked later? I’ll default to that (but not tonight).
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We are making decisions in the admin forum currently, expect something final next week. I’ll push out a separate forum post with our way forward.
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