Flower Sool

It’s spring!

And that means flowers are blooming and it’s time to make some flower sool! In this video we are going to go through the basics of brewing with flowers and i’ll show you three different flower brews I made for this spring.

When brewing with flowers you can get them two different ways. The first is to go out and pick what you want. Make sure you know if it is edible or not before you pick it and use it for your brew. Wash and dry the flowers before adding them to your brew. In Dangjin just south of Seoul the brew DuKyeonJu is made with Korean rhododendron. After the flowers are harvested the stamens are removed and the flowers are washed and dried. The second way is to buy dried flower tea. That’s what I did for these brews. I bought magnolia, chamomile, and beakkkot (100 flowers), which is a mix of many different edible flowers.

For these I used an iyangju recipe which is a two-step fermentation process recipe. In the first step I made a beombok which is just boiling water added to ground rice.

This was left to ferment for 2-3 days then steamed rice was mixed with it. At this point we can add the flowers. For the flower mix, beakkkot, I’m going to put a little in the bottom of my clean brew vessel then add the mash and sprinkle the rest of the flowers on top.

Since chamomile and magnolia can make your brew very bitter I’m not going to add directly to the brew but rather suspend it in the brew vessel in a breathable bag. Some of these things I know from playing around with brewing and some I’ve been taught. It’s best to play around and see what works best for you and what flowers you want to use. Just make sure that whatever flowers you are using are edible. After 3 weeks filter and enjoy.

Flower Mix Beombeok Recipe

Materials:

• Mitsool: 0.5 Kg mepssal (non-glutinous rice), 1.5 Liters water, 100 g nuruk

• Dotsool: 1.5 Kg Chapssal (glutinous rice), 6 g dried flowers

Mitsool:

Rice Prep:

1. Wash mepssal (non-glutinous rice)

2. Soak for 3 hours

3. Drain for 30 minutes

4. Grind into flour and sieve

Beombeok (Easy porridge) Method:

1. Add 1.5 Liters of boiling water to rice flour and mix well (make sure there are no lumps)

2. Let cool and mix in nuruk thoroughly

3. Add to sterilized brew vessel and let ferment for 2-3 days

Dotsool

Rice Prep:

1. Wash chapssal (glutinous rice)

2. Soak for 3 hours

3. Drain for 30 minutes

Godubab Method:

1. Steam rice for 40 minutes

2. Let rice sit in the heat for 10 minutes

3. When cool mix into the mitsool

4. Add flowers to top and bottom of brew.

5. Let ferment for about 2-3 weeks

Juk recipe for Magnolia and Chamomile

Materials:

• Mitsool: 0.5 Kg mepssal, 2.5 Liters water, 100g nuruk,

• Dotsool: 2.5 Kg Chapssal,

Mitsool:

Rice Prep:

1. Wash mepssal (non-glutinous rice)

2. Soak for 3 hours

3. Drain for 30 minutes

4. Grind into flour and sieve

Juk Method:

1. Boil 2 Liters of water in a large pot

2. Add 0.5 Liters of water to rice flour and mix well

3. Add the rice/water mixture to the rest of the boiling water and continue to cook until it becomes a thick porridge

4. Let cool and mix in nuruk and wheat flour thoroughly

5. Add to sterilized brew vessel and let ferment till the second pig day

Dotsool:

Rice Prep:

1. Wash chapssal (glutinous rice)

2. Soak for 3 hours

3. Drain for 30 minutes

Godubab Method:

1. Steam rice for 40 minutes

2. Let rice sit in the heat for 10 minutes

3. When cool mix into the mitsool

4. Suspend 6g of flowers inside the brew vessel (not touching the alcohol)

5. Let ferment for about 2-3 weeks