CRAFT
Alive in the bottle
LIVING
There are only three ingredients: rice, water, and nuruk. The yeast and lactic acid bacteria are still breathing when the bottle reaches your table, creating their own bubbles and deep acidity along the way. We add no artificial carbonation, no sugar. We simply leave it to the time fermentation needs.
WHY IT IS RARE HERE
A living makgeolli keeps for only a few weeks, not years. That is why makgeolli bound for a long journey is usually pasteurised before it ships, since the culture has to be put to sleep to survive the trip. But a truly living drink has to breathe right where it is poured.
In Korea, a drink is often set apart by what is added to it. Here in Ho Chi Minh City, rice alone was enough.
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NURUK
A wheat starter that carries the wild yeast fermentation needs.
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ST25
Named World's Best Rice in 2019 and again in 2023.
TASTING NOTE
Delicate jasmine aroma, gentle sweetness, light acidity.
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nếp cái hoa vàng
A northern glutinous rice long used for rice wine.
TASTING NOTE
Deep grain aroma, rich sweetness, a fuller body.
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nếp Tú Lệ
Grown on terraces in Yên Bái province.
TASTING NOTE
Clean, bright character, true to its highland origin.
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cốm Hà Nội
Young green rice, harvested early and flattened.
TASTING NOTE
Fresh, grassy aroma, subtle sweetness, a light body.
THE BOTTLE KEEPS WORKING
Fermentation does not stop once the bottle is filled. The delicate carbonation is something the culture creates on its own, and the sediment that settles should be swirled gently back in before pouring. The flavour shifts subtly between the first week and the third.
Which is why it is aged between two and four degrees, and held there from the brewery to the glass. Not a storage preference, but a requirement of anything alive, and the reason a drinking window exists at all.
THE BREWER
Founder Lee Minkyu studied biology and continued her research at a university laboratory before she ever brewed anything. She earned her Korean traditional-liquor sommelier certification in 2020, and has since judged a number of brewing competitions across Korea. IIUM opened in Ho Chi Minh City in 2024 as Vietnam's first craft makgeolli brewery.
To us, fermentation means holding steady every variable, temperature, humidity, cleanliness, so that the living activity within can repeat itself, fully and faithfully.
Simple, humble, fermented to nature's own rhythm.
THE ROOM
A small brewhouse in Thảo Điền. Because every step is shaped by hand, only about five hundred bottles leave us each month. Every batch carries its own subtle character. That, we believe, is the very nature of a living drink. There is no compromise.