Draft:Magpie Brewing
South Korean craft brewery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Magpie Brewing Co. (Korean: 맥파이 브루잉 컴퍼니) is a craft brewery based on Jeju Island, South Korea, with taprooms in Seoul. It was established in the Itaewon neighbourhood of Seoul in 2012 by five co-founders who had moved to South Korea from North America.[1] CNN Travel identified Magpie as the first brewery in South Korea to produce a sour beer.[2] All production has been located on Jeju Island since 2017.[1]
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 8 weeks or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 3,182 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
Submission declined on 5 March 2026 by Aydoh8 (talk).
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
This draft has been resubmitted and is currently awaiting re-review. |  |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Location | Seoul and Jeju Island, South Korea |
| Opened | 2012 |
| Key people | Erik Moynihan (CEO) |
| Employees | ~42 (2019) |
| Distribution | Nationwide South Korea; Hong Kong; Thailand; United States; United Kingdom |
| Website | magpiebrewing |
In 2019, the brewery's gose-style beer The Ghost received the Barth-Haas Champion Beer of Asia award at the SEA Brew Conference & Trade Fair in Bangkok.[3]
History
Founding (2011–2012)
The company was conceived in 2011 by five friends living in Seoul: Erik Moynihan (Canadian), Tiffany Needham (Korean-American), Jason Lindley (African-American, originally from Chicago), Hassan Haider (Pakistani-American, originally from Texas), and Sooji Kim (Korean-American).[4][1] The group began homebrewing and had early batches contract-brewed at volumes of 1,000 to 2,000 litres at an established brewpub.[1]
In 2012 the founders opened a bar called the BREWShop on Noksapyeong-daero in Gyeongnidan-gil, Itaewon.[5][6] The bar initially served a single pale ale.[7] Lonely Planet later described the surrounding Gyeongnidan-gil street as a "craft beer valley," noting the concentration of craft beer venues that developed in the area.[6] Moynihan told The Korea Times in 2022 that Magpie "brought a bunch of other beer-related businesses to the area that later became defined as 'craft beer alley.'"[1]
The brewery takes its name from the magpie (Korean: 까치, kkachi), a bird associated with good fortune in Korean folklore. Moynihan described the choice: "Even choosing the name Magpie was an attempt to tell the story that we felt like we had chosen to 'build our nest' here and wanted to be accepted as a part of an extended family."[4]
Expansion to Jeju (2014–2018)
In 2014, working with Arario Group, Magpie opened a second taproom called Tapdong (also known as "Bluebird") in Jeju City.[1]
Construction of a dedicated brewery on Jeju Island began in 2016, converting a former tangerine-processing warehouse approximately 20 kilometres east of Jeju City. Full production commenced in 2017, at which point Magpie ended its contract-brewing arrangements.[1][8] A canning line was added in 2018.[1] As of 2019, the company employed approximately 42 people.[3]
2019–present
At the 2019 SEA Brew Conference & Trade Fair in Bangkok, The Ghost won the Barth-Haas Champion Beer of Asia award — given to the highest-scoring gold medal winner across all 22 competition categories — as well as gold in the gose category. Daydream IPA won gold in the IPA category, and First Train, a collaboration with Fritz Coffee Company, received the Chairman's Selection award. The Korea Times reported it was only Magpie's second competition entry.[3]
In 2020, Magpie participated in the Black is Beautiful initiative, a campaign started by Weathered Souls Brewing Co. to raise funds for racial justice organisations. Magpie brewed a limited-edition imperial stout and donated proceeds to Color of Change and APIL.[4] Moynihan stated: "Our founders are a Black guy from Chicago; a half-Pakistani guy from Texas; a half-Korean, half-American from America; a Korean-American from America; and me."[4]
Around 2024, Magpie opened Near Mint+ (NM+) in the Euljiro district of Seoul, a venue incorporating a DJ booth and vintage audio equipment alongside its beer offering.[9]
Beers
Core range
- Pale Ale — American pale ale, 4.8% ABV, 33 IBU.
- IPA — American IPA, 6.5% ABV, 60 IBU.
- Kölsch — Kölsch-style, 4.8% ABV, 23 IBU.
- Porter — Porter, 5.6% ABV, 30 IBU.
- The Ghost (Korean: 고스트) — Gose-style sour beer with coriander and Jeju tangerine peel. CNN Travel, SilverKris, and Kiss My Kimchi each described it as the first sour beer commercially produced in South Korea.[2][10][11] The beer was named after the near-extinct status of the gose style at the time; the recipe was developed by head brewer Josh Easton, who later founded Seoul Brewery.[3]
- Black Rock — Imperial stout, named for Jeju Island's volcanic basalt.
Seasonal beers
Ingredients
The brewery incorporates Jeju Island ingredients in some beers, including tangerine peel, apple mangoes, sancho pepper, magnolia blossoms, and hobak pumpkin.[2]
Selected releases and collaborations
- Black is Beautiful (2020) — Imperial stout produced for the global racial justice initiative; proceeds to Color of Change and APIL.[4]
- Sipnyeongamsu (Korean: 십년감수) (2022) — Sour IPA brewed for the brewery's 10th anniversary.
- First Train / Last Train — Coffee beer with Fritz Coffee Company; Chairman's Selection, SEA Brew 2019.[3]
- Birds of a Feather — Collaboration with Goose Island Beer Company.[7]
- Omiberry Sour — Collaboration with Young Master Brewery, Hong Kong.
Locations
All four venues close on the first Wednesday of each month.
Weekend brewery tours are available at the Jeju facility, primarily in Korean; English tours can be arranged by request. Tours include a tasting.[8]
Background: craft beer in South Korea
South Korea's beer market was largely controlled by two producers, HiteJinro and Oriental Brewery, through the late twentieth century.[12] Amendments to the Korean Liquor Tax Act in 2002 permitted microbrewery licences for the first time, and further changes in 2011, 2014, and 2015 progressively lowered production minimums and expanded distribution rights for small breweries.[13] A switch from value-based to volume-based alcohol taxation in January 2020 reduced the tax burden on higher-priced craft beers.[14]
Magpie opened in Gyeongnidan-gil in 2012, in the same neighbourhood as Craftworks Taphouse (est. 2010). The Booth Brewing Co. opened nearby in 2013. Visit Seoul's official tourism website lists Magpie among the founding venues of Seoul's early craft beer scene in Gyeongnidan-gil.[15]
VICE reported that four of Magpie's five co-founders are people of colour, and covered the brewery in an article on gender diversity in South Korean craft brewing.[7][16] CNN Travel noted that Jeju brewer Seolhee Lee was unusual as a woman working in production brewing in South Korea.[2]
LLM-generated pages with the below issues may be deleted without notice.
These tools are prone to specific issues that violate our policies:
Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject.
See the advice page on large language models for more information.