Beer in Korea

Beer in Korea. Beer is called Mekchu (맥주) in Korean. The German’s introduced beer to many Asian countries and helped countries such as China and Japan set up breweries and develop brewing techniques. When the Japanese colonized Korea they introduced beer and opened breweries to produce beer for the local elites. The legal drinking age in Korea is 19 years old.

There are 3 main brewing companies in Korea are Hite (하이트), Cass (카스) and OB (오비).

Hite: Hite Brewing Company was founded in 1933 and was originally under Japanese ownership during the occupation of Korea. When the company began it was called Chosun Beer but later changed to Hite after gaining independence from Japan. Hite produces two top selling beers in Korea: Hite (하이트) and Prime Max (프라임 맥스)

Beers produced by Hite:
Hite (하이트)
Prime Max (프라임 맥스)
D Dry Finish (드라이피니시 D)

Cass: Cass is produced by O.B. Brewery. Originally Cass Brewery produced Cass but they were bought out in 1999 by O.B.

Beers Produced by Cass:
Cass Fresh
Cass Light
Cass Red
Cass Lemon

O.B: O.B. stands for oriental brewery. O.B was founded in 1952 by the Doosan Group. Today’s O.B. has a strong brand portfolio that includes  Cass, Cafri, Budweiser, Leffe, Beck’s, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Diebels.

Beers Produced by O.B:
O.B. Golden Lager (previously O.B. Blue)

Also a lot of Beer companies release special edition beers for different events or seasons and usually they are stocked in shops for 3 months before they are taken off the market.

Click here to see some videos of Korean Beer Advertisements / Commercials.