Korea Times, News Report, Posted: Jul 02, 2012

NEW YORK ― Like kimchi? Love beer? Why not mix the two and brew up a kimchi beer? That’s exactly what some brewers in the U.S. and Canada did to spice up classic ales.

Are you curious to know what it tastes like? Just like how you’d imagine.

``Intense nose of spice and herbs, hopped palate and a chili spice that sneaks up on you. It’s awesome,’’ describes Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company, a microbrewery in Ontario, Canada, which recently introduced kimchi beer at a local beer festival.

Down south in the U.S., one person who tried the version created by Barry’s Homebrew Outlet put it more simply.

``The same [taste] you get from a post-pepper burp,’’ said Jimmy McMillan, co-owner of the brewery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who assured that the comment was a compliment.

Both breweries coincidentally took on the same experiment with kimchi earlier this month, but for McMillan, it was more of a spontaneous idea.

``I love eating Korean barbeque. A few nights before I decided to make the kimchi beer, we had a Korean style barbeque night in the store,’’ recalled McMillan. ``After walking by the refrigerator, I noticed about a pound of kimchi was left, along with a few bags of rice crackers.’’

At that moment, he decided to toss the leftovers directly in the mash, one of the first processes in beer brewing.