A nuruk researcher, a Daegu brewery and a new name.

Kooksoondang (국순당, 麴醇堂) is a South Korean maker of traditional rice drinks, known above all for Baekseju, a herbal rice wine, and for makgeolli. Its story starts with Bae Sang-myeon (배상면), a researcher of nuruk, the Korean fermentation starter. According to obituaries in the Kyunghyang Shinmun in June 2013, Bae graduated in agricultural chemistry from Kyungpook National University in 1950, became absorbed in nuruk while running a student microbiology club, and from 1952 ran the Kirin brewery in Daegu, where he developed Kirin soju. English Wikipedia gives Kooksoondang’s founding year as 1952.

The company itself counts from a later start. Kooksoondang says its direct forerunner was the Korea Microbial Industry Research Institute, set up in 1970, which made and sold nuruk; the business was incorporated as Baehan Industry in 1983, inews24 reported in 2018. That came a year after Bae obtained a patent for making traditional liquor by fermenting raw rice, a method drawn from old texts, the Kyunghyang Shinmun reported. The name Kooksoondang arrived in December 1992. The company says it comes from 麴醇傳, a Goryeo-era tale by the writer Im Chun that personifies liquor, and means “a house that makes good nuruk and good liquor.”

The family business later divided. The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Bae’s eldest son, Bae Jung-ho, led Kooksoondang, while his daughter Bae Hye-jeong founded Baehyejeong Doga and his younger son Bae Young-ho founded Baesangmyeon Brewery, separate companies with their own brands. Bae Jung-ho has led Kooksoondang since the early 1990s, inews24 reported in 2018, and Korean Wikipedia lists him as chairman. Bae Sang-myeon died in June 2013, the paper reported.

Baekseju and the raw-rice method.

Baekseju reached the market in 1992. The Kyunghyang Shinmun dates its development to 1991, while Kooksoondang and inews24 give 1992 as the year it went on sale. Bae Sang-myeon said he set out to make a drink Korea could offer foreign visitors at the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the paper reported. Baekseju is a yakju, a clear rice wine, brewed with the company’s raw-rice method, in which rice is ground and fermented without steaming, and herbs including goji berry, omija and ginseng, according to Kooksoondang. Its name comes from a tale of a goji wine, “Gugi Baekseju,” recorded in the Jibong yuseol of the Joseon scholar Yi Su-gwang, the company and Design Compass say.

Distribution was the early obstacle. Korean liquor rules then limited where a brewery could sell; a Kooksoondang spokesman told inews24 that the company campaigned against the restriction and that it was lifted for yakju in January 1994, after which Baekseju was sold nationwide. In the early 2000s it found a second life in a mix: inews24 describes a 2002 craze for “50-seju,” Baekseju combined with soju.

Makgeolli runs alongside. Kooksoondang says it bought a makgeolli brewery at Toegyewon, in Namyangju, in 1993 and launched Biotak, a pasteurised makgeolli in a can, that year. In May 2009 it introduced Kooksoondang Saeng Makgeolli, an unpasteurised makgeolli that the company says it engineered to keep long enough for national distribution, followed by Ugukseng in April 2010 and the canned Icing. In 2003 the company bought Haitai & Company, later renamed Kooksoondang L&B and merged into the parent in 2010, according to the company and Korean Wikipedia. Its brewery at Hoengseong, in Gangwon province, opened in 2004, and its head office is in Seoul’s Gangnam district. In 2016 it added a distilled soju, Ryeo.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all Korean drinks: Good Day, Kooksoondang, Hwayo, Andong Soju, Seoul Jangsoo, Saero and Jinro Is Back. They cover three kinds of drink. Good Day, Saero and Jinro Is Back are everyday soju, from Muhak, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and HiteJinro respectively. Hwayo and Andong Soju are distilled soju: Andong soju is a traditional distilled soju produced in Andong, in North Gyeongsang Province, and Hwayo is made in Yeoju, in Gyeonggi Province, by a company that Cho Tae-kwon founded in 2003; he had founded the porcelain maker Kwangjuyo in 1963, The Korea Times reported in 2025. Kooksoondang and Seoul Jangsoo are rice-wine names: Kooksoondang began as a maker of nuruk, the starter used to brew Korean wines, and is better known for Baekseju, a clear rice wine brewed with raw rice and herbs, while Seoul Jangsoo makgeolli is produced by an association formed by breweries in Seoul, The Korea Times reported in 2013.

For everyday soju, the bottle itself has long been shared. In 2009 Korea’s soju makers agreed with the Ministry of Environment to use green bottles of the same size and design, so that they could collect and reuse one another’s bottles, The Korea Times reported; the agreement was revised in August 2020 after makers began using bottles of other colours and shapes.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its drinks are made and how its labels and bottles have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A Hanja 百 on a brown bottle.

Kooksoondang has worked with outside designers on its bottles. The company says its Myeongjak series of regional fruit and herbal wines was packaged in December 2010 in collaboration with the industrial designer Kim Young-se of INNO Design and the calligrapher Yeo Tae-myeong, president of the Korea Calligraphy Design Association, with a form based on the Cheomseongdae observatory in Gyeongju and a name logo made by taking apart and reassembling Hangul letters.

A bigger change came in 2024, when Baekseju was rebranded by the design firm CFC, led by Jeon Chae-ri, with the brand strategy firm Bemyguest. The monthly Design, which runs the Korea Design Award, reported in its December 2024 issue that the project won the 2024 award in the brand category, chosen unanimously by the jury. CFC kept only the name and the waisted bottle shape, the magazine reported. A large Hanja character 百 (“hundred”), inspired by Korean dansaekhwa painting and built up in layered tones, now fills the front label above a small Hangul logo made of straight strokes, and the clear bottle became dark brown, a change Kooksoondang made to protect the drink and which the designers tied to a story about earth. Design Compass reported in August 2024 that the new design would reach shelves from September, four years after a 2020 renewal, and that the recipe and the 13 per cent strength were unchanged. Kooksoondang’s chief executive, Bae Sang-min, asked for a drink at home in both Korean pubs and fine-dining restaurants, Jeon told Design.

The names need a little care. Kooksoondang also appears as “Kook Soon Dang,” and Baekseju is also spelled “Bekseju,” including at bekseju.com; Baesangmyeon Brewery and Baehyejeong Doga, run by Bae Sang-myeon’s other children, are separate companies. Kooksoondang’s own site is ksdb.co.kr.

For a design guide, Kooksoondang shows how a nuruk maker turned decades of research into a rice wine sold across Korea, and how that flagship could be redrawn three decades later around one brushed character. Compare Seoul Jangsoo, the Seoul makgeolli brand, and Jinro, the soju name that dates to 1924. For this guide we use earth brown, ink black and rice-paper cream with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Kooksoondang’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.