US travel agent launches North Korea beer tour

For a country that commonly experiences famine and isolated from the outside world, North Korea has a surprisingly large range of beers and a strong domestic beer brewing culture.

According to Washington-based Radio Free Asia, a US travel agency has launched an eight-day-long beer tour that would see people to tour three microbreweries in Pyongyang: The Paradise Microbrewery, the Yanggakdo Hotel Microbrewery, and the Taedonggang National Brewery.

Beer from these producers has been labelled by some Western media as being the best on the Korean Peninsula.

Taedonggang National Brewery is North Korea’s most advanced brewery. It was established after a former UK brewery in Wiltshire was bought, taken apart and then shipped back to Korea, at a cost of £1.5million. Reinstalled and operational from 2002, the brewery uses German-made computerised brewing control technology.

The travel agency claimed that after the package was announced there had been quite a number of US citizens who showed interest in a trip to North Korea.

Josh Thomas, a craft beer expert, told Wired.co.uk after his trip to North Korea: ”The best beer was by far was a wheat beer we tried at the Paradise Microbrewery. They had brewing equipment that would rival any US microbrewery”,