Daily Busan
A conversation with the CEO of Turmbräu, Andreas
"If I Were Reborn, I Would Live in Busan Too," a web series on BusanTube, the city's official YouTube channel, has released its fourth episode. The series features people from various backgrounds as they share their personal experiences of living in Busan.
The videos offer a glimpse into life in Busan as experienced by non-Koreans, highlighting the city's unique charms from a fresh perspective. For this edition, we spoke with Andreas, a German brewmaster featured in the latest episode. As the owner of a traditional German-style brewery, he shared his journey of running a beer business in Busan and reflected on what it means to craft German beer in his new home.
The full episodes of “If I Were Reborn, I Would Live in Busan Too” are now available on BusanTube.
Q. Could you please introduce yourself?
My name is Andreas, and I am the CEO of Turmbräu. My family owns a brewery in Southern Germany. Together with my wife Jeongmin, we started brewing beer in Busan in 2020. We primarily brew traditional German beer styles, such as lager, wheat and rye beer, as well as local collaboration beers, such as an IPA for the restaurant Baohaus and a sour beer together with Ggulggeok House, Süden and Sans Souci.
Q. What are some of the benefits and challenges of operating a brewery in Busan?
Busan is a great place for brewing beer because there are plenty of festivals in the summer, and the increasing number of tourists from Korea and abroad.
The business itself is not easy, though. It involves a lot of physical work, and scaling is always a challenge because equipment and operating costs are high.
At least in Busan, I can relax and have a beer at one of the beaches after a tough day!
Q. What was the biggest cultural difference you noticed when you first started doing business in Korea?
The biggest difference is speed. People here don’t have much patience, and I could see that from the beginning, especially when we renovated our brewery building or started making business contacts.
I am used to things proceeding more slowly, but here in Korea, things get done right away. Workers will often drop by to give you an estimate on the same day, and sometimes they'll even start working right away. In Germany, most of these things will take weeks or months.
One thing that made this difference obvious to me was when we opened our brewery after about 8 months of preparations, from finding a suitable location to serving the first beer, all our Korean friends and family basically said, “Finally, what took you so long?” My German friends and family said, “Wow, you’re already open? How is that possible?”
Q. Since starting your business, what has been your proudest moment?
The proudest moment was when my parents came to our Brewery for the first time to try the beer. When brewing beer and making food, we always have those customers in mind who have been to Germany and know the original taste. With my parents, this was even more important to me, and I am very happy that they genuinely enjoyed the beer and food at Turmbräu in Busan.
Q. How do you hope to further develop the brand of German beer made in Busan?
We want people to associate our beer with quality and authenticity, much like they do with beer brewed in Germany. Our advantage is that our beer is brewed locally in Busan and served to our customers immediately after lagering, when it has its perfect flavor. It doesn’t have to be shipped in a container for several weeks before people can drink it.
We believe Korean customers tend to associate imported beer with higher quality, which is something we want to change. Quality beer brewed right here in Busan with the best ingredients, brewing methods and passion. That’s what we stand for.
Q. What goals or plans do you have for the future in Busan?
One of my big dreams for the future is exporting Turmbräu beer made in Busan back to my hometown in Germany. That would be a very meaningful achievement.
Q. Do you have any advice or words of encouragement for aspiring entrepreneurs in Busan?
Starting a business is never easy, especially in a competitive market like craft beer. But I don’t regret opening a business here in Busan for a single moment. It’s a beautiful city with friendly people who turned out to be even more open-minded and supportive than I expected. My advice would be to stay patient and persistent — building a business takes time, hard work and consistency.
If you keep improving step by step and remember why you started and what you want to achieve, you can successfully reach your goals.
<Today's Vocabulary - 오늘의 단어>
brewery: 양조장 equipment: 장비 patience: 인내심 proceed: 진행하다 obvious: 명확한 preparation: 준비 suitable: 적합한 associate: 연관짓다 authenticity: 정통 export: 수출하다 achievement: 성과 persistent: 끈질긴
Editor: Song Soomi
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