Today we’d like to introduce you to David Faulk.
Hi David, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The story behind my passion for traditional Korean brews and spirits is intertwined with my upbringing, so that’s where I’ll start. I was born and raised in a small country village right outside Gyeoungju, South Korea. I’m half white, half Korean. My dad (white guy from the rural deep-south of Georgia) deployed to Korea where he met my mom (Korean lady from the farming country-side) who was working in a cafe. He was in the Marines and had to hop around military bases often, so my grandmother told my mom to go with him and she would raise me until they got settled.
And so began my journey, growing up as the “white kid” in a village with no plumbing or electricity, and working on the farms and in the fish market with my grandmother. After a hard day’s work she would always say soju is for the adults, and a little bit of makgeolli (rice wine) is for the kids. I never went to school consistently due to all the work, but we were so happy despite not having much.
Fast forward, I eventually moved to America and got a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Systems Engineering. I ended up working at Boeing and at LA Metro, and even served in the Marine Corps for 6 years. In the background though, I was always brewing beer, inspired by Jim Koch and Samuel Adams commercials. But, I was also always missing my childhood growing up in Korea and my grandmother.
While I was sitting at a Korean Restaurant in Garden Grove, drinking horrible commercial Makgeolli, this drive to connect came to life…. this light bulb popped on, pushing for the Makgeolli I remembered. The feelings of home completely sucked me in and sent me on a journey of home brewing Makgeolli for almost two decades. Talking with family, getting my grandmother’s recipes, learning everything I could online, through books, and failing a thousand times on top of a million times.
One day I got to a point where I realized I was making something pretty good. My own version of nuruk (traditional fermentation starter) helped create a style of Makgeolli that felt like home. Arriving there was a journey, and every step was worth it. I moved forward every time it got hard because it became more than just making Makgeolli, it became finding identity, finding my fit, finding the confidence of no, this…this and every version of this, every variation of this here in America is what it means to be Korean American. I think my grandmother would be proud.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not, but the struggles made me who I am today, and for that I’m grateful. Imagine an uneducated 8 year old who only spoke a countryside dialect of Korean, starting school for the first time in a military base elementary school in Okinawa (Japan) where everyone spoke English. The majority were White, Black, or Hispanic; I was part of a handful of Asian kids, who were mostly half white like me.
I quickly went from the “white kid” named Im Oh Tek from a small village in Korea, to the “Asian kid” named David Allen Faulk, who ate “stinky” kimchi at the school cafeteria, took English as a Second Language (ESL), and didn’t know what dodgeball was.
Every year outside of Korea, the question of “who am I?” got louder and louder just like anyone growing up, but I felt so lost. Going back to Korea to visit just emphasized the disconnect as my village changed drastically every time I went. My Korean was always “kid-level”, but not using it once I got to America made me forget it as my English grew. I suddenly was a Korean American that wasn’t Korean enough to be Korean, and not American enough to be American.
I think the largest struggle is educating both non-Koreans AND Koreans to what real Makgeolli is, and what real Soju is. The difficulty is in trying to overcome preconceived notions. It’s sometimes easier trying to explain what we make to someone who’s never had it, versus Koreans who grew up on the mass produced stuff. I always compare it to American Beer culture back in the 90’s. At a time in America where Budweiser, Coors, and Miller were Kings, you started to get craft beers that were pointing to European styles, and even experimental styles as “real beer”.
I would argue that both the big guy and the small guy have their place in history, and both are definitely beers. My fatigue is when anyone points to any of those and says it’s NOT beer. I would argue that Budweiser is as much a beer as a Guinness, and as much a beer as your local craft Hazy triple IPA. Now, one could argue about styles, flavor profiles, craft, history, and a million other “well technically” all day, but I would argue it’s still beer. Is a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon a beer? No definitely not, so there are categorical lines still. Makgeolli and Soju are no different. I could write about this in volumes.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My partners and I have a newly-opened brewery in Fullerton, CA that specializes in traditional, award-winning Korean brews and spirits (e.g. Makgeolli and Soju). Our craft Makgeolli is light, bubbly, sweet and fresh and is reminiscent of every season in the Korean farmland. It’s made from Koda Farms rice, our proprietary nuruk, water, and that’s it. The fermentation of the rice brings out the sweet sugars and subtle rice flavor (summer), but also imparts a cardamom type of spice and bitter (autumn), with slight umami of the natural fats rice has (winter), while imparting a refreshing, all natural carbonation (spring).
Most Makgeolli tastes the same to me, and there is nothing wrong with that. But my style reflects the province I grew up in and the Makgeolli my grandmother used to make. We brew it right here in Fullerton using a mix of traditional and modern methods, and 20+ years of development. We also make craft Soju in a traditional way, distilled from our Makgeolli. It’s clean, smooth, crisp and neutral, which I think is how Soju should taste.
We’re extremely proud to be a domestic, Korean-American company, and the children of immigrants. My favorite quote about immigrants is “my immigrant story is just like everyone else’s immigrant story in that every immigrant story is unique and different; there is no one immigrant story.” Founding NASUNG was literally my identity in a bottle.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
No real advice outside of the importance of working, working, and more work. Another favorite quote of mine is, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”. I feel that any problem, any issue is resolvable if you are persistent enough to work, and keep working through it.
Also, just be nice, be kind. Even if you’re right on something, no need to be an asshole.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nasungsool.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nasungsoolco/
