Soju Distiller
Me, with the components of my first trial.
Introduction
I decided to do my project about soju distillers from Korea because I wanted to create a craft to better understand the perspective of scholars who conduct artifact recreations. I’m quite glad that I chose this as my project because through the difficulties of my recreation process, I gained a newfound appreciation for artisans. For my project, I looked at a number of images of soju distillers for my primary sources, and I used a book called “Soju: A Global History” by Hyunhee Park as my secondary source. Looking at a compilation of images online that showcased different angles of distillers allowed me to understand how to create my own distiller. The secondary source by Park was written for a lay audience, as it did not require any additional background information about soju distillation, and it did a wonderful job at weaving in some of the more technical aspects of distillation into a broader narrative about how soju and its distillation are connected to the cultures of other nations. One of the main questions that I wanted to investigate in my project was: how accurately could someone create a soju distiller without having access to a an in depth explanation of how to create one or without having been mentored by an artisan? I had access to explanations of what the distiller does and what its components are, but I didn’t have any access to a step-by-step procedure for its creation. The conclusion that I came to throughout the course of my work is that it would probably have been possible to create a high quality soju distiller without either of the aforementioned resources if that person had a solid understanding of how to work with clay, which I don’t have.
The clay that I used for my project.
Background of Soju and Soju Distillers
Soju is the national alcohol of Korea which has recently become popular globally and has been an integral part of Korea’s culture for centuries. Soju is a clear liquid and is developed by separating water from the fermented material in rice through a distillation process. Historically, soju has been used for medicinal and spiritual purposes throughout Korea. Soju’s distillation technology was first brought from China to Korea during the Mongol period of 1206-1368. This period of time is what “scholars now regard as the first stage of globalization’s history.” (Park 3) While cross-cultural exchanges brought soju distillation to Korea, the distillation of soju became localized in Korea over time, in terms of the materials and methods used to create the alcohol. I thought this point was really interesting because it shows how globalization of goods will often come hand in hand with the subsequent localization of goods based on what resources people have access to nearby. Notably, soju was able to spread so rapidly across Korea because the method of using stills to create soju “did not require high-level skill.” (Park 143) This point is necessary to note in order to understand that soju’s incredible success in Korea relied on the ability for the masses to independently use the distillers that they purchased from artisans, as opposed to needing to purchase soju every time they wanted some of the alcohol.
Stills and the distillation process
Soju is distilled on stills that are called “kori.” Two pots make up a still and allow for soju to be distilled.
The process of distillation is as follows:
Rice with yeast is boiled in the lower of the two chambers.
The evaporated air from that boiling process goes into the upper chamber and condenses when it comes into contact with a bowl of cold water that is placed above the still.
As the air condenses, it moves in liquid form outside of the top chamber through the spout, directly into a bowl. (The process for the Mongolian style still deviates slightly from this, which I explain below.)
Like with many objects that are present in cultures around the world, different cultures utilized slightly different styles of stills and processes by which to distill soju. In the Chŏson period in Korea there were several different types of stills used, including a Mongolian style called nunji, and two Chinese style stills called “to kori” and “tong kori.” “To kori” is a still made of earthen material, while tong kori is made out of bronze. There are very specific differences between these three different types of kori but they all ended up creating a similar final soju substance. For instance, in the Mongolian style still, the pot to catch the soju is within the still itself whereas in both Chinese style stills, the soju is caught in a small bowl outside of the still. I created the “to kori” still, as my trials were made out of clay and the spout that releases the soju is directed to an outside pot.
A popular type of still in the Chŏson era was a simplified still that was spread by the Mongolians and “whose pot also contained a catching bowl.” (Park 120) This was not the form of distiller that I created, as my pots do not have a catching bowl within them. Instead, someone has to put a catching bowl next to the distiller as an external component. While this simplified version of a still was quite widespread, a more advanced form of the still, which was the one I created in my trials, ended up hastening the spread of soju in the region. It’s interesting to think about how the very design of an object can either facilitate or limit its spread in a society based on how well it functions. It makes a lot of sense that soju distillation became more common as the actual distiller became more technically advanced, because that allowed people to make higher quality soju. The last point that I want to discuss before delving into my own trials is the differences between the history of distillation in common households versus in the Choson court. As Park noted in his book, “The Chŏson court used a silver still, probably in order to detect poison in a drink.” (Park 144) Average households couldn’t afford to use silver pots, which is an example of how financial status has historically prohibited certain classes from being able to create goods out of more expensive resources. Ordinary households used bronze or clay to create their distillers and used flour dough to seal together the two pots that make up the distiller. (Park 144) This information about household distillation was fascinating to me because it meant that soju distillation was a highly practiced custom in Korea as opposed to only being a craft that artisans were carrying out. Specifically, scholar Chong Yagyong wrote that in the late Chŏson period, “many ordinary households made soju and kept two different kinds of kori- a pottery one and a bronze one.” (Park 145) Yagyong’s writing indicates that clay and bronze were affordable materials for most households. While the act of distillation was common in homes, the stills themselves were still bought from workshops which shows how important artisans were to the production of soju in Korea.
Primary sources that I used
What I learned from the primary sources
The primary sources allowed me to see what the external and internal shapes of the stills look like. The top left image with the x-ray component was particularly important because it helped me understand which parts of the distiller are hollow. That x-ray image also allowed me to better understand that there needs to be a bowl shaped component to the top chamber to allow for a bowl full of cold liquid to be placed there so that the evaporated air can condense into liquid, as mentioned previously. The top and bottom right images allowed me to understand the shapes of the top and bottom bowls of the stills in terms of their interiors and the bowls’ lips. The bottom left image was helpful for seeing how certain stills, although not all, include handles with which people could more easily transport their distillers. This image also was helpful for understanding the proportions of the entire still, as it clearly shows how the top bowl is significantly smaller than the bottom.
Trial 1 (Full size)
I started out with a plan to make a model that was approximately the size of the models that I was looking at in the primary sources. This plan proved more difficult than I expected for several reasons. The first obstacle came when I wasn’t able to access real clay or a kiln due to a lack of space in the art studio. Real clay, which I have worked with in the past, is far easier to manipulate than the air dry clay (which is far more firm) that I ended up using as an alternative. If I had access to real clay, I could have formed better coils to create my pots or I could have employed a pinch pot method with more success. This specific part of the process encouraged me to think about how important the quality of materials is in crafting any craft. The first image shows my coiling process for the bottom chamber while the next image demonstrates me cutting away a triangle-shaped segment of the clay with a pencil because I wanted to make the pot more bowl-like instead of containing the same width the entire time. The third and fourth images show me using a pinch pot method to make the top chamber, which ended up creating a more uniform and aesthetically pleasing bowl than the coil method. The fifth and sixth images show how I used a pencil to create the spout because I needed to create a thin tube within the clay, and then I propped the spout up with the pencil so that it didn’t collapse on itself while it dried. The next four images show how I dealt with the fact that the chambers both dried more quickly than expected. I put the chambers together by putting fresh clay on each one and then sticking those together. Afterwards, I created the necessary hole that connects the chambers by wetting that part of the clay and chiseling out a hole with a pencil. I never attached a spout onto this trial’s still because of the dryness of the clay and not wanting to damage the integrity of the walls of the upper pot.
Trial 2 (Middle size)
For my second trial, I decided to make a smaller sized distiller because I hypothesized that I would be more successful in creating the desired shape if I wasn't working with such a large amount of clay. Especially for the walls of the bowl-like figures, working with too much clay in my first trial was difficult because the walls lost their integrity because they were too floppy. Unlike with the first trial, in this trial I made the hole for the spout before the chambers dried, which one can see in the second image. The third image shows how I used a tennis ball to help maintain the structure of the top chamber. After I let the still dry, I still had to put the spout on which I did by placing some fresh clay around the hole to help attach the spout onto that part of the chamber. I again created the spout with the aid of a pencil to give me the desired hole in the middle. This trial ended up being the best out of all three because it most accurately looks like the distiller I wanted to create and has the best proportions out of all three of my trials.
The most interesting part of this trial came when I was thinking about how to retain the desired shape of the two chambers. I mentioned to my suitemate that I thought a ball-like shape could help me maintain one of the chamber’s desired shapes while the clay dried, and she gave me a tennis ball to use. This part of the process was notable to me for showing how there is no substitute to the benefits of working with other people. I appreciated going through that moment of relying on someone else because it made me think about how in many East Asian cultures, individuals relied on the knowledge of masters or workshop environments to master a craft, and they couldn’t rely only on their own knowledge.
Trial 3 (Miniature version)
For my third trial, I decided to make a very small version of the distiller to see how making the distiller with just one piece of clay would work. To do this, I started out with a small piece of clay and used a pinch method to create the desired shape. I then let it dry before I added in the spout because I thought that would be easier than trying to use the pinching method with the same block of clay to create the spout. However, the clay lost too much moisture before I was able to put a spout on it, so I decided to put the whole piece in water to let it regain moisture, which can be seen in the images. Even though I only left the distiller in water for around 10 or so minutes, this period of time proved to be too long because part of the top part of the distiller fell off, so I had to re-add on certain parts of the top chamber in addition to the spout. This trial ended up looking quite poor because I didn’t do a good job of understanding how long to let the clay dry for or soak in water for, before continuing to utilize it.
Conclusions, takeaways, and recommendations
How this experiment could improve
I have several pieces of advice for anyone who might seek to recreate a soju distiller in the future. My first piece of advice would be to use real, food safe clay and a kiln. This is important for several reasons. Firstly, real clay - as aforementioned- would be more malleable and therefore easier to mold into the correct shape. Real clay would also more accurately allow the scholar to understand what artisans in Korea were experiencing while they were making soju distillers. I couldn’t as precisely understand what Korean artisans thought about in their creation of the distiller because the knowledge and experience I gained through my trials were with a different substance than they used. Secondly, using food safe clay would allow scholars to create and drink soju made from the mechanism. Because my clay was not food safe and I didn’t have access to a kiln, I couldn’t grasp how well my soju distillers might have been able to create soju. This meant that I couldn’t know if I made an accurate shape for the distiller or how I could improve certain parts of my technique that are tied to the actual production of the soju.
How these trials reinforced certain themes from the course
This process also made me think about how truly skilled artisans must have a really deep knowledge of the minute distinctions in quality in materials. If I could tell the difference between different types of clay with only a small fraction of the knowledge and practice of master artisans, I gathered that their understanding of materials must be remarkably intricate and come as second nature to them. This theme of deep understanding relates to Guth’s “Tacit Knowledge” article that discussed unconscious knowledge and the need for artisans to be incredibly in tune with the materials they use in order to know if they are carrying out their process correctly. This process helped me appreciate the unparalleled expertise of people who grow up learning about a craft from master artisans and who then are able to run their own workshops or be experts under the guidance of other artisans. I also found this process to be mildly frustrating at times because of how many obstacles I faced due to my lack of knowledge about this craft. In the end, this frustration was a powerful learning lesson in understanding why artisans were often so intent on learning through tacit knowledge from masters, because it is easier to produce crafts or iterate on preexisting crafts if you have already gained a basic understanding of how the craft is developed from someone else.
Works cited
Soju kori distiller, Chosŏn period, National Folk Museum, South Korea, Minsok 47220.
X-ray of soju kori distiller, Chosŏn period, National Folk Museum, South Korea, 17346.
#소주, http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/img_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=IE002442438, 2019
Park, Yunhee. “Soju: A Global History.” Cambridge University Press, 2021
