[Report] "Foreign Brewing Experts Visit Too"... The Terra and Kelly Factory Using Pristine Hongcheon River Water

HiteJinro Gangwon Plant Tour Course

South Korea's Largest Brewery on a 530,000-Square-Meter Site

Sampling Freshly Brewed Terra and Kelly Draft Beer

On September 10, after a roughly two-hour drive from Seoul, I arrived at the HiteJinro Gangwon Plant in Bukbang-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon Province. The brewery is located at the foot of Dodunsan Mountain, on a sprawling 530,000-square-meter site along the Hongcheon River. It is the largest beer production facility in South Korea, capable of producing up to 4 million bottles of beer per day. HiteJinro purifies pristine, first-grade water from the Hongcheon River to manufacture its signature beer brands such as Terra and Kelly, operating around the clock. Kim Taehwan, Quality Control Team Leader at HiteJinro, explained, "The daily beer output here amounts to 1,000 crates containing 20 bottles each—that's enough to fill up 150 trailers every day."

The Gangwon Plant has been certified for HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) food safety, and access to the interior is restricted. As a result, visitors can observe beer production through the 'HiteJinro Park' guided tour. From the tour course, you can view the mashing room and production lines through windows. The production process includes bottle washing, precise container inspection, aseptic procedures, ultra-fine filtration, beer filling, packaging, meticulous product inspection, and label application.

In the mashing room, malt made from barley germinated and dried in Australia and Denmark is ground, then added to warm water and heated to make sweet wort. During this process, the wort undergoes the lautering stage to separate bitter tannins and proteins. Afterwards, the wort is rapidly cooled and then stored as fermented beer. The Gangwon Plant features 108 storage tanks, each with a capacity of 600,000 liters. To give a sense of scale, one tank alone contains enough beer that, if an adult drank 10 bottles a day, it would last for 330 years.

A view of the 108 storage tanks at Hite Jinro Gangwon Plant in Bukbang-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon Province. Provided by Hite Jinro.

After fermenting for at least 20 days in the storage tanks, the beer goes through different production processes depending on its packaging—bottles, aluminum cans, kegs for draft beer, and PET bottles. All pre-production processes are automated. The bottle washing line, which can handle 66,000 bottles per hour, is exceptionally precise—even bottles from competing brands are detected and separated. In fact, bottles from other brands were observed being sorted and diverted on the conveyor belt during the washing process.

Each minute, an automated sorter inspects 1,000 bottles. Bottles that show excessive whitening (scuffing) from external contact or that are physically deformed are screened out by six closed-circuit cameras. Only bottles that pass inspection undergo a high-temperature, high-pressure wash for 35 minutes before entering the sealed beer-filling process.

Kim added, "By inputting our bottle specifications into the washing machinery, we can filter out all bottles from other companies. We do regularly exchange empty bottles with other breweries."

Terra completed at Hite Jinro Gangwon Plant located in Bukbang-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do, appearing in the production process. Provided by Hite Jinro.

After washing, the bottles move to a rotary filler that can fill beer at a rate of 17 bottles per second or 1,000 bottles per minute. The beer is filled at a temperature maintained between 0 and 1 degree Celsius. Immediately after filling, the bottles are capped, and any moisture on the surface is dried using an air dryer, leading directly to label application—the final step in the process.

After the production line tour, I moved to a lounge overlooking the Hongcheon River and Dodunsan Mountain, where freshly brewed draft beer could be tasted. Sampling Terra and Kelly from the tap, I found Terra to have a refreshing carbonation and a crisp, clean finish, while Kelly delivered even stronger bubbles and a more robust beer flavor that lingered pleasantly in the mouth.

Kim commented, "Terra is light, fresh, and leaves no aftertaste, whereas Kelly offers a fuller, more authentic beer experience. The HiteJinro Gangwon Plant is at a world-class level in terms of facilities and manufacturing expertise, to the point that even foreign brewing technicians visit, and it has been featured multiple times in leading global brewing publications."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.