How It All Started

Youngwon Lee, our Founder and Chief Dokkaebi, shares the humble beginnings of Dokkaebier, an Asian-inspired craft beer brand born from a passion for creativity, culture, and bold flavors. He talks about the challenges faced in bringing unique ingredients like lemongrass, bamboo leaves, and kimchi cultures into traditional brewing, and how innovation continues to shape our mission of redefining the craft beer scene.

So, why are we doing this?
Since the pandemic happened
all of the customer interaction that I used  to have, we used to have as brand is all gone.
So I wanted to take this opportunity to  
tell you guys who we are, what  we do and actually show my face.
Because I think a lot of people who've seen  me usually like this, making deliveries.
So I wanted to start a craft brewery about  two years ago. So I started brainstorming and 

I was discussing with my wife and she gave me an  idea, why don't you use "dokkaebi" as your main  
inspiration for the brand,  and I thought it was perfect.  
Dokkaebis are Korean mythical creatures. They're  throughout Korean folklore and they're known to be  
mischief, energetic and they like to  eat drink and hang out with people.
I wanted that to be what the  identity of the brand is.
So we use the word "dokkaebi" to name it  and "Dokkaebier" which makes it sound like  
a beer company. But also we practice how  dokkaebis are acting or the dokkaebi ways.  
So that's how the name was born.
So we launched the brand in 2020,  February and Covid happened so  

things changed dramatically. I was  totally off of my initial plan.
But we've been adapting to the environment  
and making our way through  and survived our first year.
So last month was our sort of  anniversary. We didn't really celebrate it  
but hoping to grow more in the midst of pandemic.

So this is our office and this is  where  we made our very first batch of
Bamboo pilsner, OG Witbier and the Milk Stout.
And those three beers came out really well
so those were the three  beers that we first produced  
at Del Cielo brewery when we  launched the pop-up store.

So this is our office space. This is my desk. This  is whe
accounting, logistics, talking to our contract  breweries, talking to our teams. Everything  
is zoom right now. I also have staff that I've  never seen in person physically because of Covid.

So since the pop-up store we  have been just distributing,  
selling our beer online to consumers directly,  but also delivering through the Bay Area.  
We've recently launched in Humboldt county as well  as a couple of stores in Sacramento and LA area.
I think we're gonna air a series of these  episodes. From making deliveries to brewing beer, 

coming up with recipes. Or you might have some  happy good moments or, you know, bad days.
So take this opportunity to show the  behind the scenes of how the brewery  
life is and how we grow and  what the startup life is like.
So look out in the future for more episodes  if you want to learn more about Dokkaebier.
See you again.