Somaek
Soju and lager poured together at the Korean table
Somaek is what happens when a Korean table decides soju and beer belong in one glass. The name joins the two words, the ratio is a matter of household opinion, and the making is part of the hospitality: one person mixes for the group, pours for their neighbors, and each glass is received with both hands. Cold lager lifts the clean, faintly sweet soju, and the result is lighter than a shot and livelier than a beer. We present it as a shared drink to accompany food, poured with care and finished without hurry.
A Korean table drink of soju and cold lager poured together in a beer glass, usually about three parts soju to seven parts beer, served cold without ice alongside food.
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz / 45 ml Soju, well chilled
- 5 oz / 150 ml Korean lager, well chilled
- Technique
- Built
- Glass
- Pint
- Ice
- None
- Prep
- 2 min · Easy
- Garnish
- None. Somaek is served plain; the accompaniment is food (anju), such as grilled meat, fried chicken or pickled radish.
- Approximate strength
- about 7% ABV in the glass (Estimate. Ethanol from 45 ml soju at 17% is about 7.7 ml plus 150 ml lager at 4.5% is about 6.8 ml, for 14.5 ml in 195 ml with no ice dilution, roughly 7 to 7.5% ABV. A 20% soju raises it to about 8%; the 60 ml soju to 107 ml beer example in one source reaches nearly 10%.)
- Allergens
- Gluten
Method
Chill a 7 oz (200 ml) beer glass, the soju and the beer in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Somaek is served without ice, so everything must already be cold.3600s
Cold glass, cold bottle, cold beer: the three things the table will notice.
Pour 1.5 oz (45 ml) of soju into the chilled glass first. If the glass has gradation lines, fill to the lowest line; if not, use a soju shot glass filled about three-quarters.
Soju first, a modest pour, measured by the lines on the glass or by the eye of whoever is hosting.
Tilt the glass and pour 5 oz (150 ml) of cold lager slowly down the inside until the glass is about three-quarters full, leaving a finger of foam at the top. Pouring beer onto the soju, not the other way round, keeps the ratio honest.10s
Beer down the side, slowly; the foam should rise like a tide, not a wave.
Mix with one of two table methods. Either slide a clean chopstick or spoon to the bottom and lift it once to fold the layers together, or, for the dropped version, pour the soju into a small shot glass and lower it gently into the beer-filled glass so it sinks and blends. Do not strike the glass or the table.5s
One lift of the chopstick, or one small glass lowered into another; either way the drink makes itself.
Serve at once with food. Pour for the guests beside you rather than for yourself, and offer and receive the glass with both hands, as the custom goes. Please enjoy responsibly: this is a sipping drink alongside a meal, and the site does not present the speed-drinking games attached to it.
Pour for your neighbor and let your neighbor pour for you.
Flavor notes
Clean and cold, with the soft grain sweetness of soju underneath a light, slightly bready lager. Gentle carbonation, a little less than beer alone, and a short, dry finish that suits grilled and fried food. More spirit presence than a beer and far less than a shot.
Variations
- Golden Ratio 3:7: 60 ml soju in a 200 ml glass topped with about 140 ml lager, per the Korea Times survey. source
- Cappuccino Somaek: Empty shot glass lowered into the beer glass, soju poured into it, beer to the top, foam raised; per the Korea Times, without the table slap. source
- Poktanju Whisky Bomb: 1 oz / 30 ml blended whisky in a shot glass dropped into 5 oz / 150 ml lager; the older 1980s form, per the Korea Herald and Wikipedia. source
- Gojingamrae: 45 ml soju, 120 ml lager, 30 ml cola poured last, per the Korea JoongAng Daily. source
Substitutions
- Soju: Unflavored shochu (Japanese) or a mild vodka, 1.25 oz (37 ml) · Shochu is the nearest cousin; vodka is stronger (40%) so the pour is reduced. Flavored sojus (grapefruit, peach) make a sweeter, fruit-led glass and are common in Korea.
- Korean lager: Any light pilsner or rice lager · Keep it soft and neutral. Japanese and Mexican lagers work; hoppy pale ales do not.
- Part of the lager: 1 oz (30 ml) cola, poured last · This is the gojingamrae style described in the Korea JoongAng Daily, layered soju and beer with a cola finish; it is sweeter and darker.
- Korean lager: Korean lemon-lime soda (Chilsung Cider style), 5 oz (150 ml) · A sweeter, non-beer version some Koreans compare to a creamy soft drink; it removes the gluten.
Without alcohol
Pour 1.5 oz (45 ml) of a chilled zero-proof soju or shochu alternative, or 1 oz (30 ml) cold barley tea, into a chilled 200 ml glass and top with 5 oz (150 ml) of a cold non-alcoholic lager. Fold once with a chopstick and serve with food; the ritual of pouring for the table works exactly the same.
Batching
Somaek is not batched; the beer goes flat and the point of the drink is the pouring. For a table of 8 chill two 360 ml bottles of soju and four 500 ml bottles of lager and a tray of 200 ml glasses, then let one host mix a round at a time at the 3:7 ratio. Responsible service note: the traditional format is a fast group toast, and the Korean press records drinking games built on it (hole-in-one, air force one). The Fabled Pour does not promote those games or encourage finishing a glass in one go; serve somaek as a food-pairing drink, one glass per round, with water on the table, and note that each glass holds a full measure of soju as well as beer.
Origin and sources
Somaek is a Korean portmanteau of soju and maekju, the Korean word for beer. It belongs to the family of drinks Koreans call poktanju, bomb drinks, in which a shot of spirit is dropped into or poured into a glass of beer. Korean press and reference accounts place the rise of poktanju between the 1960s and the 1980s: one theory ties it to military officers who had studied in the United States, another to office workers under the pressure of rapid economic growth, and a third to a gathering of prosecutors, police officers and journalists in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in the early 1980s, where the whisky-and-beer form reportedly debuted. The Korea Herald, writing in 2014, describes somaek as the milder successor to the whisky bomb, the Korea Times adds that soju took the place of whisky because it is milder and cheaper, and the Herald reports a shift in Korean drinking culture away from drinking to excess and toward enjoying the drink itself. The Korea Times reported in 2013 on the ratio most Koreans prefer: in a 2010 online survey of 1,860 people by the distiller Bohae, seven in ten chose 30 percent soju to 70 percent beer. HiteJinro, the beer and soju maker, distributed beer glasses with gradation lines for the mix, and a 2010 Korean national standard fixed the beer glass at 200 ml, which with a 60 ml soju shot makes the 3:7 arithmetic simple. Somaek is not a bar cocktail; it is made at the table in barbecue and fried chicken restaurants, where soju and beer are ordered separately and the mixing is done by the guests.
Contested: No inventor, place or date is documented for somaek itself. The poktanju theories above are reported as theories by Wikipedia and by Korean English-language press, and they describe the whisky bomb more than the soju version. Wikipedia lists somaek as simply another name for poktanju, while the Korea Herald draws a line between the two by strength and intent. The 3:7 golden ratio rests on a distiller's online survey, not on tradition; the Korea Times notes that no rigid rules exist and that the ratio is up to whoever mixes. The Korea JoongAng Daily describes a practical measure (soju poured to the level of a stacked second shot glass, beer to the lowest point of the glass logo) that gives a little over half a glass, so serving size also varies. A story that American soldiers started mixing soju into beer circulates online and was not found in any fetched source; it is not relied on here. Note on the format: the drink is traditionally finished quickly as a group toast, and Korean sources describe drinking games attached to it. This site presents somaek as a table drink to be enjoyed with food and does not promote the games or the speed; a responsible-service note is in the batching notes.
- Art of drinking soju and beer cocktail, The Korea Times (2013-02-03) · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- [Uniquely Korean] Bomb-drink cocktails help smooth relationships, The Korea Herald (2014-02-05) · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Lifehacks: the ins and outs of making the best glass of somaek, Korea JoongAng Daily · secondary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- South Korea's popular somaek cocktail combines beer and soju, Tasting Table · tertiary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- Poktanju, Wikipedia · tertiary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
- 3:7: Tradition, joy, and the spectacle of somaek, Bier Omakase (Substack) (2025-02-11) · tertiary source, retrieved 2026-10-11
Fact check: verified · Credit: The Fabled Pour editorial team