I gotta say, I really enjoyed these episodes. The editing is much better and it doesn't feel like something is missing.

These two and their little acts of kindness towards each other also really won me over. they've both started to see each other in a romantic light (well, I think more unconsciously on Yong-joo's part). Min-joo showing up with the snacks & hair tie was oddly adorable. I also liked how Yong-joo always jumps in when she sees Min-joo being overwhelmed with social interaction (relatable king).

I don't like quite like the SFL (she seems really underhanded, pressure or no) or the villagers (tossing salt on Yong-joo is wild) but the SML is growing on me! (That toast looks really good BTW, can he pull up with his food truck near my workplace?) I even liked the matchmaking ajummas and their antics!

All in all, will definitely be sticking with this drama. Also, JooJoo is an amazing ship name.

Hum... I understand the message and kinda like the substance of the story but I don't really like the form... everything seems a little bit forced.

I wonder if Chan-hwi was a soldier too and it's why he's good at everything.

The romance is happening much faster than expected, but I love it. I love it when the man falls first. Yong Joo is such a delightful character, so I love Min Joo crushing on our girl.

Cheers 🍻 🎊 for the recap.

The drama remains as strange as ever but indeed there are more subtle moments handled with great sensitivity.

I loved Yong-joo's empathy for Min-joo when he told his backstory. Also her observation that he is kind, which is hard to be especially when the kindness is not reciprocated. It was so sweet when she wore sneakers instead of her usual military boots to avoid triggering him and he immediately noticed. 😊

The OTP's conversation about the sensitivity of a person determining their personality also hit home a bit too personally. 😅

Well done show you have managed to endear yourself to me. My MVP being of course the awesome "owner of the house - 포도 (podo) which apparently means grape. @Unaspirated's subtitles refer to the cat as Poto while mine is subtitled as Photo!? 🙃😅😂

I liked that Min-joo has realized his feelings for Yong-joo. I really liked that scene. I am looking forward to see him grapple with his emotions. Also was he a tad bit jealous of the hoobae with the crush on Yong-joo. 😂

We finally get to see Chan-hwi's cheese toastie 🧀🥪 (served with a wink 🤷‍♀️) which appears as yummy as it is calorific - with lots of butter. 🧈 😋 Ah-reum gets a double serving of all ingredients. After all giving double portion of food to another equals true love.

I never thought Min-joo had such a great sense of humor. His description of Chan-hwi as "A fool who is good at everything" is so apt!! 😂

So hwaiting drama!! 💪🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I’m fully on board now. When Yong-ju held the corner of the table as Min-ju approached so he wouldn’t knock his knee on it I legitimately made this face: 🥹 I mean, sure, that scene where they were staring at each other with bubbles all around them lasted at least four whole minutes, but after the week I’ve had, I couldn’t possibly care less. And it was so pretty and bright!

I’m loving the conversations our leads are having, of recognizing kindness (Including self-kindness) as a difficult thing to do, and even just telling someone else about yourself trusting that they will understand - it’s something that takes a lot of courage and I love that they acknowledge that. I’m also into the pace hahaha! Glad that the contract is already signed (not that I wasn’t liking that part, but it would have gotten more stale after another couple of episodes), and that our Min-ju is already realizing his feelings. The hoobae being jealous made me laugh, but I was worried the Empath would mistake his own crush for Hoobae’s. Props to the show for immediately clarifying those heartbeats for him!

After a lackluster opening episodes I really enjoyed these two. The show picked up pace and the writing also improved. I love the leads. And love their conversations. And I screeeeeed when I saw the rubber band on his wrist!! 😍😍

I especially loved the scene in the mountains. It was nice to see a resourceful female lead who refuses to get lost in the mountain nor break an ankle nor be piggybacked home by the ML. Pfft. The conversation was so lovely. To see them both opening up slowly. I can see why he fell for her first. She is such a non judgmental person and she understands his desire to protect people he cares about. It’s this commonality that connected them professionally. I am sure the corporate will throw a spanner down the line but for now I am enjoying all the bubbles and soft focus close ups of uri Jong Won!!

Him with the hair band in his wrist and her swapping out military shoes for sneakers are the kind of people these two are. Rooting for them.

Also, the two ahjummas are hilarious. At this point he is lying them to troll him. They are so funny.

On the one hand, I've watched all four episodes so far at least twice each (sometimes three time) and also have actively sought out other translations for the subs because it seems clear to me that so much is being lost in the English.

On the other hand, it's not because this show has a very coherent plot.

It feels much more like these characters are all archetypes. They're always standing in for something, or pointing the way towards some other conclusion outside this story.

The cartoonish CGI adds to this feeling--that we're in a fantasyland where our hopes and dreams are front-and-center, not the real-world of Korean beer manufacture. The moving conversations that our lead couple has are somehow more like impassioned pleas to be heard by the audience, as much as they are directed at one another.

I'm here for it all.

PS: The Viu subs seem more sensitive than the Viki ones right now, FWIW.

This show strikes me as, as much as anything else, an attempt to rehabilitate Korean drinking culture as shown in dramas. That started in the first episode - I was impressed when the team starts chanting for the second round and Yong-joo shuts that right down and says she's going home. Since then, though, we've seen her pounding a dozen or more pints of beer for some obscure plot purpose - but the point is to show that as the reimagined "good drinker" she doesn't end up classically kdrama drunk and talkative. She falls asleep, gets a scooter ride, and is good as new a half hour later. 😏

Beer is presented as an art and a craft, worthy of serious intellectual attention. People who can drink a lot without showing it are strong and admirable. No one has to be carried out of a bar. The only drinking competition is a demonstration of refined taste, and all the ABV levels mentioned are relatively low. There are feats of strength that do not involve pounding shots until someone falls over. There are no drunken confessions, only a gentle relaxation of inhibitions to deepen relationships. Hangovers almost don’t exist.

I'd love to visit that Korea.

I think I'm out.

1. I just don't care about beer, and this show isn't helping with that. At least this has less annoying drunk scenes than most kdramas, so there's that, I guess.

2. Everything about this show feels unnatural to me, like... plastic? Synthetic?

Remember when the ML told the FL that it was obvious she was trying too hard and that was painful to watch? That's how I feel about this show.
Without noticing I skipped half of episode 4 because I couldn't handle the cringe of every single interaction and the unnatural flow of the plot.

Everything that happens is so convenient. Everyone talks like AI wrote their dialogues or maybe it's because they have serious conversations in the most random moments (and those random moments are like 90% of the leads interactions). And the editing makes everything 100% more awkward for me.

It's a shame because I kinda liked most of episode 3. But then it all became too much near the end, and episode 4 then took it to another level.

3. Talking about editing, the way they act as if empathy was a superpower makes many of the interactions between the leads very hard to watch. Especially, because after the supermagic effects, then the ML says something weird like "you're not okay" "you feel this and that" "you should live like this".

Btw, who said empathy, kindness, and being a pushover are all the same thing? (But that doesn't really matter, the leads are cute when they're not trying to have deep convos, so I like them together.)

Anyway, I think I'm not compatible with this style and that's fine. At least I got to try something different. ENA is trying new things in the mon-tues slot, so maybe the next one works for me.

PS. 4. you would think that people would read/hear someone's proposal before throwing salt at them. Tbh, I never understood why the ML didn't bother to read her proposal when that would've been the most logical and decent route to reject her completely. But I guess I'll never know.

Like many here, I enjoyed these episodes more than the first 2. Here is what I like so far: the main couple are both really considerate people. In kdrama fashion, both have suffer from emotional injuries experienced early in life, but so far the show hasn’t overplayed that. I liked that when driving to sign the contract, even though the ML had to pull over because he was haunted by memories of men ridiculing his toughness, he reassured himself recalling praise, and drove on. I also like the slight gender reversal— male sensitivity, tough female extroversion, although that wasn’t a big theme, since she is as sensitive as he is.

For the second couple, I like that even though the 2FL was devious in trying to subvert the FL, its clear that she is not going to be the villain. The 2ML came on too cutesy for me in the first 2 episodes, but he too is showing himself to be a nice guy. His “toast” looks like a pretty good sandwich. Of course beer is like drinking a sandwich, so its appropriate.

The possible love triangle introduced in the last episode doesn’t seem like it will be a big deal, and right now there doesn’t seem as if there will be any murder or violent incidents in village, so that’s a plus.

On the other hand, just like Once Upon a Small Town, the villagers are kind of annoying. (Apparently, living in a provincial village in Korea means that you are intellectually slow but also emotionally hyperactive.) Also, just like Once Upon a Small Town, the pace of this one tends to lag at times. As I said above, I’m kind of happy its not action packed —so far its nice, slow-motion, escapist fare, but at times I thought the camera didn’t need to linger quite so long on the ML or the main couple.

Based on the last episode, the theme of a grasping large corporation exploiting a small town and its authentic product is going to come to the forefront, but I have no doubt that our main couple, and good tasting beer, will triumph!

This is what I was hoping for after the uneven first week. This one just might be a keeper.

I was giving with this drama with all it's wackiness until Minju said "Someone saved my life six years ago....". I literally groaned and face palmed. 20% of my enjoyment just dissipated. Why???!!! I don't want another "I'm not a hero".
But episode 4 brought me back. She protected his knee with her hand. I squealed. Why wouldn't he fall for her? I can't wait for next week's episode.

This week was fairly easy to watch, no angst and not very much cringe. That's harder to do than it sounds, so good on you show! It was also fairly forgettable (for me), but not everything has to be groundshaking. Favourite moment was right at the end- He has a proper hairband round his wrist ( in case she needs it) and she is wearing sneakers ( instead of army boots).

I am here for the ahjummas - the sing song intertwining voices, the choreography 🖐 - are everything.

@unit thanks for the recap. I noticed how you basically passed over the cringe worthy team dinner after mentioning the successful beer tasting by Min-joo. We have all seen worse I guess. At least this crowd walked out under their own steam. Yong-joo supposedly consuming about 10 liters of draft beer in one sitting was not good but we are after all drinking in kdramaland. (That alone would indicate a serious drinking problem.) When will be start seeing bottled beer? Basically canned beer so far which I try to avoid.
Anyway I am enjoying BREWING LOVE so far. I like our leads. Both have been given some serious dialogue which I hope means our writer
Lee Jung-shin (After a cursory search I can’t come up with any info on this person) is good for the (12 episode)long haul.

I like the FL-ML pairing much better than most of this year's pairings.

And it's great to see that the ship has sailed for them relatively early in the drama. While I do like slow-burn romances, the brisk pace of the unfolding of their relationship works for the rom-com genre.

Interactions between main leads are lovely but there is one absurd thing that is repeated all the time - the amount of beers the FL is drinking!
I believe that in ep. 3 it was said that she drank 10 liters! That's actually dangerous for the health - the blood is too diluted then and the electrolyte balance is destroyed. Usually the organism blocks the thirst so the damage will not be done.
(And we never see her go to the loo :D)
Not complaining - just worried about her health ;)

It is harder to get through these episodes. Episode 2 was too cartoony and the beer company department competition for Naro Beer is weaker than the worst watered down cocktail. And the continuity is way off: FL has severe spleen bruise but she repels off a rooftop? I don’t know any salesman who has mountain climbing gear as part of their sales kits. Episode 3 turned even more cartoony in an unhealthy way: dropping from the ladder, the FL would have crushed her ankles to powder; and drinking more than 12 beers would cause acute alcohol poisoning. This is no longer a rom-com but some comic book fantasy with a weird arm-chair psychologist loner trying to keep himself in his own sheltered world. The villagers were meant for comedic relief, but they seem off and underdeveloped. In Korean culture, throwing salt at someone is a shamanistic ritual to ward off bad luck. I think it was misapplied by the writer. Episode 4 concludes with the ML on FL’s side by a weakly written inter-corporate battle for the brewery asset. It ends with another change of genre into an office romance during the joint venture product development team. I am not drawn into the series even though I like Kim Se-Jeong but even her spunky personality seems too much here.

A character like Min Joo is really hard to come by. I love that he's aware of his sensitive nature and doesn't use his trauma to cloud his judgment even if that would be justified. The title Mr Empathy is rightly earned!
Thanks for the recap!

I finally caught up on this one, watching 3, 4, 5 and 6 in a couple of days. I did it mainly to enjoy the recaps and the comments here. I'm not that into the show. But I don't hate it! I love watching this cast. It's just... I can't put my finger on what's not hitting with me. Whatever! It's a good distraction and I love these kids' faces. So far they haven't promoted drunkenness or demonized any vulnerable groups, and the settings are pretty too. Also there has been hand holding! Bandaids! A split screen to make it look like they were in bed together when they weren't! (Wait, was that a spoiler? Maybe it was! That could have been from episode five. I'm sorry! I'm also not taking it out because it's not really anything unexpected. Oooh, and there are massage chairs!

Also, who is the high tenor singer doing the love theme? I feel like I've heard his voice before.