Time passed quickly, and it was now early March.
A spring breeze blew across the Sacramento Plain. The soil, damp throughout the winter, had dried as if splitting apart, ready at last to take in water.
Among the farms there, Jacob’s Riverbend Rice Farm was changing in many ways, unlike before.
Vroooom!
A tractor had entered the paddy, its large body giving off a low rumble as it overturned the field floor. Gray soil flipped over, revealing a soft brown beneath. Here and there, workers were tidying up the levees, clearing away protruding stones and tamping the soil evenly, looking quite busy. They had not yet let in the water, but once the waterways opened, the paddies would soon fill with glittering water and be ready for transplanting.
I saw Jacob waving from atop the tractor. His forehead glistened with sweat in the sunlight, and his thick forearms looked even more solid than before. He stopped the tractor and came over with a broad grin.
“You’re here, Brian!”
“You’re working hard. You look like a real farmer.”
At my words, Jacob shrugged.
“After finishing the leveling over the winter, we’re finally turning the fields over in earnest. We have to get ready to spread the base fertilizer before transplanting, too.”
Confidence was embedded in his voice. I could feel that he had pressed down the grief of losing his father and was now leading the farm as the true head of the household. Feeling proud, I nodded.
“Let’s go. Mom should be getting lunch ready by now.”
“Sure.”
When we entered the house, the savory smell of soup tickled my nose, and on the table were sandwiches, corn soup, and a slice of warm pie. With Aunt Maggie included, the three of us sat around the table to eat, and the atmosphere was wonderfully cozy.
“Seeing this boy running around with the workers and driving the tractor since morning puts my mind at ease.”
Aunt Maggie stirred her soup, her eyes reddening.
“I was worried the farm might waver without his father, but he’s doing so well.”
“It’s all thanks to Brian. Since we had things prepared last year, all I have to do is act confident.”
Jacob smiled, but as he glanced at me, his gaze was filled with sincerity. I simply shrugged and replied.
“You’re the one who worked hard. I only helped a little from the side.”
At those words, Aunt Maggie wiped at the corners of her eyes again. After our brief but warm lunch ended, we walked along the levee path at the corner of the farm to get some fresh air.
“What do you think? How does it feel to be done with laser leveling?”
“Honestly, at first I didn’t feel much about it, but as we prepared, I started thinking that farming really would get easier. The workers had that look at first, like, what the hell are we doing? But once I explained it to them, they all accepted it. They know it too. That all sorts of problems come up when the water depth isn’t even.”
“I’m glad you’re leading the workers well, at least. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“Seriously... that was the hardest part. The workers my father used to employ didn’t listen to me at first. Probably when you helped me, at the end of last year.”
“Yeah.”
“Back then, when we recovered the paddies that had been damaged from the wrong herbicide, it was really hard. Even while adjusting the acidity of the paddy water and giving the leaves nutrients, they didn’t just suddenly revive all at once. It took a really long time to bring them back.”
“I’m sure it did.”
“After I took the lead in that process and brought them back, the way they looked at me changed. The workers were the ones who had used the wrong herbicide, but I, my father’s son, was the one who saved the fields.”
Looking at Jacob, who seemed proud, I smiled.
“You did well.”
“It’s all thanks to you, but I worked really hard too. From then on, the workers started listening to me. But this time, with the laser leveling and the pipes, things got a little off again. They asked why I was spending money on stuff like that. They said I should save the money to prepare for pests, disease, or drought. They had a point, but I pushed through stubbornly, and some of them looked disappointed in me.”
“Workers who have been farming for a long time are all confident in their own experience.”
“They all think they’re technicians when it comes to farming. But after it was done, things changed a bit. When I said we’d received some support from the USDA NRCS, they acknowledged it too.”
“Man... managing people is hard, isn’t it?”
“You’re telling me.”
Jacob, who had been smiling awkwardly, took on a bitter expression again.
“Farming is really strange. Turning over the soil, transplanting the seedlings, harvesting in the fall and stacking everything in the warehouse—it makes you proud. When the crops from this vast land, where you can’t even see the end of it, pile up like a mountain... I really felt like I’d gained the whole world. Especially last year, when I filled the warehouse with my own hands.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“The funny thing is, once I converted it into money, it wasn’t much. When I look at you and Chloe... Ah! Don’t tell Armando. He’ll think I’m way better off than he is.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Armando.”
“Anyway, when I look at you and Chloe, I get jealous even though we’re all farming. The unit prices are completely different from ours. When I filled the warehouse last year, you know, I had 15,000 sacks of 50 pounds each stacked up. Do you know how much I earned? A little over ninety thousand dollars. Without government subsidies, it’d be hard to survive. I’m glad because I think the farming methods you taught me will increase profits significantly, but... haah...”
Feeling sorry for him, I patted Jacob on the shoulder. There was nothing to be done about it, since rice prices in the United States were simply very low. In the winter season, the wholesale price of Calrose rice did not even exceed fifty cents per kilogram, so that said it all.
By changing the variety to M-206 and adding scientific farming methods, I thought profitability would rise by more than twenty percent, but a dramatic improvement in profit would inevitably be difficult. Unless he changed the item from rice itself, it could not be helped.
“Yeah, I understand.”
“Sometimes I resent my father. Why, of all the many things he could have grown, did it have to be rice? I don’t feel that way now, but it’s just... frustrating.”
I understood how he felt. Grapes, too, were merely raw materials, but once processed into wine, their value increased dozens of times over. Adding a brand, adding a story, and shining in the market—none of that was ever easy.
But that did not mean there was absolutely no way. After hesitating for a moment, I carefully opened my mouth.
“It’s not as if there’s no way at all...”
“Huh? There’s a way?”
“There is, but it’ll be very difficult.”
“What is it?”
Looking at Jacob, whose eyes were sparkling, I frowned slightly and said,
“How about trying to make alcohol, like me?”
Jacob stopped walking.
“Alcohol? With rice?”
His eyes were full of questions.
“Yeah. In Korea, they make alcohol with rice. So if you said you wanted to make Korean-style alcohol, it would be possible... but the choice is yours.”
“Of course I can do it! I know what kind of reviews the wine you made is getting, so it’s not like you couldn’t make Korean alcohol!”
I first raised a hand to calm the excited Jacob down.
“Listen first. There are two kinds of alcohol you could make. One is a cloudy, fermented rice wine called makgeolli. But that needs to be distributed refrigerated, and since this isn’t Korea, the flavor would be unfamiliar, so I don’t recommend it. The other is a distilled spirit.”
“Distilled spirits are common. Vodka, whiskey, tequila... But you can make distilled spirits from rice?”
“Yeah. It’s common in Korea and also a traditional liquor. If someone likes distilled spirits, they’d probably be satisfied with it. The raw material itself is the medium-grain Calrose, so it’s perfectly suitable as an ingredient for Korean traditional liquor.”
“Wow. It sounds good... but there must be drawbacks too, right?”
“That’s right. In the case of distilled spirits, setting up distillation equipment is pretty expensive.”
“Haah... Money again.”
Jacob, whose face fell as he hung his head, looked at me.
“But alcohol is your specialty, isn’t it? Is there a reason you’re not doing it?”
“It’s not that I never thought about it. Honestly, I considered trying it myself, but if I make distilled spirits instead of wine at the winery, there would be too much for me to handle. And I don’t think it would be good for the winery brand either. Still, if I had more leeway, I was thinking of trying it in five or ten years. But if it’s you, I can teach you the technique.”
“Really? Are the terms the same?”
“Yeah. Seven for you, three for me. You’ll be the one taking out the loan, and you’ll be the one brewing the liquor. But it won’t be easy.”
Realistically, it was very difficult for me to do everything and take all the profit myself. Even with wine alone, there were more than a few things to pay attention to, and if I tried to get involved in distilled spirits on top of that, one side would inevitably fall apart.
Especially in the United States, the legal restrictions on making distilled spirits were quite strict, and obtaining a license was extremely complicated and difficult. On top of that, the tax reduction benefits for small farm distilleries would not come until much later, in 2017, so for now he would have to pay the same tax as the products of major corporations, twenty cents per bottle. In addition, if the alcohol content went up to forty percent, the tax would exceed two dollars per bottle, making it ten times different from wine.
When thought of that way, Jacob taking on all the risks to make soju while I took a thirty percent share was, in a sense, an extremely favorable condition for me.
“How much would I need to borrow?”
“Probably... at least two to three hundred thousand dollars, and if it gets big, around a million dollars?”
At the mention of a million dollars, Jacob’s face turned ashen.
“Oh... damn it! That’s too much, isn’t it?”
“I said if it gets big. But I haven’t looked into it properly, so... we need to check the exact numbers again. And the license could be more complicated than the money. For distilled spirits, you need a federal TTB, Tax and Trade Bureau, license, and a state Alcohol Beverage Control, ABC, license. Well, it’s difficult and complicated, but getting the licenses isn’t impossible. A few existing farms around here have breweries too.”
“I see.”
“Still, if you decide to do it, the funding issue isn’t completely hopeless. There are various government programs. The question is whether you can shoulder that and go through with it.”
Anyone would be like that. They might believe they could do well, but if they suddenly had to start something while taking on hundreds of thousands in debt, hesitation would be natural.
But unlike the tormented expression he had worn until now, Jacob looked straight into my eyes without even a moment’s deliberation and said,
“I want to run a brewery.”
“Really? It’ll be hard.”
“At first, I wasn’t interested, but after farming myself and living while being squeezed for money, I feel stifled. I think with the farming methods you taught me, profits can improve enough, but it’s not as if starting a brewery will generate profit immediately anyway, right?”
“Of course not.”
“Then while raising the farm’s profits, I want to draw another future for myself with my own brewery, like you.”
At Jacob’s resolute words, I felt inwardly surprised. His will to begin a gamble with his life on the line was conveyed clearly to me.
“Running a brewery doesn’t guarantee success. And this isn’t Korea, it’s America. People’s tastes may be different.”
“What do you think? Do you think Korean-style distilled spirits will fail in America?”
When I thought about it carefully, honestly, if it were the 2020s, when the Korean Wave had spread, it would be one thing, but right now I could not get a clear sense of it. What was certain was that Korean restaurants and Korean communities made up a very large part of California, so there would be fixed demand. But the important question was whether it would work on other ethnic groups.
That was something we would only know after trying.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. But at least one thing is certain. Cheap East Asian soju has already entered the market. So trying to compete at a low price would be foolish. We have to go with premium soju at over thirty dollars a bottle, no matter what. If we position it as a global distilled spirit that can be used as a cocktail base, I think it’s possible. And if we sell limited editions aged in oak for over fifty dollars a bottle, we could make a big profit.”
After listening to me, Jacob struck his palm with his fist.
“That’s it! If it’s a farm of only eighty acres, then instead of just selling rice, making a brewery like your winery and doing secondary processing is clearly the solution! And with the precise farming methods you taught me as the foundation of the branding, we add an Eastern feeling... you know? Bamboo and... blades of grass and... twin swords...”
Something strange had suddenly come out.
“Are you thinking of ninjas?”
Jacob flinched slightly, then looked apologetic.
“...Sorry. Before I met you, the only thing that came to mind when I thought of the East was ninjas.”
“No ninjas. I’ll help you set the image later. Whatever it is, a premium distilled spirit with an Eastern feel would definitely have distinctiveness.”
“I feel much more at ease knowing you’ll help me. Whew...”
Looking at the relieved Jacob, I, on the contrary, felt a little nervous. As for wine, I had researched it thousands of times before my regression and was confident that I had practically mastered it, but when it came to Korean-style distilled spirits, I only knew the theory and had never actually made them.
In a way, Jacob was taking on the risk while I experimented. That was why I absolutely could not fail.
On the way home, I muttered to myself in the car.
“Should we go with an Andong soju style and capture smoothness through oak barrel aging? Hmm... I can see the outline...”
Even if the Korean Wave had not yet swept across America as it had before my regression, I had a feeling that a premium liquor like this just might work.