Brewing Love – K-drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of Brewing Love begins with Min-ju taking a stand between Yong-ju and the villagers. When he realises Jisang is the cause of all this, he tells Yong-ju and Ah-reum both to leave.

Later, Min-ju tries brushing the salt off Yong-ju but she stops him. He tells her to come over to his place where she has a shower and chats with his cat. She finds Min-ju at the brewery. He admits that these villagers are very important to him.

A flashback to four years ago shows him arriving at Baegok-ri. He starts his beer business and it soon blows up with the help of the villagers. At present, he says this is why he can’t just leave them. The beer festival soon kicks off.

Yong-ju speaks with Ah-reum and accuses her of not sharing all the details with the villagers. If Naro were to merge with Jisang, the villagers would lose ownership of the beer and the festival. Further, there’s no guarantee that Jisang will keep them as employees.

They go to the beer festival and find that the village chief ordered beer on the wrong date. Min-ju decided to bring all his beer out and Ah-reum and Chan-hwi offer to help. Yong-ju has another idea. She enlists Beom and they get a large truck full of beer. However, their truck is forced to swerve and stop due to a car accident in the middle of the road.

Yong-ju calls the chairman, a wholesaler she has a good rapport with, for help. After sending all the injured passengers in an ambulance, the chairman arrives with more beer. Yong-ju and Beom take the new set of trucks towards the festival. Beom comments that this is a good opportunity to make Min-ju sign the deal but Yong-ju doesn’t want to force him.

Meanwhile, Chan-hwi inadvertently reveals that Yong-ju is trying to get Min-ju only to save the Busan branch. Ah-reum suggests that Yong-ju isn’t trustworthy. Yong-ju arrives just then and admits that it’s true but that she would never use him or the villagers to meet her goals.

She then arrives at the festival with multiple trucks of beer. Min-ju then makes a startling statement — he’s going to sign on with Yong-ju. He tells her he never doubted her. Ah-reum is walking away dejectedly when Chan-hwi offers her a toasted sandwich. She accepts.

The festival is a huge success and at night, Min-ju pays Yong-ju for her part-time work in beer. Min-ju compares beer to people and muses about how much harsher standards are used to judge people. As they talk, Min-ju is taken aback by how well Yong-ju seems to know him. After he heads inside his house, he hears Yong-ju singing outside and smiles.

The next day, Min-ju is driving to Seoul when he gets anxious. Yong-ju then sends him a video of people who attended the festival and loved his beer. He calms down on reading her encouraging messages.

He reaches Jisang Liquor’s office where he finds Yong-ju has built a team for him including Ah-reum, her colleague, and Beom. They sign the contract and visit the company’s factory. The team then goes out for dinner where Ra-oh challenges Min-ju to a taste test. Min-ju correctly identifies all ten beers and impresses his teammates. Yong-ju calls his hypersensitivity a gift.

Beom gets riled up for some reason and loses to Chan-hwi at several different challenges. After dinner, Yong-ju fixes up a bruise on Beom’s forehead and Min-ju realises that Beom likes Yong-ju. He empathises with Beom and has to remind himself that these aren’t his emotions. But as it begins to rain and Yong-ju runs towards him, Min-ju wonders if the emotions are his after all at the end of Brewing Love Episode 4.

The Episode Review

Brewing Love Episode 4 sees Yong-ju rise to the challenge and help the villagers out during the festival. She finally gets Min-ju’s approval for the deal as well. Considering how much Min-ju did not want to collaborate with a big company, his acceptance of the deal does seem a bit easy.

But this K-drama isn’t really about the logistics, it’s about the emotions. The important thing is that Min-ju is able to sense Yong-ju’s sincerity and he’s drawn to her enthusiasm. The same way she understands what’s really important to him and respects that.

That final realisation that maybe Min-ju is the one who’s beginning to have feelings for Yong-ju nicely rounds this arc off, taking the friendly relationship between them to the next level. Of course, their troubles are far from over. I’m sure plenty of corporate issues will turn up to keep the story’s momentum. For now, we are looking forward to more romance!