Brewing Love – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

Episode 8

Episode 8 of Brewing Love begins with Min-ju and Yong-ju kissing when she suddenly pulls back. She’s not sure about how she feels yet and he tells her to take her time to think about it.

The rest of the villagers are relieved when both of them come back down the mountain. The man who called for help was someone else. However, everyone notices Min-ju fussing over Yong-ju. This bothers Yong-ju and she tells Min-ju that she’s blocking him just the way he once blocked her.

Min-ju wakes up in the morning with Chan-hwi next to him. Apparently, they both got drunk the previous night. Chan-hwi worried about Ah-reum’s date with a man from the matchmaking agency. Min-ju wondered how long Yong-ju would make him wait.

At present, Ah-reum goes on the date and spots Chan-hwi watching them. She keeps thinking about him as well and rejects the man. When she rejects him, he grabs her hand angrily but Chan-hwi intervenes. The two of them then go to a beach where Ah-reum impulsively asks if they should date. Chan-hwi is, of course, ecstatic.

Meanwhile, Yong-ju can’t stop thinking about Min-ju either despite all her efforts. Later, she and the team go to the brewery where they are surprised to learn that Ah-reum and Chan-hwi are dating. When they start work, Min-ju keeps a distance between himself and Yong-ju and doesn’t behave as warmly as before. They taste a new batch of beer and discuss the differences between the two samples they’ve created.

Back at Jisang, the planning director gets riled up by the marketing director. He decides he would rather see the new product fail than let the marketing director succeed. Meanwhile, the marketing director puts pressure on Yong-ju to speed up the pressure. Yong-ju comes home tired.

Her grandmother says she has changed and that she’s enjoying watching Yong-ju. At night, Yong-ju calls Min-ju by mistake but pretends everything is okay. He’s about to ask if he should come over but stops himself. On her own, Yong-ju muses about her feelings for Min-ju and ends up confusing herself.

The next meeting takes place and the team is disheartened by how they haven’t made a decision yet. Sook-ja and Young-ja get bowls of coffee out to help. As they describe how they found their own favourite coffees, Yong-ju gets an idea. She suggests they release a series of different beers with different alcohol volumes and flavours so that people can select what they’re in the mood for. She calls it respecting the style of the era since people don’t drink to get drunk anymore.

Yong-ju is excited about the new concept when a marketing manager from Baekmok Liquor arrives. Her name is Lim Ju-hee. And she’s also Min-ju’s ex-girlfriend. Yong-ju learns about their high school romance when she used to do ballet. She is clearly jealous and storms off. Min-ju sees Ju-hee off, casually telling her to leave.

Yong-ju is angrily muttering to herself and even daydreams about what a high school romance with Min-ju would have been like. Min-ju catches her and then asks her out on a date (as colleagues). Yong-ju ends up asking Ah-reum for help choosing a dress for the date. Min-ju is appropriately starstruck to see her when she arrives. He buys her flowers and she’s surprised to find that she likes it. He says he’ll help her discover all the things she likes.

They have a great time but Yong-ju comes home to an empty house. A phone call has her running to the hospital. She goes to a hospital bed and then falls to her knees. Her grandmother has passed away. Still in the same dress, Yong-ju begins the formalities for the funeral. She also finds a voice note from her grandmother.

In the recording, she tells Yong-ju that she’s called an ambulance but thinks it might be time for her to go. She tells Yong-ju not to hold back her feelings anymore and that it was an honour to be her grandmother. 

Yong-ju smiles her way through the funeral and keeps telling everyone she’s fine. Her demeanour falters when her father arrives. A short flashback shows him and her mother leaving Yong-ju with her grandmother. He was only 21 and wanted to run away from the responsibility.

At present, Yong-ju tells him she built a good life with her grandmother. She walks outside, determined not to cry. But Min-ju follows and hugs her. He’s crying himself which makes her finally cry too at the end of Brewing Love Episode 8.

The Episode Review

Brewing Love Episode 8 has some really enjoyable bits but at the same time, the tonal shift towards the end is very jarring. The romance between Yong-ju and Min-ju is absolutely adorable. This time, we get to see more of Yong-ju’s side of things and it’s great to watch her grapple with her feelings.

Her dilemma about fleeting butterflies versus actual love is very relatable and the scene with the ex-girlfriend, however contrived it may be, makes her struggle that much more fun to watch.

Min-ju finally asking her out and the date itself offer plenty of cuteness to gush about, particularly when he promises to help her understand her own likes and dislikes, which she seems to have ignored so far.

While the last segment of the episode is heart-wrenching and does a good job of showing Yong-ju’s reluctance to be vulnerable, it does feel a bit too sudden and saps away that joy very quickly. But then again, death is like that, and maybe the creators meant to portray its abruptness.