Fermentation, Two Ways. Picolot × Lost Origin × Hana Makgeolli

Friday, Sep. 18, 2026. 6PM, doors at 5:50PM.
Hana Makgeolli, 201 Dupont Street, Brooklyn.

Same microbes. Different jobs.

Franz Zeimetz runs Lost Origin Coffee Lab in Panama City. Farms send him their cherry; he decides what happens next — which yeast, which bacteria, how many days, what temperature, what's in the water. Alice Jun runs Hana Makgeolli in Greenpoint, the only makgeolli brewery in the country, and ferments rice the old way: nuruk and nothing else, no commercial yeast.

Here's the thing. Nuruk runs on Torulaspora and Lactobacillus. So does the 8-day ferment Franz gave one of the two Geishas he processed for Picolot this year. Different strains, same organisms — doing very different work in rice and in coffee cherry. For one Friday evening, we're putting both on the same table and letting the two people who ran the ferments talk it through.

On the table

• Las Nubes Geisha — Alto Jaramillo. An 8-day co-ferment with Torulaspora and Lactobacillus, stepped down from 22 °C to 8 °C. Poured beside Alice's makgeolli, where the same organisms have been at work in rice for centuries.
• Gran Del Val Geisha — Alto Quiel. The contrast: a 2-day kveik fermentation — a beer yeast, run hot and fast — on reverse-osmosis water Franz rebuilt from scratch. Two days versus eight, in the same cup shape.
• Hana Makgeolli — Alice's pick, poured tasting-size. She'll tell you what nuruk is, why she refuses to cheat it, and what to taste for.
  

What happens

• Makgeolli first, on purpose. A sip of nuruk-fermented rice teaches your tongue what Torulaspora esters and lactic tang taste like. Then find them in the coffee. Franz and Alice talk; no slides.
• You brew. A spread of grinders and brewers — Orea, flat-bottom, cone, a couple of things we're still arguing about. Both lots, every station. Make the coffee, then make it again a different way, with Franz next to you for every fermentation question you've never had a chance to ask.
• Taste across the table. Everyone's brews, both lots, the makgeolli, side by side. Nobody's grading.

Your seat includes

• Every pour: the makgeolli, both coffees cupped, everything you brew
• Both lots available to buy at the table before they go public on Picolot
• No experience needed. Bring your favorite dripper if you've got one — it goes on the table. Makgeolli pours are tasting-size and 21+; the coffee's for everyone.
• Two hours, one table, two fermenters. That's the event.