Matt Unruh poses at Turtle Taps in western Seoul. Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

Seoul's newest craft beer taproom, Turtle Taps is located near western Seoul's Hongik University, closer to the Hapjeong end of things. It was opened by the husband-and-wife team of Matt Unruh and Park Seul-bi.

Turtle Taps' main focus is Korean craft beer with American comfort food. They have eight different taps for a wide variety of Korean beers and a fridge full of bottles from around the world including U.S., Belgium and more Korean fare.

When asked what it takes to get on his list of draft beers, Matt's love of domestic craft brewing comes out. "I want to highlight local craft beers," he said. "When ‘non-beer geeks' come in, I want to show them how awesome local beers can be. Also, a lot of taprooms have a lot of imports and they can be more expensive and less fresh."

The selection truly is eclectic here and the list doesn't often contain a lot of repeats from the same brewery. Turtle Taps has everything from Pyeongchang's White Crow down to Busan's Wild Wave.

Regarding the food, Matt explained, "Most of our food is American-based and it's based on foods that I love."

"What about the goulash?" I asked with a laugh.

"Growing up we had Dad's goulash and Mom's goulash and now we have ... my goulash, I suppose — an Americanized, comfort version," he said.

I decided I needed to try this. To no surprise, it was very good. A rich tomato stew on a cold day with beef that is just tender enough to dissolve in your mouth but still remains a bit steak-like for a nice mouthfeel. As someone who grew up with a nonnegligible amount of crockpot meals from my mother, this dish truly felt like home.

Goulash at Turtle Taps / Courtesy of Kevin Grabb

I also got the pulled pork sandwich. I asked Matt about the sauce used for the pork and all I got was a finger raised to his lips and a whispered "It's a secret." I was informed, however, that this is an old family BBQ recipe. Whatever it is, it's damn good. A generous serving of smoky, tangy pork on a bun. It's a simple, crowd-pleasing sandwich.

Matt started as a homebrewer and his love of beer is apparent. He and his wife run a tight ship and all beers coming out of their taps taste fresh and clean. It can be too easy for restaurants to not clean their beer lines or to serve older beer; this is not the case at Turtle Taps. Coming from needing to make sure his homebrews taste their best, this mantra has followed through with him to the taphouse.

His favorite beers? Belgian lambics.

A lambic is a wild-fermented beer made by leaving the beer to ferment in an open container, allowing natural wild yeasts and bacterias to come in and enjoy the beer, too. This results in a very fizzy, almost wine-like flavor. Turtle Taps has a lot of fridge space dedicated to lambic bottles and it's worth trying if you've never experienced one before.

Follow @turtletaps on Instagram for more information.

Kevin Grabb is a Canadian homebrewer and YouTuber. His channel Korea Brewing Adventure covers Korean alcohol from production to consumption.