The production of koji is relatively complicated, and even if it is placed in the fermentation room, it has to go through a very complicated process before it can be turned into a finished product. In the past, Liujia Distillery was not able to make its own koji due to various conditions, but went to the county town koji factory to buy ordinary koji. Now Liu Rui has begun to target the mid-range rice wine market, and it is possible to develop the bottled liquor industry in the future, so naturally he can no longer use ordinary koji as usual.

However, neither Liu Rui nor Liu Jiahong has any experience in making koji, and they are naturally moving forward in the process of exploration. From the preparation of the koji embryo to the temperature and humidity regulation of the fermentation room, followed by the management of various processes, Liu Rui and his father have made continuous progress in practice.

For the next period of time, Liu Rui and Liu Jiahong's main energy was concentrated on the old and new wineries, and almost all other things were forgotten.

Every morning, Liu Jiahong and Liu Rui would get up early to brew the share of customers in the old brewery and continue to maintain the current market sales. Now the rice wine of Liujia Distillery has successfully opened the food stall market in the county, even if the old distillery increases its production at full capacity every day, it is already a bit in short supply. Recently, some rural customers Liu Rui have been a little out of stock, and they are often out of stock.

This is also an important reason why Liu Rui wants to expand the production of the winery!

At noon, Liu Rui and his father were both steaming rice in the new wine shop, and after cooling, they were also very busy.

However, in recent days, a figure has appeared in the Liu family's winery, following Liu Rui to the back and forth.

Since booking that set of second-hand brewing equipment with Liu Rui, Wang Shaozhang naturally came up with the idea of going to Liu's house to learn brewing technology. Liu Rui is also happy that Wang Shaozhang will come over to study now, so as not to have to take another time to teach him in the future, which will not only waste time but also delay Wang Shaozhang's production.

Now after teaching Wang Shaozhang, after the Liujia Distillery stops production, after the equipment is transferred, Wang Shaozhang, who has mastered the technology, can realize production as soon as possible.

Don't look at the brewing of low-grade rice wine, it seems a bit simple, but it is not so easy to make good sake.

Even if Wang Shaozhang played well with Liu Rui when he was a child, and often went in and out of Liu's house, he was used to seeing the process of winemaking, but only after going deep into it did Wang Shaozhang understand that everything is not so simple.

Even if Wang Shaozhang played well with Liu Rui when he was a child, and often went in and out of Liu's house, he was used to seeing the process of winemaking, but only after going deep into it did Wang Shaozhang understand that everything is not so simple.

Early in the morning, after Liu Rui entered the winery and started to make wine on the fire for a while, he heard Xiao Hei's voice outside, and Liu Rui knew that Wang Shaozhang was coming.

With the passage of time, Xiao Hei has changed from the pitiful little man with a big palm to the big dog that now grows to the waist of a man. However, Xiao Hei's surname is still so lazy, lying in the sun in the yard every day, getting fatter and fatter. Even in the early morning, when he found someone walking into the yard, Fat Black was indifferent, at most he snorted twice.

Compared with Xiao Hei's laziness, Xiaohua and Yellow-throated Marten are much more positive, and they can be regarded as model workers of the Liu family. They patrolled the surroundings of the Liu family's compound almost day and night, and forcibly turned the Liu family's compound, which was originally infested with rats, into a forbidden area for rats. Not only that, but they even expanded their territory to the back mountain and the nearby mountain ponds and tomato fields, which made Liu Rui save a lot of heart.

In the past, when the villagers planted winter vegetables, rat infestation was a very headache, but in Liu Rui's case, all problems are not a problem in front of yellow-throated marten and wild cats. When I first planted small tomatoes, I occasionally saw one or two tomato seedlings being eaten by mice, but since the yellow-throated marten came to the Liu family's compound, it has never appeared.

"Brother Shaozhang, are you here?" Liu Rui, who was adding water to the rice, raised his eyes and nodded.

Entering the New Year, the temperature in Liangcun in the morning and evening also becomes a little low, about only about ten degrees, and it becomes a little cold. Of course, such a temperature is nothing short of minus ten degrees Celsius in the north, and it is not low at all. However, with the high humidity in the south, this temperature still makes southerners who are used to hot weather feel a little uncomfortable. No, Wang Shaozhang was wearing a cotton coat and walked into the wine shop with a cold air.

"It's cold enough outside!" As soon as Wang Shaozhang entered the winery, he suddenly felt a warm current rushing to his face, and nodded while taking off his coat and hanging it up.

Inside the brewery, the temperature is much higher than the outside because of the boiler fire and the transpiration of water vapor, but it is also warm as spring.

"It's already in the wax moon, and it's normal to be a little cold!" Liu Rui did not stop the work in his hand, and said while moving the tray of steamed rice into the steam room: "In winter, put a little more water in the steamed rice, so that the rice can be more ripe, which is conducive to fermentation and wine." ”

Since Wang Shaozhang came to Liu Rui's house to learn winemaking techniques, Liu Rui began to explain some of these skills to Wang Shaozhang in the process of winemaking. Liu Rui is the first time to explain winemaking technology to people, and he has no experience, and he is too good at systematically summarizing his winemaking technology.

There are quite a lot of processes that need to be passed through in the sake of brewing itself, such as steaming rice, spreading cooling, mixing koji, fermenting in jars, distilling distiller's lees to produce liquor, and finally after blending, this can be regarded as entering the ordinary life of the people.

As a representative of the local method of winemaking, Liu Rui's mastery of winemaking technology is not very good at all in written language, and there is no standard quantitative index to measure, so the hand-in-hand professor naturally became the first choice.

Starting from steaming rice, Liu Rui has to teach Wang Shaozhang from every detail, so that he can master the brewing technology in the shortest time and put it into production as soon as possible.

Steaming rice is not the simplest process, but there are many things that need to be paid attention to, and it is also the first step to the success of sake brewing.

If the rice is steamed well, not only will the taste of the rice wine be mellow, but also the amount of alcohol will be dissolved, which will improve the efficiency. Once the rice is not steamed well, the pot of wine on it is considered to be scrapped.

"What's the difference between winter and summer?" Hearing Liu Rui mention the word winter, Wang Shaozhang paid a little attention to it.

"In winter, the temperature is relatively low, so the rice needs to be cooked more thoroughly so that it can ferment better; But in the summer, when the temperature is relatively high, the water should be released a little less, so as not to generate acetic acid! Liu Rui casually closed the door of the steam room and said to Wang Shaozhang.

If the steamed rice is not cooked, there will be raw starch in the middle of the rice, so the proportion of starch conversion will be very low, which will affect the profit. However, in the summer, if the rice is too sticky and contains too much water, it is easy to produce acetic acid during fermentation, resulting in a very sour taste of rice wine.

This kind of sour wine has a great impact on the signboard, which is also something that Liujia Distillery tries to avoid every time it makes wine. Once the sour wine is brewed, the Liu family, in order to maintain the credibility of the winery, would rather pour the sour wine into the ditch than let any drop of sour wine enter the market.

Based on this situation, when Liu Rui taught Wang Shaozhang brewing technology, the first thing to pay attention to was in this link of steaming rice.

After loading the trays of rice into the steam room, Liu Rui and Wang Shaozhang began to move out of the large jar full of distiller's lees from the storage room, and began to scoop up all the distiller's lees in the jar and put them into the distillation vat through the funnel. At this time, the water in the boiler is ready to boil, and after a while, the steam can be passed through the pipes, put into the steam room, and the rice can be steamed.

As soon as the jar containing the sake lees was opened, Wang Shaozhang smelled a strong aroma of wine, compared with ordinary rice wine, the taste of these sake lees was more rural, as if his daughter's feelings were tempting the people around him.

"Xiao Rui, why do these sake lees smell better than rice wine?" Wang Shaozhang took a deep breath and asked with some intoxication. Usually Wang Shaozhang drinks with his friends, but he has never smelled such a taste, and the rice wine itself seems to be a little pungent, not very good.

"Hehe, these are the purest wine aromas, they have not been destroyed, and they naturally smell good!" Liu Rui's movements in his hands did not stop, and he said with a smile: "A considerable part of the rice wine sold has to be diluted with well water or distilled water, and the taste is naturally not so pure." ”

Liu Rui knew that in addition to such a reason, the reason why the aroma of these sake lees was particularly strong was because the space spring water was added to these lees, which made the wine more aromatic.

In Qingshan County, because it is located in the tropics, the temperature is relatively high most of the time, and the hot climate makes people here more accustomed to drinking low-alcohol rice wine, so most of the rice wine sold on the market is about 20 degrees. In the distillery, most of the rice wine is distilled at about 40 degrees, in order to meet the needs of the market and for profit, most of the rice wine produced in the distillery is permeable.

"That's the reason, I thought the rice wine brewed was the one sold on the market, no wonder the contrast is so big!" Wang Shaozhang suddenly realized.

The matter of seeping water into the wine has always been just a default rule between wineries, and winery operators will not easily disclose such trade secrets. Even if Wang Shaozhang has been in and out of the Liu family countless times since he was a child, the Liu family has avoided him intentionally or unintentionally, so he has kept such a secret to this day.

However, now that Wang Shaozhang is about to become the new owner of the winery, there is no need to hide such a secret from him.

"After the rice is cooled, it is mixed with koji, put in a jar and fermented in the storeroom, and after the alcohol begins to dissolve, well water is added to the jar to maximize the alcohol in the rice grains!" Liu Rui scooped the lees like porridge while explaining some processes to Wang Shaozhang.

Wang Shaozhang stood aside, observing the situation of the wine lees in the jar while listening to Liu Rui's explanation.

Under the influence of koji, the starch in the rice grains in the sealed jar begins to be converted into alcohol, which is the source of rice wine. However, as the concentration of alcohol in the jar becomes higher and higher, and the concentration of the alcohol in the rice grains is balanced, the alcohol will no longer dissolve. In order to be able to increase the yield, it is necessary to add well water to the jar at this time, so that most of the alcohol in the rice grains can be dissolved by using the principle of concentration difference.

In the past, Liu Rui knew about this detail but didn't know why, only knew that he would add well water to the wine jar after about ten days of fermentation, and he didn't know why this was so. Later, he personally took over the winery, and after many practices, combined with some extracurricular knowledge in high school chemistry textbooks, Liu Rui finally figured out the principle.

When making wine, in fact, looking at the situation of sake lees, you can know whether the pot of wine is good or bad, ** is not far from ten.

As it is today, the sake lees are like porridge, the rice grains and the pale yellow liquor are clearly distinguished, and the soup is watery, which means that today's rice wine is fermented successfully, and after a while of distillation, it not only tastes mellow, but also has a high yield.

If the sake lees are slimy, just like paste, and you can't see much liquor at all, it means that the rice is too sticky when steaming, which affects the production of liquor. If the aroma of the wine is not strong, and every grain of rice still looks hard, it means that the steamed rice is not cooked and the conversion rate of alcohol is not high.

Liu Rui didn't understand the details before, but now that he is an expert, he can understand the situation at a glance, and it is naturally more than enough to explain to Wang Shaozhang.

By the time Liu Rui poured all the distiller's lees into the distillation tank, the water in the boiler was already boiling, and the scorching water vapor was passing through the pipes and continuously entering the steam room, steaming the rice inside. Steam steamed rice is much more convenient and faster than before, and it doesn't produce a pot of rice wine, making it a slightly burnt rice wine.

Generally speaking, after steaming, the rice can be cooked thoroughly in 30 or 40 minutes, and it can be taken out and poured on a mat to cool.

When Wang Shaozhang helped Liu Rui pour the steamed rice on the mat, the entire wine shop was completely shrouded in billowing smoke, accompanied by the mellow aroma of rice. The incandescent lamp overhead also looks a little hazy under the heat, and the appearance of shadows and shadows also makes the brewery a little more psychedelic color.

Spread the cold rice, then sprinkle it with koji, and then put it in a jar to ferment!

The whole process seems to be fairly simple, but it is not necessarily easy to do.

"It is necessary to break up all the rice and separate it one by one, so that when the koji is sprinkled, it is even and the rice grains are fully fermented." Liu Rui took the rake, against the steaming heat, while breaking up the rice, and explained to Wang Shaozhang: "If there are still rice balls left, the rice grains that are not contaminated with koji will not ferment, causing waste and affecting the wine yield." ”

Breaking up the rice is also a technical job, like Liu Rui, a skilled hand, the rake in his hand is as light as nothing, turning up and down back and forth, easily break up the pots of rice, and then spread it flat on the mat. Liu Rui also watched his father do this when he was a child, and later relied on long-term practice to finally practice it.

After a short time, Liu Rui broke up all the rice and spread it on the mat, as if he had spread a white carpet on the floor of the winery.

"Xiao Rui, when did you put the koji?" After helping Liu Rui put firewood into the boiler, Wang Shaozhang turned around and asked.

"The timing of the koji is a science, and you have hit the nail on the head!" Liu Rui stretched out his hand into the rice layer, felt the temperature of the rice, and said with a smile.

It is important to understand that koji uses the mold in it to promote the fermentation of rice to produce alcohol.

If you sprinkle koji while the rice is still hot, the temperature may be too high to kill the mold in the koji, resulting in a decrease in fermentation efficiency, which will have a great impact on the sake brewery's profits. In addition, if the rice is left too cold in winter, it is not good to let the rice ferment because the temperature is too low. Therefore, when spreading cold rice, it is necessary to closely adjust the climate and temperature at that time, and make changes at any time. Of course, there will be no quantitative standards for local winemaking like Liujia Distillery, and Liu Rui can only give some reference standards of his own.

"When you put the koji, you put your hand into the rice layer, and when you can't feel the temperature, the rice and your body temperature are advanced, even if it's okay!" Liu Rui explained while demonstrating to Wang Shaozhang: "Whether it's winter or summer, as long as you maintain such a comfortable level, it's okay. ”

After the rice reached the right temperature, Liu Rui began to take out the koji and spread it evenly on top of the rice.

"Hey, Xiao Rui, why do you have corn flour in your koji?" Looking at the powder that was sprinkled and falling, Wang Shaozhang was a little surprised.

"Hehe, count your eyesight good! It's really corn flour! Liu Rui said with a smile while sprinkling the koji: "A hundred catties of rice only need one or two koji, if you take one or two koji and scatter it, I'm afraid it will never be even!" In order to avoid this problem, we use corn flour to dilute the koji in a ratio of 9 to 1, and then sprinkle the diluted corn flour koji on the rice, which can avoid the problem of uneven mixing. ”

Wang Shaozhang suddenly realized that in this winemaking process, there are details that need to be paid attention to! If you want to make rice wine well, you really have to study, think, and ponder with your heart, so that you can make progress!

In the face of becoming his main career, Wang Shaozhang reported with great enthusiasm and studied very seriously. As for Liu Rui, he was naturally very happy to see his childhood friend so attentive, and he didn't have the psychology of hiding his selfishness, and he did his best to teach! In this way, Liu Rui and Wang Shaozhang taught and learned one by one, and the two of them also cooperated tacitly.

Time passed quietly soon in a state of a little forgetfulness between the two!

(To be continued)