Sing to the wine

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Pan carpenter's apprentice chewed peonies, but he really didn't know how much thought Chen Ke had spent on this small jar of orange wine.

Although Chen Ke is a good wine, this wine is not brewed for himself, but used to help others.

The Chen family is the creditor of eleven families, and there are six in Qingshen County, in addition to Cai Chuanfu, there is also a wine merchant surnamed Li, an orange orchard owner surnamed Zhang, a bamboo orchard owner surnamed He, a sauce merchant surnamed Tu, and a charcoal merchant surnamed Qian. Chen Ke learned from the side that these companies had been operating miserably because of such and such problems. A few years ago, the imperial court and the Western Xia were at war, in order to raise military funds, the industrial and commercial enterprises in Shuzhong were given 'Western Xia money', and those merchants with good profits were still overwhelmed, and these direct debts were high and could not be sustained.

In fact, these families are not unable to repay the debts of the Chen family, but there are too many creditors, and if they don't repay the family, they can't pay back that family, so they simply don't pay back anyone, and they drag on for a day. Although Chen Ke understands them, he definitely doesn't like this kind of trickery.

But sometimes it's the grandfather who owes the debt, and that's true. As the days passed, Chen Ke used his free time to investigate the businesses of these companies and found that in addition to poor management, the biggest problem was the product.

Take the wine merchant named Li Jian, for example.

The Song Dynasty implemented a policy of patenting liquor. In Sichuan, this policy is divided into two layers, one is the official brew and the other is the private brew and the other is the private brew and the other is the private brew and the private sale. As the name suggests, the former is the whole process of brewing and selling by the government, and it is natural to enjoy monopoly profits. The latter is to allow wine owners to buy and sell wine, and the so-called "buy" is to promise to pay a certain amount of taxes to the government and obtain the right to open shops and sell wine.

This is like the competition between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises in the same industry in later generations, and the results can be imagined. Almost all famous liquors, as well as rice wine and baijiu, which are the most widely sold, are monopolized by the government, and they do not provide koji to the people at all, and they are not allowed to brew their own koji. However, private wine merchants can only use the local method to make fruit wine, medicinal wine and blended wine, among which fruit wine is the main one.

Fruit wine in the Song Dynasty was a low-alcohol beverage wine brewed from various fruits and wild fruits by fermentation. Chen Ke has seen wine, pear wine, lychee wine, pomegranate wine, jujube wine, yellow orange wine, sugar cane wine and honey wine on the market, etc., which can be described as a wide variety, but the sales are very pitiful. At first, it was difficult for Chen Ke to understand, because as far as he knew, the Song Dynasty was the only dynasty that encouraged drinking, and the Song people were good at drinking, but they preferred low-alcohol wine with a mellow taste, so rice wine became popular and became the most important type of wine.

Why is it that the fruit wine, which should be more in line with the Song people's preferences, is not selling well? After tasting it himself, Chen Ke understood that the color of these wines was turbid, with many flocculent impurities, and the sour, astringent and bitter taste, which concealed the fruity aroma that should have been made.

The reason for this is that compared with the rice wine that has been very mature in brewing technology, the brewing process of fruit wine is still in a very primitive stage, whether it is the sediment and suspension in the liquor, or the bitter taste mixed in the wine, people in this age have no way to ...... Or there is also a broom to cherish itself, never pass it on.

Later generations will brew some fruit wine and drinks, and Chen Kena's grandfather, the old Chinese medicine doctor, will make some fruit wine and medicinal wine by himself every year for the whole family to enjoy. Therefore, Chen Ke is no stranger to the technology of self-brewing fruit wine. It's just that after all, I have never done it myself, and it is not easy to turn theoretical knowledge into fruit wine with ideal color and taste.

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In terms of brewing technology, there are two types of fruit wines, one is wine and some self-fermented fruit wines such as plum wine, which do not need koji because they contain wild yeast in the skin and can ferment on their own. The other is that yeast needs to be added, such as cider, orange wine, lychee wine and most fruit wines, because they do not carry yeast, if they only rely on natural fermentation, the wine will spoil before it is made.

The yeast that catalyzes each type of liquor is different, so it is necessary to obtain the koji of a certain liquor...... That is, yeast, in order to make the corresponding fruit wine.

It's easier to make fruit wines with yeast, but the transportation conditions dictate that fresh food has its own regional ...... The so-called regionality means that the prices of foreign products in the market are high, and the prices of local products are like soil. So it's stupid and not feasible to give up the near and the far.

In this place, citrus is the most planted, and grapes are also planted, but this fruit that is not resistant to preservation can only be seen in just one month after it is on the market. The local people use the soil method to store citrus, which can be stored for up to eight months, so the only fruit that can be seen at any time on the market is citrus.

Therefore, he wanted to try to make the koji of orange wine, only in this way could he give full play to the local advantages, not only save the wine merchant Li Jian, but also drive the orange orchard of the Zhang family, killing two birds with one stone.

In fact, the principle of preparing orange koji is very simple, that is, collect the rotten citrus with the aroma of wine, take its peel and part of the pulp, add it to fresh orange juice, and then ferment it at room temperature. However, it is necessary to ferment the koji at a certain concentration, within a certain fermentation time, and at a certain fermentation temperature.

Everything needs to be explored to be determined.

Fortunately, Qingshen's citrus is as cheap as soil, and you can buy a big basket for a few dozen dollars, and you can afford to toss. So since spring, he has been experimenting with the ideal koji. I don't know how many times I failed, but I finally found a way to observe how many fermentation bubbles are produced in a certain period of time and determine the strength of the fermentation ability of koji.

Once you have the right koji, you can divide the fresh orange juice into small portions and add it to the koji for fermentation. After the fermentation is completed, and then squeeze vigorously with clean gauze, the original solution with a very strong color and taste will flow out.

Then beat the egg white into a foamy form, stir and mix well with a small amount of original solution, then add it to the jar, stir and let it stand until the wine is clear and transparent, discard the sediment, you can get the original wine, and choose the best wine aroma, taste and color to blend to get the ideal orange wine.

The process was equally long, and it wasn't until a few days ago that Chen Ke made the first orange wine that was comparable to later generations in all aspects.

The wine came out, but the three of Pan's carpenter and apprentice drank it, which was really like burning a piano and boiling a crane, which ruined the scenery.

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In the evening, Chen Xiliang came back and saw that the doors and windows of the house were new, and he almost thought that he had gone to the wrong door. After learning the truth, his expression was a little strange, and he sat on the official hat chair of red camphor wood, his left hand gently rubbed the smooth tabletop, and he was silent for a long time.

Under the afterglow, Chen Ke clearly saw that his eyes were flashing with a bright luster.

When Chen Chen came back, Chen Xiliang held back a sentence for a long time: "Daddy is incompetent......" He got up and went out without dinner.

See his unusual behavior. Chen Ke couldn't help but be dumbfounded, he knew that although Chen Xiliang had strong self-esteem, he was by no means the kind of person who was pedantic and rigid and wanted to save face. Why do you react so much to these furniture, doors and windows today? Is there always a few days every month, or is it the negative emotions in my heart, and the quantitative change produces the qualitative change?

The first dinner after the family was renovated was so depressed. Chen Chen couldn't eat, Chen Ke couldn't eat, and Wulang saw that his brother couldn't eat, so he couldn't eat. Only Korokuro could eat, but unfortunately when he saw Goro's murderous eyes, he had to sit there pitifully.

"It's all my fault," Chen Ke hugged his head and said in frustration: "It's too reckless, ignoring Daddy's feelings." ”

"Daddy is not that kind of person, you want to go wrong." Chen Chen shook his head and said, "He is uncomfortable for other things." ”

"......" made him say this, and Chen Ke realized that he hadn't seen Chen Xiliang's smiling face for several days. Thinking about it again, Chen Chen seems to have something on his mind, but he is relatively coarse in this regard, and his homework is too heavy, so he never asked: "What happened?" ”

"Alas......" Under his pressure, Chen Ke sighed heavily and said: "The marriage contract between our family and the Ma family has been dissolved......"

"Engagement?" Chen Ke's eyes widened and said, "What kind of marriage contract, why did I never know?" ”

"At that time, you were still young," Chen Chen said: "It was eight years ago, when Daddy Township tried Chinese style, and people thought that he would be able to go to high school next year, so many families came to visit relatives." After a pause, he said: "Daddy has a classmate and friend surnamed Ma, who is a big family in Pengshan, and our family was a good match at that time. ”

"Wait, wait." Chen Ke raised his hand and said, "Is it you or me?" ”

"I said, it's us." Chen Ke glanced at him, spread his hands and said: "The Ma family has two daughters, and my father had two sons at that time, who were of similar age and age, so they naturally married their parents, and they were even more happy." ”

"The result?" Chen Ke couldn't help but laugh and said, "We were both dumped? ”

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Those comrades who said they wanted glass were disappointed, I have never been a technical stream, and there was no need for the Song Dynasty to climb the technology tree. The inventions and creations of this book are all things that we ordinary people can grasp in our daily lives, and to put it bluntly, the purpose of these inventions is just to make life more nourishing.

I have said a long time ago, this is a book that makes you look comfortable and relaxed, Saburo is not a party member, and he does not have noble sentiments like silence, he just wants to live a better life...... At least for now.

I don't rest on Sundays, crying for recommendation tickets......