Chapter 7 Distilled Spirits
"Hasn't it come out yet?", Graff's eyes were red and bloody, it was a big gamble for him, and he was worth his entire value.
He is one of the very few porters who can still make real money working as a porter at the station, with a salary of about 11 to 12 yuan a month, and this is because everyone is very fast. If the number of porters is reduced, the amount of money he can earn will increase even more.
This time, under Dulin's careful explanation, he took out all his savings, forty-one yuan, as the "start-up capital" for his and Durin's career. According to the agreement between him and Durin, if he succeeds in turning the low-alcohol liquor into high-alcohol liquor, then he will take forty percent of the profits from the sale of high-alcohol liquor as his own benefit. Dührin had no objection to this, and initially he intended to give Graff fifty percent of his profits.
But as soon as this guy opened his mouth, he dropped by one percent, and Durin knew that even a fool should close his wide mouth.
With Graff's forty-one dollars, he soon had everything he could remember. A small iron barrel for boiling low-alcohol wine, and a lid with a tube. The tube was turned from another bucket filled with water and protruded from the bottom, followed by a glass basin underneath. These things didn't actually cost much money, and it only took four dollars and five to get them all done. If it weren't for the need for a blacksmith to put a pipe on the lid and fill in the gap between the barrel and the pipe, it would have been possible to buy it for three pieces.
The real place where a lot of money was spent was the crates of low-alcohol liquor on the side, and some sugar, and the glass bottles and the house where they were now. These things are the big ones that consume a lot of start-up capital, and they can't be saved.
After two days off, the two of them had been in the small room, and Graff was so vigilant that he covered all the doors and windows with curtains, which turned out to be the most stupid thing to do, resulting in a bad smell in the room.
As the low-alcohol wine in the small iron pot began to make a tumbling gurgling sound, Durin pressed a few stones against the lid, reached out and touched the tube, and immediately bounced open, a little hot. When the first drop of liquid dripped out of the other end of the tube, Graff almost threw himself over and hugged the glass basin in his arms. More and more liquid dripped out of the tube, and it went faster and faster, and Graff's trembling hand dipped the liquid from the bottom of the glass basin and stuffed it into his mouth.
Durin swallowed dryly, and his throat was burning with pain. In the past two days, he has also worked hard, and at this time he seems to be nervous and can hear his heart beating puffing. If he succeeds, he will be fine, but if he fails, he will feel guilty, after all, Graff has given everything he has to continue to do this!
Seeing Graff close his eyes, his facial features huddled together, and his whole body began to tremble, Durin's brain went blank, did he fail? He sighed a little dejectedly, and was about to extinguish the fire, but Graff suddenly shouted "Hello!"
He was ecstatic to put down the glass basin and took Durin in his arms, holding it hard, spinning, and his mind was full of joy. Before he met Doolin, he had no idea that cheap low-alcohol wine could become high-priced high-alcohol wine, and if he had known that he could play like this, he would still be working as a coolie in the station?
He looked at Durin with a red face, "If you were a girl, I would marry you now." ”
"I think my ribs might be broken!"
Graff was stunned for a moment, and immediately put Durin down, he knew that he had a lot of strength, but when he looked at Durin again, Durin also looked at him while rubbing his arm. There were sparks of excitement and joy in their eyes, and they laughed loudly and happily.
The laughter didn't last long, and the sound of dongdongdong banging on the floor could be heard upstairs, and a woman with a sharp voice could be faintly heard shouting, "Don't let you rest? damn it, you deserve to rent a house for the rest of your life!"
The two of them were stunned for a moment, and stopped laughing, but they did not feel the slightest displeasure because of the complaints and curses of the woman upstairs. They returned to the rudimentary distillation equipment, and watched as a small bowl of a faint amber liquid emitted a gas that didn't smell very good, but both of them were obsessed. It's not a high-grade wine at all, it's money!
Durin's heart was beating faster at this time, and his mouth was a little dry, he knew that he had actually broken the laws of the empire, but he didn't know why, he didn't have the slightest emotion of fear, but felt extremely excited, excited! If it weren't for the fact that he wanted to avoid attracting attention, he would have opened the window and sang loudly to vent the joy in his heart.
"How long are we going to burn?", Graff asked, tilting his head as he watched as the droplets of water dripped out of the tube became less and less and slower.
Durin didn't know, he hesitated and thought for a while, "It should take a while, right? Why don't we put these up first and see how many bottles we can fill!", as soon as he finished speaking, the two began to divide and work, pouring the wine in the glass basin into the bottles they had prepared, looking at the two full wine bottles and one bottle filled six or seven points, there was no excitement in their eyes, but a deep suspicion!
Just now they did this experiment with three bottles of low-alcohol wine, but they came out with almost three bottles of high-alcohol wine, why did the more they thought about it, the more they felt that something was wrong?
Graff picked up the disgruntled bottle and poured it up, then spit it out, "Phew, why is it so bitter?
Durin immediately turned around and opened the small iron pot, only to see a layer of charred and bubbling sticky stuff rolling under the embers. He picked a small twig and picked a little, blew it and stuffed it into his mouth, a strong fragrance and sweetness that made his brain hurt a little. He slapped his head suddenly, and then realized that it must have been a high degree of wine that had come out at first, but then even the water had passed, leaving only these things that could not be evaporated.
For example, the sugar in wine, as well as some spices.
Now that we know why, the next thing is much simpler. He first scraped the charred black stuff out of the small iron barrel, then poured the low-alcohol liquor back into it and distilled it again. When there was about one bottle or so, I immediately changed to a vessel. The two tasted the taste in the glass basin, and this time it was not only bitter, but also spicy. He added the charred black syrup-like stuff he had scraped out little by little, and after a lot of experimentation, he finally made a high-grade wine that Graff considered to be a perfect score.
"I think we're ready to sell!", Graff couldn't help but take another sip, God testified that he had never drunk such a high alcohol so happily. The hot liquid entered his stomach, but a warmth rose up, and he liked the hot and spicy taste like he liked to add chili noodles to his cigarettes.
Dühring doesn't see it that way, "We should investigate the price and taste of most of the high-quality wines on the market, and then improve as much as possible to make our own characteristics before we can sell them." Different from the products of ordinary brands in the market, they can quickly create a better reputation and value for us!"
Graff was already a little dazed, and he tapped his ears with his little thumb and asked, "So can we make more money?"
Durin nodded vigorously, "Yes, I can make more and more money!"
Graff burst out laughing, slapped Durin on the shoulder, stumbling a few steps and nearly falling. God, Dührin is physically strong enough, but he is still not as good as Graff. Sometimes Durin really wondered if this guy had a Yao Crystal Warehouse in his body, and that he was actually a machine in human skin, or where else would he get so much strength?
But soon the two faced another dilemma - they ran out of money!
According to Graff's meaning, he first took out the distilled high-strength liquor for a little money, and then used the money to buy some high-grade liquor for mass consumption and came back to taste it, but Durin disagreed. Rashly intervening in this kind of industry, which is illegal in itself, without preparation, is definitely not something that a smart person can do, and there may be a crazy donkey or something clamoring to run out.
And how to manage this business that can definitely make a lot of money will take a period of planning.
The two had no choice but to go back to the station and wait for the day when their paychecks would be paid at the end of the month.