Still at a distance, Anna smelled a faint sourness, a taste peculiar to fermented grains. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Having lived in Redwoodtown for so long, she was all too familiar with the taste.

But she never expected that the distillery in Black Iron Town was such a large-scale building, even a little more imposing than Renault's Lord's Mansion.

The first thing you see is a huge stand and a ramp, from which the wagon carrying the grain slowly ascends and dumps all the grain into two huge tin cans.

Supported by four steel pipes thicker than a waist, the iron can is as stable as a rocky mountain. The lower part of the conical shape is equipped with a movable door, and when it is opened, the grain flows like flowing water into the trolley below.

Coming to the bottom of the tin can, Anna looked up at the two "steel monsters" that were nearly twenty meters tall, and felt that she had suddenly become extremely small.

Charlotte wasted no time in introducing her: "This is a grain storage tank, each tank can store more than 600 truckloads of sorghum. ”

Anna couldn't help but be dumbfounded, two jars contained more than a thousand carts of grain, nearly one-third of Sequoia Town's total annual harvest.

Several women are pushing a square cart and pouring sorghum from the jar into a nearby pool. Anna knows that this is the first step in winemaking, soaking.

In weather like this, the grain needs to be soaked for more than three days before it can be steamed, but Anna found that there was a faint white mist floating on the pool, and when she touched it with her hand, it was indeed hot water. In this case, it only takes one day and one night to use.

In the pool next to it is already soaked sorghum, and a dozen people are fishing it out of the water and putting it into a huge steamer.

Anna's eyes widened slightly, it was definitely the largest steamer she had ever seen.

Under the tall and spacious steel shed, there is a row of eight cylindrical steamers, each of which can steam 500 catties of sorghum. Now four of them have been covered with huge iron lids, and white gas is beginning to emit white gas.

At this time, a man shouted, and the time for the first steamer was up, and as the huge iron lid was lifted, the steaming white gas spread with the unique fragrance of sorghum. The man opened the small gate under the steamer, and the steamed sorghum flowed out obediently.

The sorghum was spread out on several large tables to cool, and the man kept testing the temperature with his hands. Soon he beckoned, and several women waiting next to him gathered around with pots, sprinkled a sauce-yellow powder evenly on the sorghum, and then mixed it with his hands.

Seeing this, Anna was a little confused.

She was familiar with the process of making rice wine in Sequoia Town, and there was no such step.

Curious, she grabbed some powder in her hand and sniffed it again, making sure she had never seen anything like it before.

"This is koji, a family recipe for Lord Renault. Charlotte sensed her doubts and immediately introduced her, "If you don't add this kind of thing, what you will make is rice wine." ”

It dawned on Anna that this was the difference between spirits and rice wine in the brewing process.

"What is this thing made of?" asked Anna before she felt that something was wrong, it was already considered a secret.

However, Charlotte did not shy away from saying at all: "Use wheat, but only Lord Renault knows how to do it." Every time he ran out of koji, he would come to the small warehouse and stay for a while, and then he would make it. Pretty amazing, isn't it? I've been wondering for a long time. ”

It was the truth, and Anna looked into her eyes and understood that Charlotte was not lying and was not hiding it.

How did the koji come to be? How did such a large factory be built? Even with the spirit of the maid Vivi, it is difficult to imagine the process.

Renault became more mysterious in her heart.

There are so many secrets that in addition to curiosity, people will have a certain sense of awe, and people will always be like this when faced with things beyond their understanding.

Anna frowned and continued to follow Charlotte.

The sorghum mixed with the koji was about to ferment, and it was also a large round iron barrel, densely packed with almost the entire large boron, and Anna secretly counted it, no more, no less, exactly thirty. The top of the drum is connected by steel plates to form a wide aisle, into which some workers pour the mixed sorghum into the drum, while others carry long sticks and stir in the drum.

Anna climbed onto the iron bucket and found that the sorghum that had begun to ferment was being stirred, and they had a pungent and intoxicating smell.

It's something she hasn't seen in Redwoodtown.

During the fermentation process of rice sake, the most taboo thing is to open the lid, which is said to become very sour. But Charlotte says that every three days, someone comes to turn the sorghum to ferment more evenly.

It's the other way around!

"That's where the distillation is, right?"

"Yes. Speaking of Charlotte's white mask, the last thing she likes to come to in the whole winery is here, the smell of wine is too strong, and it seems that she will get drunk when she smells it.

Anna smiled and took the mask, but she didn't.

There was also a row of eight steamers, four of which were being used, and at the end of the twisted iron pipe, a clear trickle of egg thickness was flowing into the large wooden barrel.

Is this the finished product of Liucui wine?

Anna took a bite from the small bowl and tasted it, and a hot and spicy sensation burned from her mouth to her throat, the wine was stronger than the one Renault had brought to Redwoodtown, and it was almost impossible to swallow.

Charlotte pointed to another row of steamers not far away and said that this wine should be mixed with the steamed wine over there to have a good taste, and that is the real Liucui wine.

Anna was curious to the other side, and found that the sorghum used here had been steamed once and then fermented again, and the steamed wine had a faint burnt taste, but the degree was not so high, and it was more pleasant to drink.

"It's called Erguotou, a new variety we created. Sherlock shrugged, "It's a name that Lord Renault has chosen, and while I don't think it sounds good, it's apt." ”

The final process of sake brewing is blending, and three old men who are quite old taste the sake delivered to them in turn, and decide on the ratio of the two kinds of sake to be combined.

The blended wine was loaded into huge wooden barrels, the lid was pasted with mud as a seal, and then loaded onto the wagons of Redwood Town.

"The rest of ...... What should I do with the second pot head?"

It is obvious that the amount of the second pot head is relatively small, and dozens of barrels have been piled up there.

"At present, it is given to the workers from Sequoia Town for free. Charlotte replied.

Anna thought she had misheard, for in her opinion, the wine, called Erguotou, was actually quite suitable for her appetite, with a mellow taste but not very strong, and would definitely be welcomed if it was sold.

But Renault actually gave people a free drink, I really don't know what he thinks.

At this point, Anna found that in such a huge distillery, almost all of the more than 30 workers were women, old men, and only two middle-aged men!

This means that it only takes such a small labor force to sell Liucui wine to the entire continent!

This surprised her more than the winery itself.