Origin of Chinese Liquor Distillation Technology

Where does Chinese liquor come from

As an ancient invention of human beings, liquor is not magical, but in terms of its profound influence on later generations, it can be called great. In China, there are legendary inventors such as Huangdi, Yidi, Du Kang, and Wu Gang. Some Chinese unofficial history notes even record: "Huangshan has many apes, and in spring and summer, miscellaneous flowers and fruits are collected in the stone depressions, brewed into wine, the fragrance overflows, and smells hundreds of steps." "Pingle and other prefectures in western Guangdong, in the mountains Many apes, good at harvesting flowers and making wine...".

In fact, no one knows how the first wine or liquor was born. All claims about the origin of alcohol are based on speculation and legend. A more reasonable picture is: in ancient times, the fruits collected by people had leftovers after maintaining their basic life. During storage, the fruits deteriorated and fermented, and finally the substances that could make people feel pleasant were found in them. This is the most primitive wine. The winemaking activities of human beings in prehistoric times simply repeated the self-brewing process of nature. The conscious winemaking activities of human beings should have only started after entering the agricultural civilization. Human beings have relatively abundant food, have made fine pottery utensils, and learned the control method, and gradually formed the winemaking process, wine production became possible.

Unveil the craftsmanship of modern liquor

 From shochu in the Yuan Dynasty to modern liquor, the birth of high-quality liquor in China has gone through centuries. But the current spirits(baijiu) is no longer the shochu it used to be, but this does not affect the main position of baijiu (Chinese spirits) in the Chinese liquor market.

As one of the three major distilled spirits in the world, Chinese liquor may be inferior to the other two in terms of history, but in terms of volume, relying on the single market of China, it has achieved an output value of hundreds of billions of scale (non-retail price comprehensive) . The history I am talking about should start from the merger of shochu houses into a state-owned liquor, and the beginning of setting the fragrance and making the tune! Before that, it could not be called Chinese spirits, only shochu. 

In fact, whether it is modern spirits or shochu, the produced koji and fermented grains produce aroma and fermentation reaction, and then the liquor is distilled at high temperature. However, as microorganisms, they are very sensitive to the environment, temperature, humidity and raw materials, so the spirits making process has been optimized in various places, and the spirits in each place have their own characteristics.

The more aging the liquor, the more valuable it is? Not necessarily

We often hear that the older the liquor, the more fragrant and more valuable it will. Is that true? In fact, this may be the case for most liquors, except those listed below.

The first kind is liquors with a lower alcohol content

Such liquor has no meaning of preservation value, and it is not easy to get drunk after drinking a low-alcohol liquor, and it is not pure because the manufacturer is not authentic when making this liquor, and To ensure that the combination of liquor and water is not in place, the workmanship is often rough, and the number of times of purification and distillation is limited, so this liquor does not meet the standard at all, and the more you drink it, the worse it tastes.

The second type is liquor that is blended with alcohol. 

There are many people in the market who often buy such liquor. The longer it is kept, the cheaper the price will be, even if it only takes a few You can buy a bottle for a dollar. Although it tastes like white liquor, it is not good to drink too much of this liquor. For this kind of white liquor, if it is kept for too long, it can be said that it is not much different from liquor. How can there be room for appreciation?

The third is those being opened. 

No matter what kind of liquor it is, if you open it, try to drink it up, because the liquor is strictly sealed, and after you open it, even if you snap the lid back on, it will not reach the original level at all. It is sealed. If this is the case, the aroma of the liquor inside will evaporate quickly, which will affect the taste when you drink it, so it has no meaning to save when you open the liquor. It is better to drink it as soon as possible.

If you also encounter liquor with the above three conditions, it is better not to store it for a long time, but to dispose of it as soon as possible. Those liquors that are more fragrant the longer they are stored are all purer liquors, and they are Good liquor, of course, the price of these liquors are also very expensive. Even if the time is left, it will not deteriorate. No matter when you open it, you will have a strong liquor aroma, and there is a certain amount of liquor. room for appreciation.