The origin and development of liquor

China is the birthplace of koji brewing and has the unique brewing technology in the world. Professor Emeritus Sakaguchi of the University of Tokyo in Japan once said that China created koji, used mold to make wine, and promoted it to East Asia, which is as important as China's four inventions. Liquor is made from koji. It is a specialty drink of the Chinese nation and a unique distilled liquor in the world. It is known as a spirit liquor and has become a major producer and seller of alcoholic beverages in the world. It plays a role in China's politics, economy, culture and diplomacy. Positive role.

 

When did the liquor originate? Who started? The arguments so far are still inconsistent. From the Shang dynasty oracle bones, there is already the word , Huai Nanzi said: "The beauty of Qing dynasty begins with ." "Shangshu said life" records: "If it is used as a wine cellar, it is a Qufu." The earliest documentary record , the moldy grain is called , the germinated grain is called , and there are meters in the glyph. Mi, Su Shi also. It is known that the earliest cockroaches and cockroaches are all moldy and sprouted from millet. "Said Wen Jie Zi" said: "Hey, the bud rice is also." "Mi, Su Shi also." Later, the malt was replaced by malt, and after the separation of the production method , the liqueur was produced with glutinous rice. Business, Monday to the Han Dynasty for thousands of years, alcoholism is still very popular. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the buds were brewed with axillary buds, so there was no distorted narrative in Qi Min Yao Shu. In 1636, Song Yingxing said in "Heavenly Creations": "The ancient songs made wine, made shackles, and later became fascinating, and lost." According to the Zhou Chao literature, Qufu can be interpreted as a wine-guest, which can also be interpreted as "wine." For example, in Du Fu's "Return" poem, "Who is giving Qufu, and discarding Laojianggan"; Chen Yusheng has a poem that "deeply sings the Japanese side", and here "Qufu" also refers to "wine."

 

The interpretation of Qu in the source is the wine, the fermented wine or the fermented sauce, and also the "qu". The simplified word of a song or a song is a song. The development of the koji, through continuous technological improvement, from the development of the song to the cake, finally formed a big song and a small song. The main microorganism in Daqu is Aspergillus, which is suitable for the provinces with cold weather in the north. The raw materials for making Daqu are barley, pea or wheat. For example, the former is alcoholism and Xifeng wine Daqu, and the latter is Maotai and Zhangzhou koji. Because the raw material of the koji is wheat, it is often called maiqu. Its shape is like brick, also known as brick, which has a large volume and a large amount of curvature. It is commonly known as Daqu, and is used to brew traditional Chinese famous liquor. The main microorganisms of Xiaoqu liquor are Rhizopus and Mucor, and the warm climate in the southern subtropical zone is conducive to the production of Xiaoqu and its Xiaoqu liquor. The raw materials for making Xiaoqu are rice or rice bran, and some add Chinese herbal medicines, such as glutinous rice glutinous rice and Dong wine rice koji; some do not use Chinese herbal medicines, such as Xiamen Baiqu and Zhangmu Town. In 1982, the French microbiologist Calmette discovered a saccharifying and strong Rhizopus in Chinese Xiaoqu, using this mold to produce alcohol, named Aminor or Starch (Amolproetzz), officially in 1985. Put into production. In 1956, Mr. Fang Xinfang began to study the classification of Rhizopus isolated from Xiaoqu and the study of important physiological characteristics, and determined that Rhizopus is the main saccharification bacterium of Xiaoqu.

 

The koji used in liquor can be divided into three categories: Xiaoqu, Daqu and Bran. When Xiaoqu went to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was quite common. When it was in the Song Dynasty, it had important improvements. Its root mold became one of the best brewing strains in the world. This kind of root mold spreads widely, such as North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan (into the rice planting technology and winemaking technology introduced from China at the end of the rope ) There are root molds and small wines, and the products are favored by foreign people.

 

Bran is the improvement of Mr. Fang Xinfang's research on sorghum wine. It advocates the use of Aspergillus to make koji, also known as koji, which is named after the short time of koji. After the koji, the bran is directly used as a saccharifying agent, and the amount is generally large, and it is still mistakenly called Daqu. Winemaking must be made first, and good wines can be made into good wines. This is to cultivate beneficial fungi, use natural or artificially separated microorganisms, secrete many complex enzymes, and use its chemical properties to complete.

 

Who started the liquor brewing? There are different opinions. From the Warring States Period, "Shi Ben· Zuo Zuo": "Yi Di made wine into five flavors", this is the earliest written record of wine making, passed to the Zhou Dynasty, and more Han Dynasty Xu Shen "Said Wen Jie Zi" "Ancient Yi Di As a wine cellar, you can taste it beautifully, and you will be treated as a wine." To this day, Du Kang's theory of making wine is widely known, and the Japanese have collectively referred to the brewers as "Du's." There is also Cao Cao's "Short Songs": "To the wine as a song, life geometry? Why worry, only Du Kang." Some people think that Dukang is the ancestor of winemaking. This is a paradox. Song Gaocheng said in his book "Kiyuan Jiyuan": "I don't know why Du Kang is a worldly person, but the ancient and modern sayings that it is also a winemaking", which shows that Du Kang is a man of any age, and has not yet made it clear, not to mention the wine brewed by Du Kang in the past. Distilled wine.

 

The development of human society and the principle of microbiology speculate that the origin of wine is the first fruit wine, followed by milk wine, and finally the distilled wine brewed for grain (cereal). This is the subject of discussion. Juices containing sugar in fruits, such as those exposed to the skin, are often accompanied by yeast, and at a suitable temperature, the juice is fermented into wine. The milk of animal livestock, which contains lactose, is also fermented by yeast into milk wine. Grain brewing is much more complicated. In the grain, carbohydrate is not sugar but starch. Starch needs to be broken down into sugar by amylase, and then the sugar is converted into wine by the yeast enzyme. The earliest appearance of grain wine in China is yellow wine, which is called brewed wine, also known as fermented wine. It is not distilled, and then it will appear as the current distilled liquor, namely Chinese liquor, which is related to the distiller.

 

Liquor is also known as shochu in the Tang Dynasty, and shochu often appears in verses of the past. Bai Xiangshan has a poem: "Lyche new cooked cockscomb, shochu first opened amber incense"; 雍 陶 also has a poem: "Since Chengdu is shochu cooked, do not think more into Chang'an", it can be seen that Sichuan has produced shochu. Liquor often appears in ancient poems, such as Li Bai's "white wine new ripe mountain Zhonggui"; Bai Juyi's "yellow chicken and white wine", indicating that the Tang Dynasty's white wine is shochu, also known as burning spring. To study the origin of liquor, it must be supported by a distiller. Mr. Fang Xinfang believes that the Song Dynasty had a distiller ("History of Natural Science", Volume 6, Number 2, 1987), but he said in 1934 that there was distilled liquor in the Tang Dynasty ("Haihai Chemical Industry Research Institute Survey Report" No. 7 number). In 1975, the Jin Dynasty copper distiller unearthed in Qinglong County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, was produced in the Jin Shizong period (the Southern Song Dynasty Xiaozong period), which was no later than 1161. According to the discovery of distillation in the West in the 10th or 11th centuries, it is possible to obtain earlier ethanol (alcohol) from fermented beverages. However, since the 16th century, ethanol has been directly prepared from cereal raw materials, and its alcohol- and water-like beverage products have been widely used.

 

Since the founding of New China, the liquor industry has developed rapidly. Judging from the quality of liquor, the first national jury in 1952 selected eight famous wines in the country, including four kinds of liquor, called the four famous Chinese wines. Subsequently, it was held continuously until the 5th National Appraisal Reception. A total of 17 national famous wines and 55 high-quality wines were selected. In 1979, the third national wine appreciation meeting began, and the wine samples were divided into sauce, fragrance and aroma. Five kinds of rice fragrant and other fragrant, called the five major fragrances of national liquor, the other fragrances developed into sesame, fragrant, phoenix, musk and special types, which are collectively referred to as the top ten flavors of national liquor. From the perspective of liquor production, the national liquor production in 1949 was only 108,000 tons. By 1996, it reached a peak of 8.013 million tons, 80 times that of the early days of the founding of the People's Republic. In recent years, it has basically stabilized at 3.5 million tons, and the national registered enterprises reached 3.7. Wanjia, employs hundreds of thousands of people. From the perspective of liquor tax, the annual tax revenue for the country is more than 12 billion, second only to the tobacco industry, and its economic benefits have always been the forefront of alcoholic products. From the perspective of liquor technology, the central organization organized the national science and technology forces to carry out summarization pilot work, such as Yantai Brewing Operation Method, Sichuan Gaogao Xiaoqu Law Operation Method, Guizhou Maotai Brewing, Luzhou Laojiao, Shanxi Liquor and New Craft Liquor, etc. Excellent results. The industry consensus is that the summary pilot is scientific research, and scientific research is the development force. From the perspective of liquor technology, its production can be divided into Xiaoqu method, Daqu method, bran method and liquid method (new process liquor). The traditional solid-state fermentation produces famous white liquor. The new technology is universal liquor, which has accounted for 70% of the total liquor production in the country. %. From the perspective of liquor development, the focus of the national wine industry is to encourage low-quality rice wine and wine, control the total production of liquor, market demand-oriented, to save food and meet consumption, to conscientiously implement "quality, low, Multi-variety, low consumption, less pollution and high efficiency are the direction.

 

Liquor is an alcoholic beverage that has been passed down from generation to generation in China. Through tracking research and summarization work, traditional techniques have been improved, from workshop operation to industrial production, from shoulder to back to semi-mechanical operation, from dictating to heart and flexibility. Have written materials to teach. All of these have enabled the liquor industry to continue to develop and innovate, and to improve the level of production technology and product quality. A number of manufacturers have become large-scale backbone enterprises in China's brewing industry and have made important contributions to the country. We should inherit and develop this precious national specialty, carry forward the excellent wine culture of the Chinese nation, and carry forward the liquor industry.