Craft brewing technology is the value of time, place, people and living cultural relics.
Text | Mingjiu Xinshuo Team (ID:mingjiuxinshuo)
Chinese liquor brewing technology has been passed down for thousands of years, and its historical, economic, cultural and scientific values show the typicality and representativeness of the cultural creativity of the Chinese nation. Chinese liquor is the world's most complex distilled liquor, its brewing technology has been passed down for thousands of years, through the continuous exploration, practice and summary of generations of brewing masters, has formed China's unique characteristics.
In the intangible cultural heritage protection base of Gubeichun Old Town Distillery, there are factories, brewing workshops, old cellars and winemaking utensils left over from the Ming and Qing dynasties of Gubeichun, which tell people about the glory of the past and show the precipitation of time. Especially as the soul of these old objects, the core of Gubeichun's intangible cultural heritage, the winemaking technique, has been completely passed down through the tunnel of time, and still exudes the light of history and exerts its great historical, economic and cultural value.
The traditional brewing technique of Gubei Spring Wine can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, and it is an ancient liquor brewing technique passed down in the Northwest Lu Canal Valley. For more than 2,000 years, the process has been passed down from generation to generation, and the Yuan Dynasty has formed a unique "double-wheel solid fermentation" and the only "running cellar" and "baobao qu" characteristic process in Jiangbei, with a fermentation period of 90 days, which is the only one in the country, and the double-wheel and multi-round fermentation period is 180-270 days. This ancient method is still used today.
The process preferentially selects sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, corn, wheat as raw materials, through crushing, mixing, moisturizing, koji, spreading, mixing, fermentation, distillation, storage and other more than 30 processes, lasted 3 years, the production of liquor colorless transparent, plump and thick, delicate aroma, long aftertaste.
The traditional brewing technique of Gubeichun wine, which has continued to this day, is a rich carrier of folk culture in the Northwest Lu river basin, represents the characteristic customs and psychological preferences of the canal basin, is a typical representative of the Lu wine culture, and has a complete production process and skill inheritance, which is a precious heritage of Chinese wine culture. At present, the social demand for Gubei spring wine produced by this technology is extremely large, and it has a wide range of social influence, and Gubeichun Group Co., Ltd., as the main body of project practice, has also become a pillar enterprise of the local economy.
This technique is spread in Dezhou City and Wucheng County, which is located on the northwest edge of Lu, on the east bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and shuimei Valley Feng has created a wealth of local winemaking resources. Cultural relics show that during the Western Han Dynasty, Wucheng had "Dongyang good wine" passed down from generation to generation, and developed to the extreme in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wucheng produced wine called "Jujiu", and in the early Qing Dynasty, "Luojiu" was widely circulated in the Dezhou area. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Luojiu was very influential in the area from the local area to Beijing.
In 1952, under the initiative of the government, a number of liquor factories in the northwest of Lubei province were formed as "state-owned Wucheng Distillery", and the traditional brewing techniques of luojiu and other fragrant liquors in Chengwucheng and surrounding areas were the masters of the traditional brewing techniques of luojiu, and in 1978, they created the brand "Gubei Spring Wine", which can be said that Luojiu is the past life of "Gubei Spring Wine". In 1999, it was restructured into Gubeichun Group, and the "Gubeichun" wine produced was sold in North China and marketed throughout the country.
Gubei Spring Wine is a typical aromatic liquor, one of the representatives of Lu liquor, and also one of the representatives of the northern fragrant Wuliang wine. Its traditional brewing techniques have a long history, in the late Qing Dynasty, Wucheng County, Nantun Village, Chai, Hu, He, Ma four breweries famous in the local area, in the 1920s and 1930s, Nantun Village's Yu Baoxing absorbed a number of brewing techniques to make the influence of Yujia Brewery continue to expand, and gradually developed into the largest brewery in Wucheng.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the public-private partnership period was combined to form one, and in 1952, Shandong Wucheng Distillery (the predecessor of Gubeichun Company) was officially established. Several workshops took their own strengths to form a brewing technique, which was called the "steamed mixed grain wine process" at that time, and used five kinds of grains: sorghum, wheat, corn, rice and rice. Sorghum produces wine aroma, wheat produces wine brown, corn produces wine sweet, rice produces wine net, and river rice produces strong wine. The five kinds of grains are reasonably combined, and the flavors of the liquor produced are coordinated, and the brewing process is called "mixed steaming and mixing and burning cellar process". Its production process characteristics can be summarized as "three high, one low, one long", the three high is the high starch content, high acidity and high temperature when entering the pool; one low is the low amount of bran, that is, the amount of cooked rice bran is low; one is the long fermentation period, and the fermentation period is up to 90 days.
The traditional brewing technology of Gubei Spring Wine has distinctive characteristics and exquisite craftsmanship, which makes GubeiChun enduring and has won many honors: in 2005, the 38-degree Gubei Spring Wine was rated as the first place in the national aromatic liquor quality appraisal, and the 52 degrees of Gubei Spring Wine was rated as the second place; in 2006, it was recognized as "Chinese Cultural Famous Wine" by the China Wine Culture Professional Association; in the same year, it was recognized as "Chinese Historical and Cultural Famous Wine" by the China Market Brand Strategic Management Federation; in 2007, it was recognized as "Chinese Historical and Cultural Famous Wine" by the Shandong Provincial Economic and Trade Commission. In August 2009, the traditional brewing technology of Gubei spring wine was included in the second batch of "Intangible Cultural Heritage" protection list in Dezhou City, and in March 2016, it was included in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage" protection list of Shandong Province.
The history of wine is also a magnificent Chinese cultural masterpiece, and the intricate craft brewing technology is the value of the living cultural relics of time, place, and people. Gubeichun intangible heritage brewing technology has great historical value, scientific value and cultural value, it is a summary of the rich practice of the ancient winemaking industry for thousands of years, is the crystallization of the wisdom of brewing workers, is an important basis for the examination and study of China's winemaking history, and still plays a huge role in the process of the development and growth of Gubeichun, and will be passed on forever.
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