It's not uncommon for entrepreneurs to make a mid-life career change, but it's often too late for someone who aspires to succeed in the traditional craft field. However, this path was cleared by Li Rengang.
Li Rengang's experience shows us how far a cross-border player can go on the road of inheriting and innovating traditional crafts:
Born in 1963, he started his career in water conservancy engineering before entering the liquor industry in 2005 and was responsible for the overall work of the Yuanhe Distillery. In the following ten years, he has made many innovative achievements and fruitful achievements in the theoretical research of winemaking technology and soy sauce wine, and was awarded the title of "Top Ten Brewing Masters in Guizhou" in 2019.
Whether it is the innovative invention of the production process of sauce-flavored high-temperature Daqu, or the refinement and discussion of the culture of sauce-flavored liquor, or the unconventional use of the wine-making environment and utensils, Li Rengang frequently brings some not-so-traditional and ancient ideas to the traditional and ancient industry of liquor brewing.
Common sense and logic tell us that the premise of finding a new way is a deep understanding of the existing system. On this basis, Li Rengang, who used to be a middle-aged "newcomer" who entered the industry, also brought us another layer of thinking: does the experience of cross-border people and the application of interdisciplinarity have more advantages in the innovation of traditional culture?
Recently, we chatted with Li Rengang, a Forbes China Top 100 Outstanding Craftsman and chairman of Moutai Zhenyuanhe Distillery, about his winery and winemaking career.
Li Rengang (right) introduced the fermentation process of koji medicine to the experts, as well as the optimal ratio of white, yellow and black koji medicine.
Forbes China: What were the considerations or opportunities for you to decide to join the liquor industry and run a distillery?
Li Rengang: When I first joined the liquor industry, I inherited my ancestral business and survived. In the special environment of Moutai Town, wine is a pillar industry, and it was also a good idea to join this industry at that time, and the entry threshold of the soy sauce wine industry can also be reached. The 80s did not have high requirements for the development of the wine industry, and wine, a commodity for thousands of years, has almost no shelf life, as long as there are no problems with storage, there is almost no possibility of spoilage and scrapping. In addition, coupled with the small scale of the liquor industry in the 80s and 90s, it was not so difficult to survive. Yuanhe Distillery appeared in Moutai Town under the background of such an era.
Forbes China: What's next for Yuanhe Distillery, and what are the medium- and long-term plans?
Li Rengang: Yuanhe Distillery started with 6 cellars with an annual output of 50 tons of liquor, and after more than 30 years of development and exploration, it has reached today's production capacity of more than 4,000 tons. However, it is a long experience from the development to the improvement of the process technology cognition. During this period of development, Yuanhe Distillery entered the industry in the real sense: first of all, it discovered the importance of the natural environment, mastered the difference between natural and artificial flora, the role of architectural space and building materials in winemaking and wine storage, and the importance of process and process control to stabilize and improve the quality of wine. The construction land for the production of soy sauce liquor (Yuanhe Distillery) is first selected from the core production area of Moutai Town, and the natural flora and microorganisms in the environment of the core production area determine the style of the liquor. Sticking to the traditional craft, the focus is to cultivate people with ingenuity and feelings for winemaking!
Forbes China: It is understood that you won the title of "Top Ten Brew Masters in Guizhou" in 2019. What is the key to your success in the field of winemaking?
Li Rengang: For me personally, winning the title of Guizhou's Top Ten Brewing Masters in 2019 just shows that I have a basic understanding of the production process of soy sauce wine, and I have a preliminary grasp of what is the foundation, what is the key, what is the key point, how to control the core, how to do it, how to classify the quality, how to store it, etc., that is, how to use the laws of nature, how to connect winemaking, wine storage, preparation, and tasting with heart.
Forbes China: How do you understand the spirit of craftsmanship that is being strongly advocated today, and how will it develop in the future?
Li Rengang: The national level is also vigorously advocating the spirit of craftsmanship. My personal understanding of the spirit of craftsmanship is, first of all, to choose the industry from the bottom of my heart. When you like it and you can make a living, the spirit that naturally develops is considered to be in the industry. When this spirit has been interested in constantly going on day after day, year after year, although there is no obvious distance from the craftsman to the ingenuity, it must be a process of quantitative change to qualitative change! From the enterprise level, the craftsman and ingenuity are the foundation of the survival and life of the enterprise, and from the national level, vigorously advocate the spirit of the craftsman, my understanding is to make the country strong and the people rich!
The construction (capacity) of the Yuanhe Distillery should be controlled within 3,000 tons, and the design should be exquisite, the layout should be reasonable, the materials should be selected appropriately, and the greening should also be suitable for the reproduction of microorganisms and the growth of microflora. All in all, it is necessary to create a good environment for the "species" of soy sauce wine, a special life "species", to reach the most appropriate peak of the wine, to control the production capacity, limit the output, but the infinite pursuit of quality. This is the mission of Yuanhe Distillery for high-quality development, and it is also the practical action to inherit and carry forward the spirit of craftsmanship.
Disclaimer: Brand Voice related information comes from interviewees, not Forbes editorial content.