(Article / Editor-in-Chief Wang Xi)
In September 1949, the predecessor of The Red Star Distillery, the North China Liquor Monopoly Company Experimental Factory, produced the first batch of Red Star brand bottled two-pot head wine as a gift wine to welcome the birth of the People's Republic of China.
For a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Red Star Erguotou has been the most popular liquor in Beijing. However, at that time, Gao Jingyan, a college student in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, never thought that he would one day leave his hometown and come to Beijing, becoming the eighth generation of the traditional brewing techniques of Beijing Erguotou wine.
In October 1962, when Beijing was in a high autumn, 23-year-old Gao Jingyan went out for the first time from his hometown of Wuxi to the capital Beijing.
At that time, Gao Jingyan temporarily settled in a small hotel in the front gate of Dashilar, waiting for the assignment of work. After staying up for more than 10 days, Gao Jingyan learned that he had been assigned to the Beijing Distillery in the Tomb of the Eight Kings. The predecessor of Beijing Distillery is the experimental factory of North China Liquor Monopoly Company established in May 1949, which is the first state-owned distillery in Beijing and the predecessor of today's Beijing Red Star Co., Ltd.
Renting a tricycle and carrying covered luggage, Gao Jingyan came to the place where he had been friends all his life. Starting from the workshop technician, until the chief of the technical section, the deputy director of the technical plant, and then to the director of the factory, until his retirement in 1999, Gao Jingyan spent 37 years of hard work and sweat here.
In 2009, Gao Jingyan was named the inheritor of the traditional brewing techniques of Beijing Erguotou Wine, a national intangible cultural heritage.
Let the founding gift wine aroma drift in the capital
Today, the name Gao Jingyan has long been closely associated with Chinese liquor. But in fact, few people know that Gao Jingyan, who was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and his childhood dream was to become a teacher who taught and educated people, and entered the liquor industry, which was purely coincidental.
Young people in the 1950s and 1960s had ideals in their hearts and strength in their feet. Entering a state-owned enterprise job is something that many people dream of.
"With such good conditions, you have to do something." When he was young, Gao Jingyan, full of endless energy, took the initiative to ask his superiors, went to the workshop, and worked with the brewers. The fermentation workshop is hot and humid, the labor intensity is large, and the tall and thin Gao Jingyan is only more than 90 pounds, but he still insists on carrying sacks of sorghum, and he sweats like rain when he comes down.
In one year, Gao Jingyan worked in the workshop of liquor, wine, solvent and so on, and this experience made Gao Jingyan grow rapidly and become a young expert in the factory.
In addition to working in the workshop, Gao Jingyan became acquainted with his mentor Wang Qiufang, and later became his closed disciple.
Wang Qiufang, who is 13 years older than Gao Jingyan, is one of the founding elders of the factory and a major member of the founding gift wine production team.
In July 1949, the experimental factory of the North China Liquor Monopoly Company accepted a glorious task - before the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, a batch of wine was produced as a gift to welcome the birth of the People's Republic of China. In order to complete the task on time, the whole factory worked together to get up early and greedy, digging up the fermentation pond, the Lijiu pot, and the yujiu qu, and finally in September 1949, the first batch of Red Star Two Pot Head Wine was produced. Since there was no special liquor bottle at that time, the gift wine was still filled with beer bottles.
The gift wine is accompanied by the "Red Star" trademark of red five-star and blue streamer, which represents the Chinese revolution and blue streamer represents the people's song and dance to celebrate victory.
An important task of the establishment of the experimental factory of North China Liquor Monopoly Company was to transform the traditional handicraft production of "seeing, sniffing, touching and kicking" to a modern scientific production mode. After repeated sampling, testing and verification, Wang Qiufang organized and compiled the "Analysis Method and Product Quality Standard Scheme for Inheriting Beijing Erguotou", which became the standard for brewing Erguotou wine. This is a milestone in the history of the development of Beijing Erguotou Wine.
In 1965, based on the state-owned Beijing Brewery, two breweries, two wineries, an alcohol factory and a machinery factory in Beijing were merged to form the Beijing Brewing Factory. At the same time, the main factory also implemented the centralized management of "seven pipes and two unchanged" for 19 liquor factories in various suburbs of Beijing, and Gao Jingyan, who was 26 years old at the time, was appointed as the first section chief of the guikou section.
He traveled all over the outskirts of Beijing and passed on the brewing skills and management experience of Red Star Erguotou to 19 suburban wineries without reservation. In exchange, the result is that there are more two pots of wine on the Beijing market. Since then, the "Ming Ling Brand" of Changping Distillery, the "Xiangyang Brand" of Tongxian Distillery, the "Yongfeng Brand" of Daxing Distillery, and the "Chaobaihe Brand" of Niulanshan Distillery have sprung up like mushrooms, expanding the Liquor Industry in Beijing.
In the following decades, in addition to guiding and helping suburban distilleries to put into production of Erguotou wine, Gao Jingyan also participated in the introduction of liquor processes such as sauce-flavored, strong-flavored and concurrently fragrant liquor into Beijing; organized the promotion and application of the new strain "UV-11" to make the liquor production rate of the liquor industry in Beijing reach the highest level in history; presided over the liquor enterprises in Beijing to reduce the body of liquor, and participated in the preparation of the China Brewing Industry Association, creating extraordinary achievements for the entire liquor industry.
The wine that the people can afford
In the 1990s, a TV series about the history of Chinese overseas struggles, "Beijingers in New York", set off a ratings boom in the country, Wang Qiming, played by Jiang Wen, who had a successful career in a foreign country, but before the duel, he still sneaked out a bottle of Red Star Er pot head and two plastic cups to educate foreigners, "This is called Er Pot Head, China's best liquor, in Beijing, ordinary people only drink this." ”
Two pot head refers to a winemaking process. In 1680, the nineteenth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, the three Zhao brothers from Linfen, Shanxi, found in the brewing that when distilling and picking wine, they pinched the head and tail to take the wine from the middle section, which tasted the best, so there was the name of the second pot head.
Cheap, smooth, the Red Star two pot head wine, the people have a high evaluation. But it was not easy to drink, because by the end of 1949, a total of 20.5 tons had been produced.
In 1965, the third year of Gao Jingyan's work, the Beijing market also only had one variety of Red Star Two Pots, with an annual output of several hundred tons, which could not meet the needs of the people. How tight is the second pot head wine?
Gao Jingyan recalled that ordinary people want to drink, and can only buy two bottles of food with the purchase book during the New Year's Festival.
"When can I drink so much wine that I want to drink it?" This problem has always been buried in Gao Jingyan's heart. Later, the Beijing Municipal Government required the Beijing Distillery to manage all suburban distilleries under centralized management. The so-called centralized management, Gao Jingyan, who was the head of the focal point section at that time, said that it is necessary to unify the production standards in accordance with the process of the gift wine produced for the birth of new China, the Red Star Erguotou Wine, so that the suburban wineries can increase production and improve quality to meet the needs of the people.
As the backbone of two generations of winemaking technology, the heavy responsibility of "making up lessons" for suburban wineries naturally fell on the heads of Wang Qiufang and Gao Jingyan. Compiling lecture notes, training, classes, and hand-in-hand teaching techniques, Wang Qiufang and Gao Jingyan traveled to various suburbs of Beijing to spread the erguotou brewing technology. It was also this experience that made the two form a deep mentor-apprentice relationship.
In Fangshan, there was no lecture room, Gao Jingyan hung a blackboard in the garage, and the workers sat on the ground; in Yanqing, the road was far away and the car was long, and it was only noon in the morning, and it was already dark when the lecture returned to the city; in Huairou, the conditions were so harsh that even soy sauce could not be bought, and the onion soup sprinkled with salt was nested, which was a meal... Gao Jingyan, who was enjoying himself in misery, did not care at all about the mountain high road. Soon, the "Ming Tombs Brand" of Changping Distillery, the "Xiangyang Brand" of Tongxian Distillery, the "Yongfeng Brand" of Daxing Distillery, and the "Chaobaihe Brand" of Niulanshan Distillery blossomed everywhere, and by 1981, the annual output was greatly increased to 30,000 tons. The aroma of erguotou wine overflowed the capital, and it was no longer a luxury for the people to drink good wine.
Craftsman spirit industry model
Since joining the work, Gao Jingyan has successively served as a technician, technical section chief, technical deputy director, acting director and factory director of Beijing Brewing General Factory, as well as deputy general manager of Beijing Red Star Brewing Group Company, chairman of Beijing Brewing Association, executive deputy secretary general of China Liquor Professional Association, executive director of China Food Science and Technology Society, member of Industrial Microbiology Professional Committee of Chinese Microbiology Society, and professor-level senior engineer. He often works with colleagues to help liquor factories around the world carry out a series of product development and technology development work, and everyone praises him as "seeing the god of wine". It is even more unique in distinguishing between real and fake wines, and it is amazing to recognize it when it is often smelled. Since the 1970s, he has organized and participated in the introduction of liquor technology into Beijing, and then in the 1980s and 1990s, he used national policies to mobilize liquor factories in Beijing to rely on technical means to create liquor products, forming a unique style and high economic efficiency of enterprises. In order to change the weak situation of the technical team of Beijing liquor industry, he has also written academic papers and professional textbooks for many times, personally taught in his respective distilleries, and helped enterprises train technical backbones. In the early 1990s, Gao Jingyan co-authored the book "White Alcohol Essentials" in collaboration with others, which made great contributions to the liquor industry and was a well-deserved liquor expert.
In September 2018, on the occasion of Gao Jingyan's 80th birthday, Ruan Zhongkui, chairman of Red Star Company, Xiao Weiwu, general manager of Red Star Company, and Feng Jialiang, secretary of the Party Committee, gathered together to wish Gao Zhongkui a happy birthday. In order to thank him for his great contribution to the liquor industry, Beijing Red Star Co., Ltd. established the "Gao Jingyan Reward Fund", which is jointly funded by the Gao Jingyan Master Heir Subsidy Fee and Beijing Red Star, which is specially used to reward employees who have made outstanding contributions to the second pot head technique. This also represents Gao Jingyan's love for Red Star R&D personnel and ardent expectations for future development. Beijing Erguotou Wine Museum presented a congratulatory message to Gao Jingyan: "The Grandmaster of huang chizi wine industry in the alpine mountain looking up to jingxing to stop inflammation".
On September 11, 2020, the "Biography of Gao Jingyan", carefully written by the employees of Red Star, was published and distributed, with a total of more than 250,000 words and more than 150 pictures, the whole book is titled "Yuan" as the title, divided into five chapters, such as "Bonding with Wine", Forging With Erguotou, Forging with wine industry, and Friendship with Love, vividly telling the struggle life of Gao Jingyan, the eighth generation inheritor of the traditional brewing technology of Beijing Erguotou Wine and the representative inheritor of the national level.
The development of Red Star for more than 70 years is the result of several generations of Red Star people who are not afraid of hardships and unremitting struggles, and it is inseparable from the efforts and efforts of every Red Star person, and Gao Jingyan is an outstanding representative of it. "The Biography of Gao Jingyan" expresses the high respect and heartfelt thanks of the new generation of Red Star people to the old predecessors of Red Star, and encourages all Red Star people to carry forward the enterprise spirit of "responsibility, innovation, professionalism and cooperation" and cast a new glory of Red Star.
Gao Jingyan said emotionally at the new book launch ceremony: "I am just in an ordinary post, doing ordinary work, and making a little progress. I want to take the publication ceremony of "The Biography of Gao Jingyan" as a new starting point, old age does not serve the old, live to the old, learn from the old, work until the old, continue to exert residual heat for the red star and the liquor industry, and work hard! ”
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