Shou pu wine course classroom
Good evening, welcome to the 64th weekend class of Relatives and Friends Hui Lao Loose Wine, the theme of today's class is:
What does the koji look like?
We often talk about winemaking, and everyone knows that what is indispensable in the process of winemaking is the so-called "no curvature is not a wine". In the pre-Qin period, qu tillers coexisted, the Zhou Dynasty used shanqu to brew wine, and from the Han Dynasty to the Northern Wei Dynasty, block qu was already widely used. People's manufacturing process and technology of koji have been constantly evolving.
How did the koji come about? In primitive societies, conditions were limited, and the grain harvested by people was often damp when stored, resulting in mold or germination. At this time, the grain must not be eaten, but the ancestors found that moldy and sprouted grains can be fermented, and after fermentation, they carry the aroma of wine. So these grains became the earliest koji. At that time, no distinction was made between sprouted and moldy grains, collectively known as "koji tillers". However, although sprouted grains and moldy grains can be brewed, the taste is different, so later the moldy grain is called "qu", and the sprouted grain is called "millet".
Barley rice, stir-fried, can also be used as a medicinal herb.
So what exactly is the wine song like? Different periods and different uses have spawned different kinds of koji, and their appearance is different.
Several common types of koji.
For a long time, koji remained moldy, sprouted grain. Due to the limitations of technology and tools, people could only grind or crush the moldy grain at most, so the koji at that time was like flour, loose.
Later, the technology developed, and with the mold for making koji, there was a piece of curvature. The earliest block qu(s) was mai qu , which was mainly used to make rice wine. There are many raw materials for the production of wheat koji, some of which will be moldy with grain, some with barley, and some with wheat.
A mold for stepping on a bend.
The fermentation capacity of block koji is much better than that of loose koji. In the early days, the northern block qu was dominated by wheat koji, which was formed by stepping broken wheat into the shape of a square brick, and then cultivating and propagating saccharification bacteria. By the Time of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the koji-making technology was relatively mature, block ququ occupied the dominant market, wine koji began to derive new types, and the saccharification fermentation ability became stronger and stronger.
At the same time, the wine koji in this period is generally arranged on the ground in a single layer, the utilization rate of the koji room is relatively low, the number of koji blocks in the space is small, so the released heat is relatively small, and the temperature of the koji culture is relatively low. By today's standards, it should belong to the middle temperature song.
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the method of piling up the block qu was improved, and the finished word structure was stacked with wine qu. In this way, the more curved pieces, the higher the heat emitted, which lays the foundation for the emergence of high temperature curls and creates more possibilities for the taste of wine. After that, the types of wine koji were more abundant, and there were hanging songs, straw bag koji, etc., and some forms are still in use.
The wheat ququ can be a large song or a small song. The difference between them is that Koji is generally used to brew fermented wine, which is also known as "liquor medicine". In the south, there were also the first small koji made of rice as raw materials, generally only a few grams or dozens of grams, made into a ball. The big koji is differentiated from the emergence of distilled spirits, and the raw materials are no different from the small koji, but the production process has been improved, especially the temperature mentioned earlier has a great impact on it.
The bran koji came out after liberation, and the shape became scattered again. Some people may be curious, isn't it said that the fermentation ability of block qu is stronger than that of sanqu, and why does it use the form of sanqu? This is because bran koji is a kind of koji artificially cultivated after purifying yeast, and it is not naturally generated like wheat koji, small koji, and large koji. Although this kind of purified artificial cultivation is scattered, there are many microorganisms and winemaking is fast, so some public liquor will use this kind of song to make wine. However, the disadvantage of bran koji is that the taste and aroma of the brewed wine are relatively general.
Finally, there is also a kind of red yeast, which is not often used to make wine, but the curd milk we often eat is made of red yeast. The raw material of red yeast is indica rice, and if it is used to make wine, the liquor has a bright red color, which is very unique. Previously, red yeast wine was also a type of rice wine.
Red yeast is also often used to make delicacies, and it is said that Wuxi ribs, apple fish maw, cherry meat, rose brine duck, Mandarin duck fish jujube, shou peach steamed bun, horseshoe cake, glass beads, etc., are also used. In addition to traditional dishes, many pastries and desserts also use red yeast to add color as a natural toner.
This week's sharing ends here, thank you all for your attention, we will see you next week.
If you feel that the content of the wine class is helpful to you, you are willing to let more people who love to drink see, tell him how to drink better, welcome everyone into the group, we learn together, and make progress together.
Dry this cup of old scatter!