Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Li Peile
Started in 1855, it has a deep history and has won many awards and achieved word-of-mouth quality. At the peak, Jinan's market accounted for 60%, helping the "sweet and sour carp" to spread the fame of Luokou vinegar, after a long period of suspension, quietly returned. Now she is a bit lonely, but retaining traditional craftsmanship is her identification direction. A few days ago, the Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter walked into this newborn "century-old store".
A wall of awards
Hearing the name of Luokou vinegar, old Jinan naturally associated it with the place name Luokou. However, with the change of the city, jinan Luokou Brewing Co., Ltd., which produces Luokou vinegar today, is located at No. 153, Jiqi Road, Huaiyin District. Here, once a branch of Luokou Brewing, after the demolition of the old factory, it finally settled here.
On the 2nd, accompanied by the drizzle of winter, the reporter came to the factory filled with vinegar. However, this is not the production period of vinegar, and there are almost no workers in the factory. However, the large cylinder with a mouth is still a striking reminder of the busy scene during production.
Luokou vinegar began in 1855, has a history of more than a hundred years, for a long time, has enjoyed a high reputation, "Jinan Province's soy sauce Luokou vinegar" was once also widely circulated. It is understood that in 1952, there were 23 households in the melting and pickle industry of Luokou, most of which were mainly made of vinegar. Among them, Xincheng, Yuxing, Huiyuan and Fuju are more famous, in addition to Huiquan and Fusheng. In 1956, 19 long-established vinegar mills such as Luokou Xincheng merged to form a public-private partnership Yuxing Sauce Garden, which had 64 employees and produced 38 tons of vinegar that year. In 2000, it was restructured into Jinan Luokou Brewing Co., Ltd.
In the office of Zhang Mingyuan, the company's general manager, in addition to various categories of Luokou vinegar, the most conspicuous is a wall full of awards. Some of these awards of different ages have been yellowed, "National Quality Award Silver Medal", "Shandong Quality Products" and "Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage". Speaking of the honor of the vinegar, the factory also talked about the Panamanian Gold Medal in 1915. It can be said that the current Luokou vinegar is topped with a lot of aura and is the inheritor of the old brand.
Stick to the old craftsmanship
"Do our best to pass on the traditional craftsmanship of luokou vinegar, so that the public can eat pure grain to make safe vinegar." This is the desire and direction of Zhang Mingyuan, the general manager of the company.
As the fourth generation of Luokou vinegar of "Factory Treasure", 58-year-old Li Ziping has entered the industry of vinegar making since he was 18 years old, and he has witnessed the glory of Luokou vinegar and also witnessed its difficult rebirth. He told reporters that Luokou vinegar will be made of red sorghum, dried sweet potato and wheat bran as the main raw materials. After a variety of processes and fermentation, and then stored in the drying tank through spring and summer sun, frost and winter ice, after a year of concentrated aging, and finally become a high-quality Luokou aged vinegar.
One of the characteristics of lokou vinegar is the handmade pickpocket. Specifically, it is the mash with bran mixed with bran, into the cylinder, and the daily non-stop manual stirring, that is, the cylinder. When the cylinder is pickpocketed, it can neither overheat nor completely dissipate heat, and it takes about half a month for the original vinegar to be leached. "Manual cylinder picking, labor-intensive, output can not go up, and need to feel, need to be passed on from generation to generation." Sales manager Yao Dongzhen made an analogy, like a master of roasting tea.
Li Ziping, who is specifically responsible for production, said that the old process requires a large number of labor, "the entire process, the labor intensity is also very high, most of the young people now are not willing to work, now the workers in the vinegar factory are relatively old, and the youngest cylinder master is also more than 40 years old." Li Ziping said that the workshop belongs to a high temperature and high acid environment, many times it is thirty-five or six degrees, and when the cooking material reaches fifty or sixty degrees, at that time, the clothes cannot be worn at all, and they are all working bare-chested.
Thin performance
Hand-pickpocketing cylinders, traditional craft brewing, high temperature and high acid in the production workshop, which is doomed to output can not be guaranteed. It is understood that the company's current annual output is about 300 tons, what kind of scale is this? Yao Dongzhen said that the share of the Jinan market is less than 1%.
Being subject to traditional craftsmanship is one aspect, and another aspect is that lokou vinegar was discontinued at the end of 2007 due to demolition, and it was in a state of disappearance in the market for almost 10 years. Wang Dong of the second team of the first branch of Jinan City Bus Branch is an authentic old Jinan, and he told reporters that he has eaten Luokou vinegar since he was a child. "At that time, locholas vinegar was sold everywhere, and then it gradually disappeared, in fact, sometimes I still miss that old taste." Indeed, the former Luokou vinegar can be said to be the boss of Jinan, Li Ziping said, he entered the factory in the 80s, when it was just in time for the tide of the market economy, to 1994, the annual production scale of Luokou vinegar reached 1,000 tons, and the peak period reached 5,000 tons, "at the most, it can account for two-thirds of the Jinan market." ”
However, the current market environment is changing rapidly, and first-line brands such as Haitian have almost extended their tentacles to the corners, and the market value has repeatedly reached new highs. However, the vinegar that has disappeared from the market for ten years, although it has returned, is still a bit quiet.
"Sales now are mainly community stores and exhibitions." Yao Dongzhen said that their products are very popular in the intangible cultural heritage exhibition and the Shandong sugar and wine conference, "Many old Jinan still remember us, but there is still a process to come back." ”
In 2013, a drying field was built in the southern mountainous area of Jinan City to place 600 vinegar tanks
Quite high price
In fact, after the rebirth of Luokou vinegar, there are also different opinions about the factory that takes that road: is it to pursue output and efficiency, or to adhere to the quality of the old process? Some people feel that the current market situation is here, we must pursue output and efficiency, the scale of production can be better expanded, and the working environment of production can be improved. However, in the end, everyone decided to take the road of non-industrialization, handmade pure grain manufacturing, and keep this old process.
"There is no blending and blending, we are all made of pure grain." In Zhang Mingyuan's office, they even poured vinegar for the Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter to taste. The reporter learned that their current price of vinegar in the market is higher, "the price of the fine vinegar we sell is also 17 yuan, which is almost the cheapest vinegar we produce." ”
Hearing this, the reporter was still a little surprised. Seeing the reporter's expression, Yao Dongzhen continued, "This is in line with the value of the product, and even in similar products, that is, in the vinegar that reaches our level, the price is not high." "Why is it in line with the value of the product?" Pure grain old process manufacturing, drying takes a year, which is counted in the cost. He said that the industrial production of vinegar, fermentation time is short, less strains, vinegar acidity may not be enough, and the traditional process of production of vinegar, without additives, coupled with natural loss in summer evaporation in winter ice, so the price is definitely higher. And he told reporters that there is no shelf life of vinegar made of pure grain.
Outside the factory, there is a display shop. There are various varieties of lochia vinegar in the shop, and the prices are naturally different. Each bottle or each container of vinegar, the weight is also different, the most expensive white porcelain bottle displayed in three pounds, the price is 298 yuan, almost 100 yuan a pound of price, "This is made of vinegar, the aroma is very sufficient, open far away can smell, an extra fragrance." ”
How to get stronger?
Regarding the old brand, in fact, it has often become the protagonist of the news recently, including Quanjude and Dog Ignore, which have become the hot spots of public opinion. For this kind of long-established brand with rich accumulation, how to become bigger and stronger in the current market is probably the primary problem that many Lao Tzu are good to face.
On August 12 this year, the Information Office of the Shandong Provincial People's Government held a press conference to announce the lists of "China's Time-honored Brands" and "Shandong Time-honored Brands." Among them, there are 55 long-established brands in Jinan, including 12 chinese time-honored brands and 43 long-established brands in Shandong. Among them, Luokou vinegar is the third batch of Shandong time-honored brands. In the list, the names of Daguanyuan, Fupai Ejiao, Hongjitang, Jufengde, Baotu Spring, Taikang, etc., are almost all famous.
For the old sign of Luokou vinegar, Li Ziping, as the fourth generation of non-genetic heirs, has a lot of entanglements in his heart, and he hopes that the company will get better and better, but he is a little worried in the face of the market situation. As the gatekeeper of the factory, Zhang Mingyuan hopes to fully excavate the cultural connotation of Luokou vinegar, step by step, take quality first, and do a good job in this century-old brand.
Meng Gang, a descendant of Rui Fengxiang, said in an interview with the Qilu Evening News Qilu Yidian reporter that he is also constantly thinking about how to inherit the intangible heritage of the ancestors, "to a certain extent, it has developed to a certain extent to excavate the connotation of brand culture and drive identity with culture." The "Zhima Health" brand of China's time-honored Tongrentang opened an offline experience store in Beijing, launching coffee drinks, Traditional Chinese medicine shops, consultation and medicine, health consultation and other services, trying to make the society, especially young people, more acceptable ways to enter the market. Inheritance and innovation are the eternal themes in front of the old brands.
For the old brand, Li Ping, secretary general of the Jinan Food Industry Association, also knows more, especially Luokou vinegar is more emotional. "This is a culture of old Jinan, and we are now helping these developing brands as much as possible, and at the Shandong Sugar and Wine Fair, we will provide free booths for their publicity." She also said that in the near future, she also intends to join hands with relevant departments and experts from relevant universities to go into Luokou Vinegar and try to help the development of enterprises through various ways.
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