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The History of Rice Wine (Detailed)
Historical origin: Artificial brewing is the manufacture of pottery. Otherwise, there is no way to brew. In Yangshao cultural site, there are both pottery pots and pottery cups. It can be inferred that artificial brewing began about six thousand years ago. Confucius has a saying: "Yao and Shun have a thousand points." This shows that in the Yao Dynasty, wine was popular in society. The word "thousand bells" indicates that this is a primary fruit wine. According to historical records, Emperor Yi created "Imperial Liquor" to worship Dayu, which was the beginning of making wine with grain. Since the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qin and Han Dynasties and even the Tang and Song Dynasties, all fruits and grains have been cooked, fermented and squeezed before reproduction. Many westerners think that rice wine was invented by the Japanese, but I'm afraid it was actually the first alcoholic beverage brewed by China people. Japanese technology for brewing sake was imported from China. As early as BC 1500, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in China mentioned offering sacrifices with wine. In the 8th century BC, ancient poets in China also wrote poems to describe people getting drunk. At the latest around 1000 BC, China invented the technology of fermenting wine, which made the alcohol concentration of the brewed wine at least three times higher than that of ordinary beer. China's superior wine-making technology lies in the earliest use of distiller's yeast to make wine, and it is also found that in order to increase the alcohol concentration in wine, only cooked and soaked grains can be continuously added during fermentation. This is a world-class brewing technology, which produces high-concentration beverages. This technology only spread to Japan and other countries in the world centuries ago. So it can be said that the earliest inventor of yellow rice wine was China.

Ancient brewing method: Qiandeng people like to brew rice wine in the twelfth lunar month, brew it themselves and enjoy the pastoral joy. In the Tang Dynasty, there were poems about "Mulberry by Cup, Hemp by Cup" and "My Caotang has old wine as a cup", which showed that farmers had the custom of brewing and drinking their own wine and entertaining guests with rice wine. To brew rice wine, glutinous rice (50-60 kg) should be soaked for one day and one night, fished out the next day, dried for more than ten minutes, and then steamed in a steamer; Then pour the glutinous rice into a moderate jar, add some water and medicinal liquor, and then stir it evenly with a wooden stick. The rice jar is covered with a thick layer of straw and covered with straw stalks for rice fermentation. In this way, after 7 ~ 10 days, uncover the straw stalks and add some fresh water (1 kg Mi Yue, 3 kg water) into the rice jar. In four or five days, glutinous rice will become rice wine. This homemade rice wine is slightly sweet and nutritious. Drinking a cup in winter can relax muscles and promote blood circulation, dispel cold and refresh yourself. The remaining distiller's grains can be used as side dishes, and a small bowl of shrimp or pickles can be made into delicious dishes. How to make rice wine (fermented rice, sweet wine) abroad? Go to China store to buy five Jin bags of glutinous rice and a bag of distiller's yeast (two pieces). Soak the glutinous rice in water first (half a day is enough) and rinse it clean. Put water in the steamer, cover the steamer with a white cloth, and boil the water until there is steam. Steam the drained glutinous rice on the cloth. About an hour. Just taste it yourself. Without this cloth, glutinous rice will block the holes in the steamer and will never be cooked. There was a failure experience. Grind koji into powder for later use. Take the steamed glutinous rice out of the steamer and cool it to room temperature. Turn it with chopsticks occasionally to speed up cooling. Sprinkle less cold water on the cooled glutinous rice and disperse it by hand. Use as little water as possible. Sprinkle distiller's yeast on the glutinous rice and mix well as much as possible. Don't be impatient, spread a layer, and then spread it after stirring. Leave some wine yeast. Transfer the glutinous rice to a fermentation container. A bigger rice cooker will do. It is also used to soak glutinous rice. Gently press with the palm of your hand when placing. Sprinkle the last sake song on it when it is finished. Rinse the sticky rice on your hands with a little cold water and put it in a container, then press it with your hands to make the surface smooth. Finally, wrap the glutinous rice with plastic wrap, leaving no gaps as far as possible. Put the lid on. Put it in a warm place, such as a clothes basket. I put the container in the oven. There is always a little flame in the old oven, just enough to keep the temperature moderate. This is the way to be lazy. It is best to keep warm with clothes and quilts, because the indoor temperature is unstable in winter. It will be ready in about three days. Check the middle at any time to see if there is a fever. Fever is a good sign. You can try it on the third day. The wine is crisp and juicy, sweet and fragrant, and the smell of wine is not strong, so the raw rice can't be tasted. At this time, the plastic wrap can be peeled off and the rice wine will become. Fully cooked, sticky rice does not come loose, and can be divided into pieces. If the fermentation is excessive, the glutinous rice will be empty and full, and the smell of wine will be too strong. If the fermentation is not sufficient, the glutinous rice will have raw rice grains and teeth. The sweetness is not enough, and the taste of wine is not enough. When mixing distiller's yeast, too much water is spilled, and the glutinous rice will eventually be empty and will not agglomerate. Boil and it will disperse. Speaking of it, this koji fermentation technology is still a great invention in ancient China. There are two kinds of microorganisms in koji: botrytis cinerea and yeast. Botrytis cinerea converts starch into sugar, that is, saccharification process; Yeast converts sugar into ethanol, which is the process of alcoholization. Only when these two processes are carried out to a proper degree can rice wine be delicious. Europe didn't know this method until the last century. Previously, Europeans used malted starch combined with fermentation to make beer. There is nothing to say about the ancient fermentation technology in China. It's amazing that the ancients could use the division of labor and cooperation of two microorganisms. Others, such as soy sauce, vinegar, food pigment monascus, moldy tofu, kimchi, lobster sauce,? Stinky tofu and so on are great inventions, most of which are unique to China. For example, the same kimchi, American pickled cucumber is too sour and tastes bad. This is because they added yeast and sugar, and the sour taste mainly came from acetic acid. Kimchi in China is made of lactic acid bacteria, and its sour taste mainly comes from lactic acid. It tastes good, and it makes my mouth water when I think about it. The former is aerobic fermentation and the latter is anaerobic fermentation.