Chapter 277 Distillation, First Pot Sorghum Liquor
After getting Shen Xiangwan's suggestion, Wei Chengyi called everyone together to discuss the next day and simply worked out a set of effective methods. Soon, a dozen guards took a small number of soldiers from the eastern border to various counties and took over the local city defense troops. Due to the great turmoil in military and political power during this period, no one wanted to become cannon fodder, and they basically encountered no obstacles.
At the same time, the method of recruiting soldiers also changed. After seeing the changes in the army and knowing the benefits of being a soldier, the people finally wanted to join the army. However, there were still very few people who signed up in the early stage, and most people were still waiting and watching.
A few days later, after sending the children to school, Shen Xiangwan, Mu Yunran and Wei Linger, took the servants to the factory. After four or five days of fermentation, an unpleasant smell emanated from the pottery jar. This was all normal. Shen Xiangwan asked the servants to light the fire, pour the fermented material in the jar into the pot, and mix it with a certain proportion of rice husks. After stirring evenly, he covered the pot and began to distill.
The lid is specially made, with an iron pipe as thick as a finger connected in the middle. The iron pipe is very long, one end is connected to the lid, and the other end is aimed at the washed wine jar, and the middle part is completely immersed in a sink filled with ice cubes.
"Is that all?"
There are ten sets of distillation equipment in total, which means that ten cylinders of fermented materials can be distilled at a time. Although they look a bit strange, they are still spectacular when lined up together.
"Well, the distilled soda will flow through this tube, through the cooling system in the middle, and into the jar below. That's sorghum liquor."
As Shen Xiangwan spoke, he pointed to the tube connected to the lid of the pot. The wine distilled for the first time is also called the first wine, or the first pot. It has a relatively high alcohol concentration and is suitable for further refining into alcohol. If you want to drink sorghum wine, you still have to wait until the second distillation, also called the second wine, or Erguotou. At this time, the alcohol content is slightly lower, about 40 to 50 degrees, and the taste is more fragrant, mellow and refreshing than the first pot.
However, to get really good wine, the first and second wines must be mixed in a certain proportion and matured in the cellar.
"Yes, yes, look, the wine is flowing out."
When Wei Linger saw the wine dripping out of the tube, she rushed over excitedly and shouted loudly, with the mentality of a complete child.
Seeing this, Shen Xiangwan and Mu Yunran smiled at each other, and both walked over. They saw transparent wine dripping into the wine jar below. The strong aroma of wine could already be smelled in their noses. Shen Xiangwan picked up the spoon on the stove, scooped up some wine, brought it to his lips and took a sip. The highly concentrated aroma of wine immediately exploded between his lips and teeth, which was very intoxicating.
"How about it?"
Mu Yunran and Wei Linger looked at her eagerly, both wanting to hear a good answer from her, but Chen Xiangwan did not satisfy them. Instead, she took some more wine with a spoon and handed it to them: "You will know after you try it."
"I'll do it!"
Taking the spoon, Wei Linger brought it directly to her lips and swallowed it: "Ahem... spicy spicy spicy..."
"Hahaha···"
Almost immediately, Wei Ling'er was so spicy from the liquor that she jumped and danced with her tongue sticking out, and kept fanning her mouth with her hands, which made Shen Xiangwan burst into laughter. Mu Yunran couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh after a brief pause. Wanwan had told them long ago that sorghum wine was different from the wine they had drunk. It had a high alcohol content and had to be savored slowly. Who made her drink it all in one gulp?
"Second sister-in-law, Sister Yunran!"
Seeing that they not only didn't feel sorry for her but also laughed so exaggeratedly, Wei Linger couldn't help but stamp her feet in anger.
"Okay, you asked for this, didn't you?"
Shaking her head unhappily, Shen Xiangwan suppressed her smile, took the spoon from her hand, took some more wine and handed it to Mu Yunran: “Would you like to try it too?”
"good."
With Wei Linger's bloody lesson before her, Mu Yunran wasn't foolish enough to repeat the same mistake. She took the spoon and, like Shen Xiangwan, brought it to her lips and took a sip, slowly savoring the sensation of the wine exploding in her mouth. After a moment, she smiled and said, "Not bad, better than any wine I've ever had, but it's too strong. It's only suitable for savoring slowly. Also, the color of this wine is very good, transparent and clear, unlike most of the wines sold outside, which are mostly turbid."
Mu Yunran raised the spoon as she spoke to show them the remaining wine inside. She was not an ordinary lady from a wealthy family. In addition, her father-in-law was born into a military family and was very fond of wine. Whether at her parents' home or her husband's home, she would occasionally drink, so she naturally knew the quality of the wine. If she took this sorghum wine out to sell, she believed it would fetch a good price.
"Um."
Looking at the remaining wine in the spoon, Wei Linger nodded in agreement, but she would never drink it again.
After more than an hour, almost no more wine flowed out. Shen Xiangwan asked the servants to lower the fire, opened the lid of the pot, scooped out the remaining dregs inside, mixed them with rice husks, and added koji powder after it cooled down. It was sealed and fermented for the second time. When it was time to distill the second pot, they began to count the sorghum wine obtained from the first pot.
Generally, ten kilograms of sorghum can produce more than three kilograms of sorghum wine. They can distill about one hundred kilograms of sorghum in one pot at a time. Each pot can produce three jars of ten-kilogram sorghum wine. Ten pots make thirty jars. In other words, after working for nearly two hours, they got a total of three hundred kilograms of sorghum wine in the first pot.
This time, Shen Xiangwan fermented about 10,000 kilograms of sorghum. He used ten sets of equipment, and could distill 1,000 kilograms each time, which took nearly two hours. It took ten times and twenty hours to complete the distillation. It would take nearly two days without sleep, otherwise the sorghum would ferment for too long, which would lead to a decrease in the quality of the wine. Therefore, the three of them spent almost the entire next two days in the factory.
After they finished distilling all the wine, they were almost exhausted. However, they did not rest. They led people to ferment another hundred jars of sorghum. Together with the sorghum that was sealed and fermented for the second time, there were a total of two hundred pottery jars piled up in the workshop, which looked very spectacular at first glance.
“I’m so tired!”
When he returned to the space at night, Shen Xiangwan collapsed directly on the sofa, with no intention of moving.
"How about buying a few more servants?"
Seeing this, Wei Chengyi, who had also returned to the space, said with heartache that she had been busy brewing wine these days and had no time to take care of him. They had not had a good conversation, but he did not feel resentful, but heartache. It was the first time he saw her so tired.
"No, I've already asked Yun Ran to set up a workshop."
She climbed up and sat astride his legs, Shen Xiangwan raised her hand and put it on his shoulder. She was still planning to adopt the assembly line production method in the brewing workshop, which could not only ensure that the technology was not leaked, but also reasonably arrange the time and continuously produce sorghum wine or alcohol every day. Moreover, the servants in the house had already learned how to brew, so she would not have to do it herself in the future.
"Um."
Since she had already made arrangements, Wei Chengyi was no longer worried, but he was still a little distressed. During his exile, he always thought that he would be able to settle down in Chenzhou and she would not be so tired. Who knew that in the past few months, she became more and more tired and had no chance to really rest.
[End of this chapter]
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