Upon hearing this, Doctor Wang's eyes widened. He clearly felt the price was a bit too expensive. They had experimented and found that rinsing the wound with alcohol was more effective than wiping it with a cotton cloth soaked in alcohol, but this would require more money. Their family didn't have enough money to afford it.
But this stuff is really useful, so he could only say, "Then I'll trouble Madam Meng to make ten more jars for us. Although not everyone can afford it, there are always people who need it. Besides, this stuff is also very effective at wiping utensils."
Meng Zhao nodded and agreed: "Okay, I'll arrange for people to do it right away."
After seeing the two doctors off, Meng Zhao sat down at the table, but began to think about another matter. Now that the method of fertilizer was available, the court would naturally promote it vigorously. In the years to come, if there were no wars or major disasters, the grain yield should continue to increase.
Therefore, brewing wine can be quite profitable.
Thinking about this, she decided to discuss it with her family. The one who reacted most strongly was naturally Meng Dashan.
"Brewing wine is great! Daughter, the plum wine you made before was delicious. If you can brew your own wine in the future, I won't have to buy it anymore!"
Xu Yunrong nodded with a smile: "That's right, the plum wine you brew is fragrant and sweet and sour, and it doesn't make you drunk. I especially love drinking it."
“Plum wine is different from brewing wine. Plum wine is made by adding plums to ready-made wine on the market. It is at most a secondary processing. Brewing wine, on the other hand, requires starting from scratch. It can take anywhere from three or four months to one or two years. A lot of money needs to be invested in the production process.”
Xu Yunrong said, "We're not in a hurry to make money, so it's okay to be slower. As long as we can brew good wine, it's worth the wait."
With the support of his family, Meng Zhao was even more motivated. Brewing naturally starts with making yeast, and different yeasts produce different flavors.
One essential ingredient for making traditional brewing yeast is Polygonum hydropiper. Fortunately, this plant is not picky about soil and can be found almost anywhere. Meng Zhao went to several riverbanks and ditches and found quite a lot of it.
The flowers of the smartweed are spike-like, terminal or axillary, and the rhizomes have small purplish-red spots. When Huang Cui saw it, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, this thing is everywhere on the riverbank. Can it really be used to brew wine?"
Meng Zhao kept cutting grass with his sickle as he replied, "That's right, smartweed grows easily and is found in many places. Many families use it to brew wine. Has your family never tried it?"
Huang Cui shook her head. "No one in my family drinks alcohol, so we've never made it. But I do know that my uncle can brew his own wine, though I've never seen him use this herb."
After saying that, he smiled again, "However, I have eaten this grass. When I was a child, I always got hungry very quickly. Before the food at home was ready, I would run out to find something to eat. I heard that this grass was edible, so I cut some and cooked it. As soon as I finished eating, I started to feel pain all over my body and got a beating from my father, who said that I was born from a glutton."
Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao couldn't help but laugh and said, "Polygonum hydropiper is indeed edible. You can add some when stewing soup or blanch it and then make a cold salad. But you can't eat too much of it. I guess you've been eating it as your main meal."
Huang Cui was a little embarrassed. "Indeed, I cooked a big pot and ate until I was full. Actually, the taste wasn't that great, but when you're hungry, everything tastes delicious."
The two chatted as they worked without stopping; there was so much smartweed that they soon filled the car.
After bringing it home, spread the smartweed out in the yard to dry, then cut it into small pieces with a guillotine, put it in a stone mortar, and pound it into powder with a wooden mallet. Then, filter out the large residue leaves with a sieve, keeping only the fine powder.
The pounding step can be delegated to someone else, but Meng Zhao has to handle the proportioning himself.
The most basic method is to mix Polygonum hydropiper powder and rice flour in a 1:5 ratio with water to form a dough, then roll it into small balls and set aside.
You can also replace rice flour with glutinous rice flour, and add clove powder, licorice powder, poria powder, and eclipta powder. Then pour in warm water and stir. This method produces a yeast starter that is very suitable for making sweet wine.
In fact, there are many other ingredients that can be used to make yeast, such as mulberry leaves, orange leaves, osmanthus leaves, verbena, rosehips, and ground ivy. Many winemakers also have exclusive secret recipes that they do not disclose to the public.
Different proportions of ingredients can produce different yeast starters, and different yeast starters will produce wines with different tastes.
After Meng Zhao adjusted the proportions, he called over Shen Qingze and Shen Qingyu and asked them to help roll the mixed yeast into small balls.
"Sister-in-law, look how round I rolled it!" Shen Qingze held up a ball of yeast and showed it to Meng Zhao with a proud look on his face.
Meng Zhao smiled helplessly: "Round, really round."
Actually, the yeast balls don't need to be rolled into perfect round shapes. Meng Zhao had even seen people spread the yeast into pancake shapes. However, children are always exceptionally serious about what they do, and she couldn't bear to dampen their enthusiasm.
Meng Zhao found several baskets, marked them, laid lotus leaves on them, put the kneaded yeast balls on them, sprinkled a layer of wheat bran on them, covered them with dry grass, covered them with cotton cloth, and put them in the warehouse to wait for fermentation.
The fermentation time is not fixed; it may be shorter due to the recent hot weather.
Five or six days later, fine white mycelium began to grow on the yeast ball. It took less than twenty days for the mycelium to completely surround the yeast ball, at which point the fermentation was considered to be completely complete.
Take the fermented yeast balls out and expose them to the sun. When the yeast balls become hard and light, they are almost done drying.
The yeast starter is not ready to use yet; it needs to be aged in the cellar for a while longer. Meng Zhao took out several jars, marked them with the time and type of yeast starter, and placed the different yeast starters separately.
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