Shui Qing remained calm when asked the question and replied naturally, "Mother, don't you know whether I can brew wine or not? I've never brewed wine before."
"It's all thanks to your son-in-law. A few days ago, we came across an ancient book that described a method for brewing wine, and we thought we'd try it ourselves."
Fan Jin's identity as a scholar is very useful; he can pin everything on himself.
Moreover, people in this dynasty had a natural reverence for books and literacy, always feeling that books contained everything and that scholars could learn anything just by reading them.
The same was true for Hu's mother.
She looked at Fan Jin kneading the dough, and her expression was like that of a mother-in-law looking at her son-in-law with increasing satisfaction, unable to stop praising him: "My son-in-law is really amazing!"
Fan Jin, who was kneading dough, paused, his tall body turning pink.
After praising Fan Jin, Shuiqing started to get down to business: "Mother, the book says that making rice wine requires two fermentations, and the last pound of rice can yield about two pounds of rice wine."
In Guangning Prefecture, other shops selling rice wine charge twenty coins per jin if you bring your own bottle, while the wine shops provide bamboo tubes for storing the wine for twenty-two coins per jin. Most of the people around Niutou Town are farmers, not as wealthy as those in the prefectural city. How about we set the price at sixteen coins per jin?
Things are cheaper in rural towns than in cities, which is normal, but not by much, because those who are reluctant to buy will ultimately not be able to afford them.
Their target group is people who can afford to buy and are willing to spend money. If the price is too low, they will only think it is worse than the price in the city and go to the city to buy it. Therefore, they need to set a price that is lower than the price in the city but not too much lower.
Although Hu's mother was illiterate, her family ran a pork business and earned money every now and then, so she was good at accounting.
He immediately calculated: "One pound of rice costs nine coins, and two pounds of rice wine are produced. One pound of rice wine costs sixteen coins, which means that nine coins can become thirty-two coins; a net profit of twenty-three coins!"
My God, this makes more money than your dad selling pork!
Hu's mother looked at Shui Qing, her surprise mixed with delight.
Shuiqing felt that these two industries could not be compared. "My father's is different. He doesn't cut pig feed, feed pigs, or clean pigsties. He just buys whole pigs, slaughters them, and sells them. It's normal for him to earn a few extra coins per pound of pork."
If a butcher earns a few dozen coins per pound of pork, then tomorrow the number of people learning to butcher will be so large that they'll break down the door of my parents' house!
Mother Hu remained satisfied and optimistically said, "We don't need to grow rice; we just need to buy it. You said a batch of rice wine can be produced in four or five days. If we can earn a hundred coins at a time, we can make half a tael of silver a month."
Shuiqing thought to herself, "That's not all."
However, she didn't say that it's better not to have too high expectations at the beginning. Setting the goal too high and failing to achieve it can easily dampen morale.
Wouldn't it be even better if the income exceeded a small amount?
"Mother, I've asked some women from the village to help me prepare lunch. They have some chores to do at home, so they'll come tomorrow. You won't have to work so hard washing vegetables for me like you did today."
Fan Jin has already explained the winemaking process to me in detail, and I remember it perfectly. I'll start teaching you tomorrow. We still have plenty of rice at home, so let's try to make as few mistakes as possible!
Mother Hu was deeply moved and nodded repeatedly.
My daughter is right, we can't afford to make a mistake! Rice costs nine coins a pound.
Wouldn't it be ruined if something goes wrong?
"Mom, let me tell you, the lees after filtering rice wine are very nutritious and have many uses. They can be used to leaven dough for making buns, steamed buns, and pancakes, and they will be more fluffy and soft than dough made with starter."
You can also steam it with rice flour and osmanthus flowers to make osmanthus cake; any leftovers can even be used to feed pigs...
Suddenly, Hu's mother had a sudden inspiration and asked, "Are you catching piglets to feed them with leftover wine lees?"
Shui Qing didn't hide anything and said directly, "Yes, pigs fed with fermented grains get really fat!"
It can grow quickly, and we hope it can be ready for market next summer.
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