Chapter 321 Koji Brewing
A few days later, Zhang Jidong and Zhu Jiucheng began to learn how to make quji and brew wine with Zhu Jingui.
"These types of wine chorus are soju and wine chorus, and these two are sweet wines. When my father was there, the wine made by wine chorus tasted mellow and famous far and wide. Since my father got sick, I have never been able to make that kind of wine chorus again." Zhu Jingui took out his wine chorus.
The Zhu family’s wine chorus has always been used in ancient ways, which was passed down from generation to generation by the Zhu family. However, the Zhu family cannot tell when it originated. The Zhu family’s wine chorus needs to collect several kinds of chorus making plants, and also use the chorus that has been passed down to make round grains the size of glutinous rice balls and dry and preserve.
To make rice wine tasted by the Zhu family, several kinds of shochu wine koji need to be used in conjunction with two kinds of sweet wine koji. Since Zhu Jingui’s father died, no one has been able to make the old flavor of the Zhu family. Zhou Yushu cannot make it. Although he used the Zhu family’s craftsmanship, he did not have the Zhu family’s koji skills, nor did he have the Zhu family’s koji. He could only use the koji bought at the market to make wine. Although he also used shochu wine koji and sweet wine koji, the taste was still very different from the wine Zhu Youquan had made at the beginning.
"Is this still the kind of music passed down from your family?" Zhang Jidong asked.
"There should be no problem with the music. In fact, my family still has the music made by my father at that time. But after being left for so many years, I don't know if it can be used." Zhu Jingui said.
"Don't worry, wait until I learn how to make koji wine, and then see if I can use those koji species. Ninety percent, you can use snacks, and you will be responsible for these things in the future." Zhang Jidong said.
Zhu Jiucheng nodded quickly: "Okay. I must learn how to make koji and make wine."
"Don't worry Ji Dong, if he can't learn, I will break his legs." Zhu Jingui said.
Zhu Jiucheng shrank his neck and glanced at Zhu Jingui, feeling that this guy didn't look like his real father at all.
It is not difficult to make wine. Most farmers in Shuanghe Village can make wine. The children in the village are mostly aware of the basic process of brewing wine, so it is not very difficult to learn. The difficulty lies in making choruses. In the entire Shuanghe Village, Zhu Jingui's family is the one who knows how to make choruses. Many people in the village used to buy choruses from Zhu Jingui, but later the choruses produced by Zhu Jingui are not as good as those bought at the market, so the people in the village now basically go to a reliable place to buy choruses when they go to the market.
Even if the wine chorus cannot be sold, Zhu Jingui will close the door when making wine chorus and will not let others see it, especially for some key steps. This time, Zhu Jingui would not have taught Zhang Jidong. It may be considered a craft that has been passed down for his family, but for Zhang Jidong, such a craft is hard to see. Who doesn’t know that even if Zhang Jidong sits at home, the dividends of two shops a month will be enough for him to spend.
The process of making music is actually not complicated. The most important thing is to follow the music. You can read the other processes by just reading them once. It was difficult for Zhang Jidong to learn things in the past, but making music is much easier than practicing magic. He basically learned it after just reading them once.
"It's so easy to make a music?" Zhang Jidong couldn't believe it.
"Actually, the key is the type of music. Otherwise, I would always have to close the door when I make the music. If someone else saw it, I would learn it all at once. Where can I have this food?" Zhu Jingui said with a wry smile.
"This is strange. Grandpa Youquan can make such a good song, why can't you make it well?" Zhang Jidong was very puzzled.
"I can't understand either. I did it in one step, I did it according to my father's method at that time. But the wine brewed didn't taste right." Zhu Jingui was very upset.
"Is it a question of the combination of these kinds of wine choruses?" Zhang Jidong asked.
"The matching was also based on the proportions of my father at that time. Why was it wrong?" Zhu Jingui said.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter whether the ratio is right or not. I'll try it a few times first. I'll figure out the koji and winemaking. Then I'll consider the matching issue." Zhang Jidong said.
In the following days, Zhang Jidong was almost soaked in Zhu Jiucheng's house. He ran to Zhu Jiucheng's house as soon as it was dawn and went home at night. Every day, he made koji wine. He brewed more than a dozen pots of wine in a row, filling all the jars of Zhu Jiucheng's family. The wine brewed was just ordinary, and it was even worse than Zhu Jin's expensive craftsmanship.
A pot of wine costs at least twenty kilograms of rice, and a dozen kilograms of rice is only hundreds of kilograms of rice. The wine brewed has a very bad taste, and these grains are basically wasteful, which naturally makes Zhu Jingui feel very distressed.
"Jidong, are you still brewing wine today?" Zhu Jiucheng asked.
"Continue, you have to brew a few batches of wine. First, you can practice your hands first, and then you can brew good wine." Zhang Jidong said.
"You are almost tossing my rice." Zhu Jiucheng smiled.
"Then go to my house to get rice." Zhang Jidong said.
"I'm kidding you. Didn't you see my parents feeling distressed? Isn't it just a few hundred kilograms of rice? It's only a thousand yuan in total. Besides, these wines are not completely unsold, and they can earn some back a little." Zhu Jiucheng didn't care. He didn't know that oil and salt are expensive if he was not in charge. Zhu Jiucheng didn't take this little food seriously.
"These wines are useful in the future, so let them be put there first and don't move." Zhang Jidong said.
After so many exercises, Zhang Jidong's koji winemaking process has mastered it well. He can perform various operations even with his eyes closed. Then he asked Zhu Jingui for the old koji he had preserved.
"These are all handed down by my father back then. I have been keeping it in a lime jar, but after so many years, it is hard to say whether this kind of music is still useful." Zhu Jingui took out a pack of wine chorus from a jar. Quicklime was placed in the lime jar, which could serve as a desiccant, and the things in the jar could be stored for a long time. However, no one can say how many years the chorus could be stored.
Zhang Jidong took the Quzi and sniffed it, but there was no odor, only a smell of quicklime. He used his spiritual sense to sweep the Quzi and could feel that the wine music seemed to have a little vitality.
This time, Zhang Jidong was very troubled by using old choruses to make wine choruses. He always noticed the changes in the choruses and injected some spiritual energy from time to time to make the vitality of the chorus more vigorous. On that day, the new chorus was prepared, and the aroma of the newly made wine chorus was much richer than the choruses made in the past.
"It's this taste!" Zhu Jingui sniffed the smell of this batch of new wine songs and shouted excitedly.
"Are you sure?" Zhang Jidong said.
"I'm sure it's this taste. When my father made music, I stood by my side. I will remember this taste for the rest of my life." Zhu Jingui said.
The aroma of this batch of koji produced by Zhang Jidong is indeed different from the koji I made before. I made several koji again and then started to make wine. I brewed several pots of wine at one time, but the combination of koji was different.
Everyone in the village heard that Zhu Jingui wanted to work with Zhang Jidong in a rice wine shop. Since Zhou Qingyong and Zhou Baocheng and Zhang Jidong made money, many people in the village wanted to make money with Zhang Jidong. But there was no suitable project. But everyone was not very optimistic about Zhu Jingui's wine.
Chapter completed!