What was the ancient method of brewing wine?

In ancient times, our ancestors may first come into contact with some naturally fermented wines and then imitate them. There are many records about the natural fermentation of fruit into wine in China ancient books. For example, in the Song Dynasty, Zhou Mi recorded that Yamanashi was stored in a clay pot and turned into pear wine. In addition, the milk of animals contains protein and lactose, which can be easily fermented into wine. Ancestors who lived by hunting may also get milk wine from the retained milk by accident. There is a kind of "fermented cheese" in Huangdi Neijing, which is the earliest record of milk wine in China. According to ancient legends and brewing principles, the most primitive wine varieties consciously brewed by human beings should be fruit wine and milk wine. Because fruit and animal milk are easy to ferment into wine, the required brewing process is relatively simple.

About 7350 years ago, we found "grain accumulation 100 cubic meter, which is equivalent to 50,000 kilograms" in the ruins of magnetic mountain culture, China, and also found some pottery similar to later wine vessels, which indicates that there may have been grain brewing at that time. Jiang Tong of Jin Dynasty in China wrote in "Wine Patent": "The prosperity of wine originated from the emperor, or the cloud changed to the emperor, and the cloud Du Kang. Some can't be eaten, and the rest are empty, which has been stagnant for a long time. It is not surprising that this is the reason. " It is believed that raw grain wine-making is not intentional, but discovered unintentionally, and the viewpoint that leftovers are naturally fermented into wine is put forward. Jiang Tong was the first person to put forward the theory of grain natural fermentation in the history of China. By the Shang Dynasty, China had got rid of the original brewing of wine and began to enter the stage of koji-making and wine-making. "Shangshu" contains: "The work of wine and mash, you are only a tiller." Tillers are distiller's yeast, which is a saccharifying starter for wine making. In other words, more than 3,200 years ago, China had already made wine with distiller's yeast. Liquor-making by distiller's yeast, which integrates saccharification and fermentation, is called "double fermentation", which has always been the source of grain brewing technology with unique national style in China and an unprecedented creation in the history of world brewing. Relevant experts made a specific description of this: "Before and after the emergence of agriculture, the method of storing food was extensive. Natural grains will be moldy and germinate when they are wet, and the remaining cooked grains will also be moldy. These moldy and germinated grains are natural tillers in ancient times. After they are soaked in water, they will ferment into wine, which is natural wine. People have been in constant contact with natural tillers and natural wine, and gradually accepted the drinking of natural wine, so they invented artificial tillers and artificial wine. Over time, they invented artificial tillers and artificial wine. " "The koji-making method generally takes rice, barley, sorghum and other grains as raw materials, gelatinizes the grains through cooking, uses the metabolism of Aspergillus and yeast to make koji, and finally ferments the koji to make wine. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, China's koji-making and wine-making techniques have made continuous achievements. " "The Book of Rites and the Moon Order" mentioned six points for attention in making wine with koji: "The rice must be neat, the millet must be neat, the water must be clean, the water must be fragrant, the pottery must be good, and the fire must be neat. "It is required that the grain used for brewing must be mature, the koji medicine must be put in time, the soaking and cooking must be kept clean, the water quality used for brewing must be good, the utensils must be made of good pottery, and the temperature must be appropriate. This is actually a scientific summary of China ancient wine-making technology. Due to the development of koji-making technology in Han dynasty, different grains can be used to make koji, thus increasing the variety of wine. The Book of Qi Yao Min in the Northern Wei Dynasty specifically talked about the methods of making koji and making wine. Among the listed 12 koji-making methods, two are fragmented Sanqu, and 10 is pancake koji, which is still the most commonly used koji for making sorghum wine. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, koji-making technology was further developed, and there were more varieties of wine. During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was also a monograph on brewing-Beishan Jiujing.

The main cereal wine in western countries has long been fermented with maltose and yeast. Until the 1990s (19), the Frenchman Kalmat introduced distiller's yeast from China and applied it to alcohol production, named it "amino method", which broke through the traditional technology of brewing wine with malt.