Shanghai yellow wine traditional brewing process of yellow wine name

Yellow wine belongs to brewing wine, and the degree of alcohol is usually about 15 degrees.

Yellow wine, as the name suggests, is yellow-colored wine. Some people translate the name "yellow wine" as "Yellow Wine", which is not appropriate. The color of yellow wine is not always yellow. In ancient times, when wine filtration technology was not mature, the wine was cloudy and was called "baijiu" or cloudy wine. The color of yellow wine is now also black or red, so it should not be taken literally. The essence of yellow wine is that it is made from cereal grains, and since the word "rice" can be used to represent cereal grains, it is more appropriate to call it "rice wine". Rice Wine" is now commonly used for yellow wine.

In contemporary times, yellow wine is a generic term for grain brewing wine, and grain-based brewing wine (excluding distilled spirits) can be categorized as yellow wine. Although yellow wine as a collective term for grain brewing, but some areas of folk brewing, and confined to local sales of wine still retains some of the traditional title, such as Jiangxi's water wine, Shaanxi's thick wine, Tibet's barley wine, such as hard to say that they are yellow wine, the local people may not be able to accept.

In ancient times, "wine" was a generic term for all liquors, and in the historical period when distilled spirits did not yet exist, "wine" was brewed spirits. After the emergence of distilled soju, it is more complicated, "wine" this name is both the collective name of all wine, in some occasions, but also the collective name of the grain brewing wine, such as Li Shizhen in the < < Materia Medica > > in the liquor at that time is divided into three major categories: wine, soju, wine. One of the "wine" section, are all grain brewing wine, because wine is a general term for all wines, but also a general term for grain brewing wine, after all, there should be a general term that only includes grain brewing wine. Therefore, the emergence of yellow wine as a specialized name for grain-brewed wine is not accidental.

Huangjiu, in the Ming Dynasty, may be specifically referred to brewing time is longer, darker color of rice wine, and "baijiu" with "baijiu" to distinguish the Ming Dynasty "baijiu" is not the current distilled liquor, such as the Ming Dynasty has "three white wine ", is brewed with white rice, white quartz and white water, brewing time is relatively short wine, wine color turbid, white. The formation of yellow wine (or brown and other dark colors), mainly in the cooking or storage process, the sugar in the wine and amino acids to form a Melad reaction, resulting in pigmentation. There are also pigments made by adding caramel (called "sugar color") to deepen its color. In the Ming Dynasty, Dai Xi edited the & lt; & lt; Yang Yu monthly order & gt; & gt; Volume XI, there are: "Where the yellow wine and white wine, less into the soju, it is not sour through the night". From this reference can be clearly seen between yellow wine, white wine and shochu, yellow wine refers to the brewing time is longer old wine, white wine refers to the brewing time is shorter rice wine (generally with white quartz, i.e., the rice quartz as a saccharification fermentation agent). In the Ming Dynasty, the exclusivity of the name Huangjiu was not yet very strict, and although it could not include all grain-brewed wines, at least those brewed on a larger scale throughout the south, which were treated with coloring in the brewing process, could be included. To the Qing Dynasty, the production of brewing wine around the preservation, but the old Shaoxing wine, rice wine popular throughout the country, this kind of wine marketed throughout the country, high quality, the color is generally darker, may be with the "yellow wine" the name of the final establishment of a certain relationship. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty had a special liking for Shaoxing wine. During the Qing Dynasty, there was already a so-called ban on shaoxing wine, but not yellow wine. In the Republic of China period, yellow wine as a collective name for grain brewing wine has basically been established. Huangjiu was categorized as an indigenous wine (domestic wines were called indigenous wines to show that they corresponded to imported foreign wines).

The development of China's brewing technology can be divided into two stages, the first stage is the natural fermentation stage, after thousands of years, the traditional fermentation technology from the conception, development and even maturity. Even in contemporary times, natural fermentation technology has not completely disappeared. Some of the mysteries are still to be solved. People mainly make wine by experience, the scale of production is generally small, basically manual operation. The quality of the wine is not guaranteed by a set of credible testing indicators.

The second phase began in the Republic of China, due to the introduction of Western scientific and technological knowledge, especially microbiology, biochemistry and engineering knowledge, the traditional brewing technology has undergone a great change, people know the brewing microcosmic mystery, the production of labor intensity is greatly reduced, the level of mechanization to improve the quality of wine is more secure.