Using local methods to make distiller’s yeast in rural areas was most popular in the early 1980s, because farmers had a surplus of grain to make rice wine. At that time, my family made 20 sun-dried distiller’s yeast every year. One kilogram of distiller’s yeast can brew about one hundred kilograms of glutinous rice to brew earth-made rice wine. My neighbors would come to my house more than a month before the Chinese New Year to ask for the liquor. At that time, the local dialect for sprinkling of distiller’s yeast was called Baiyao, because the color of the liquor itself is white, so we call it Baiyao in rural areas.

So what kind of herbal medicine is used to make distiller’s yeast? This herb is called Xiao La Polygonum in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", because there are two types of herb, one is Da La Polygonum and the other is Polygonum grandiflorum. The first species is Polygonum spp., and the other two types are invisible to outsiders. The leaves of Polygonum spp. are slightly smaller, and the triangular black spots in the middle of the leaves are more intense. You can also bite the Polygonum spp. with your mouth. It is a bit spicier than the big spicy polygonum. If you can distinguish the above characteristics, then this is the small spicy polygonum used for making distiller's yeast.

So how to make distiller’s yeast medicine? In rural areas, when summer is over and the Polygonum spp. next to small ditches or river ponds are blooming and about to bear fruit, cut these Polygonum spp. and expose them to the sun. 3 After 4 days, dry it and hang it on the wall for a period of time. Take out the dried Polygonum spp. and put it in a large pot with water. Boil the water until the color of the water turns dark brown. Then pick up the Polygonum dregs and pour it out. Cool the polygonum water thoroughly, then put the rice flour ground into the polygonum water, add pumpkin flowers and stir, then knead it with your hands until it is as dry and wet as glutinous rice balls, and then grind the powder with your hands. The dough is kneaded into the same size as glutinous rice balls. However, there are a variety of materials used in making koji medicine in various places, and the methods are also different, resulting in the taste of the wine having its own characteristics.

So how do wet rice flour balls the size of glutinous rice balls turn into medicine? First, we take a pound of old white medicine, which is the old distiller’s yeast medicine. Because it is dry and round, we put it Make it into a flour shape, then dip the surface of the glutinous rice ball-shaped wet rice flour balls one by one with old distiller's yeast, and then put them into a round sieve mat woven with moso bamboo. However, the moso bamboo sieve must be filled with dry straw, and the Put the rice flour dough of the old medicine on top, and then put the moso bamboo sieve into a dark, non-ventilated place, usually at a temperature of about 20 degrees for three days and three nights, and then take it out and you will see that there are about 3 to 4 centimeters of white on it. When the hair has grown, expose it to the sun until it dries. Then you are done and the distiller's yeast medicine is ready.