Beijing Zhoufuji Erguotou

Beijing Zhoufuji Erguotou was invested and founded by Zhou Tongfu, the old factory director and one of the founders of Red Star Group. In order to inherit the traditional brewing skills of old Beijing Erguotou liquor and promote the unique liquor cultural characteristics of Erguotou, Mr. Zhou Tongfu began to learn the brewing technology of liquor in the 1940s. He selflessly dedicated his learning to the Red Star Liquor Industry throughout his life and devoted himself to studying the unique liquor culture of Erguotou. With more than 60 years of craftsmanship and technology, Mr. Zhou, an octogenarian and ambitious man, invested in and founded Zhou Fuji Liquor Industry, integrating many years of experience into it. Zhou Fuji is the first choice for authentic Erguotou.

There may be hundreds of brands of Erguotou.

Beijing Erguotou 65 degrees

Red Star Flat Bottle Erguotou 56 degrees

Koubei Erguotou 45 degrees

Porcelain Erguotou 46 degrees

Niulanshan Erguotou 52 degrees

I only write down a few old brands in Beijing to tell you, the others are private or small businesses:

Niulanshan brand, Shunxin Agriculture Beijing Niulanshan Winery. Shunxin Agriculture is a listed company.

Kyoto brand, Beijing Royal Kyoto Liquor Co., Ltd., formerly a military industrial enterprise in Beijing Garrison District.

Jingfeng brand, Beijing Erguotou Co., Ltd.

Tongzhou Brand, Beijing Tongzhou Winery, was acquired by Red Star.

Huadu brand/Mingling brand, Beijing Huadu Brewing Industry Co., Ltd., the original Changping District winery, has been restructured.

Badaling brand, Beijing Badaling Distillery, is currently discontinued.

As the name suggests, "Erguotou" is the "Guotou" wine made when the raw materials are fired in the second pot. This wine is the purest, has no peculiar smell, is high in concentration but not strong, and is really mellow and fragrant.

Erguotou liquor is a unique category of liquor originated in Beijing. Beijing has a long history of brewing liquor. The Jin Dynasty designated Beijing as the "Central Capital" and introduced wine steamers to brew shochu.

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the capital shochu workshops carried out technological reforms in order to improve the quality of shochu. The tin pot used as a cooler when steaming wine is also called a sky pot. When steaming wine, it is necessary to separate the distilled wine vapor, the "wine head" that flows out after being cooled by the cold water put into the tin pot for the first time, and the "wine head" that flows out after being cooled by the cold water that is put into the tin pot for the third time. "Wei" proposed other treatments, because the wine cooled in the first and third pots contained a variety of low-boiling and boiling-point material components, so only the wine that flowed out after being cooled by the cold water that was put into the tin pot for the second time was extracted. Therefore, it was called "Erguotou" and also called "Erleizi" in Beijing.

Erguotou Liquor uses sorghum as the main raw material, bran koji and yeast as the saccharification fermentation agent, and adopts the traditional "Laowu steamer" process. The raw materials are steamed, the auxiliary materials are steamed, and the low temperature is put into the pool for proper fermentation. , fire distillation, pinching off the head and tail, and aging and brewing. Due to its clear and transparent liquid, fragrant aroma, mellow quality, sweet and refreshing taste, strong liquor power, long staying power and long aftertaste, Erguotou liquor is highly recognized by consumers, and the Erguotou brand family is also becoming increasingly rich.

Yongfeng brand Beijing Erguotou, chat with friends who have had it.

Erguotou wine is known as the public ration wine. Because of its high cost performance and low price, almost everyone can afford it. When many people think of Erguotou wine, they think of Beijing. In fact, both historically and now, there are many provinces and cities in China that produce Erguotou.

Erguotou Liquor was first developed from Shaojiu in ancient China. "Beijing Chronicles" of the Ming Dynasty mentioned that "the Shaojiu of the capital and the pure cotton of Di". When brewing wine in a pot-shaking workshop, it is generally necessary to obtain the wine through cold water three times. The first time the wine is obtained is called the head of the wine, the second time is called the second pot, and the third time is called the tail.

During the Qing Dynasty, when steaming wine, brewing technicians in the capital removed the head of the wine flowing out of the first pot, the tail of the wine flowing out of the third pot, and took the middle part of the wine flowing out of the second pot, which was called " The process of "pinch off the head, remove the tail and cut off the middle" is the origin of Erguotou Liquor, which is also the earliest liquor named after a process in my country.

From the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the present, more than 95% of the Erguotou liquors produced in China are light-flavored liquors. Qingxiang wine is divided into three categories, namely Daqu Qingxiang, Xiaoqu Qingxiang and Fuqu Qingxiang.

At present, most of the domestic Erguotou wines are Fu Qu Qing Fragrance Liquor. Fu Qu Qing Fragrance Liquor saves food, has a short brewing cycle, and produces large amounts of wine. Therefore, Erguotou Liquor is generally priced at a low price and satisfies the public's drinking needs in an era of food shortages. .

Now when it comes to Erguotou, the most popular ones that come to mind are "Red Star Erguotou" and "Niulanshan Erguotou". Because Red Star Erguotou did not monopolize the trademark Erguotou back then, any wine that conforms to this production process can be called Erguotou. Let’s take a look at what Erguotou wines are available in China:

North China is the concentrated production area of ??Erguotou in China, and Beijing is the most concentrated production area of ??Erguotou wine in North China. For example, the most famous ones such as Red Star Erguotou, Niulanshan Erguotou, and Yongfeng Brand Beijing Erguotou are all from Beijing. Other famous Erguotou brands such as Kyoto Erguotou, Fangzhuang Erguotou, Yidanliang Erguotou, and Huadu Erguotou all come from Beijing.

There are dozens of Erguotou brands in Beijing, and Erguotou has long been integrated with the culture of old Beijing. Beijing’s Red Star Erguotou and Niulanshan Erguotou have become leaders in the domestic low-end wine industry. Erguotou has a history of 800 years. Red Star Erguotou spreads the skills of Erguotou. In 2008, the State Council of the People's Republic of China recognized the traditional brewing technique of Beijing Erguotou wine inherited by Red Star as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Inner Mongolia, the largest producer of fragrant wines, also has a variety of Erguotou wines. The style of Erguotou in Inner Mongolia is very similar to that in Northeast China. The stronger the taste, the purer the taste. Because Inner Mongolia is one of the major wine producing areas in China, it is normal for the wine to be stronger.

The Erguotou wines in Inner Mongolia are all fragrant wines. The famous local ones include Zharut Banner Erguotou, Shetai Erguotou, Mendaolv Erguotou and Wuhai Erguotou. For example, Wuhai Erguotou has an obvious grain, freshness and aroma, and is full in the mouth. It is obviously different from the mellowness of Luzhou-flavor wine. It is pure and sweet in the mouth.

In fact, it has a deep connection with Hebei Province, especially Hongxing Erguotou and Niulanshan Erguotou. After 1949, Shunyi County jointly produced four famous pots in the Niulan Mountain area: Gongli, Yixin, Kuisheng and Fushuncheng. In 1952, it established the "State-owned Niu Production Management Bureau of the Liquor Production Administration of the Industry Department of the People's Government of Hebei Province". Lanshan wine making." This is the predecessor of Niulanshan Winery, and it also produced the fragrant "Hongliang Daqu" before.

Initially, the trademark of Red Star Erguotou belonged to Shijiazhuang Winery. The first batch of "Red Star" Erguotou wine delivered to the Founding Ceremony was actually aged wine brewed in Shijiazhuang Winery. In 1954, the Ministry of Light Industry of the Central People's Government, the direct superior of the Shijiazhuang public brewery, issued a document to transfer the "Red Star" trademark to the state-owned Beijing Brewery. In the early days of the establishment of the Red Star Winery, many key technical personnel were transferred from Hebei Province. In addition, the Hebei Zhuoxian Brewery also produced Erguotou Liquor.

Shandong Province hardly produces fragrance wine, and there is no Erguotou brand now, but the reform of modern Erguotou is indeed in Shandong Province. In order to save food and increase production, in 1955, the local Ministry of Industry convened more than 100 brewing technical workers and professional cadres from 13 provinces and cities to implement pilot scientific and technological research in Yantai City, Shandong Province, and changed the raw materials of Erguotou to dried potato raw materials and green yeast. At the wine tasting meeting at the end of the year, the reformed Erguotou wine ranked 11th among 31 types of wine.

In 1963, the Yantai Experimental Factory carried out technical reforms again. In the experiment, the "dried potato raw materials, green yeast" were changed to "bran koji, distiller's yeast". The bran koji process used wheat bran and rice bran as the main ingredients. The raw materials of koji can replace the sorghum, corn, peas and other raw materials used in traditional Daqu, which can not only save food, but also maintain a certain degree of brewing flavor. This experiment laid the foundation for modern Erguotou. Now most domestic Erguotou have changed from Daqu technology to bran koji.

Taiwan’s liquor production technology is in the same vein as that of the mainland. Yushan Erguotou is a sorghum liquor from Taiwan. Although Taiwan's liquor does not follow the mainland's implementation standards, famous Taiwanese liquors such as Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, BaBa Daokeng, Yushan Erguotou, etc. are all fragrant liquors, but the production process is slightly different from the mainland's fragrant liquors.

Yushan Kaoliang Liquor was founded in 1950 and is affiliated to Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Co., Ltd.

In 1950, the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Monopoly Bureau and the Chiayi Winery built a red brick kiln in the Jinma area of ??Taipeng to produce Yushan sorghum wine with a unique flavor, which is still in use today. Different from Beijing-style Erguotou, Yushan Erguotou is aged for more than six months and is a light-flavor Daqu liquor with a compound aroma dominated by ethyl acetate.

Tianjin is also an important aromatic wine producing area in China. For example, the most famous aromatic wine brands are Zhigu Gaoliang Liquor and Yijuyong. Tianjin is not as obsessed with Erguotou as Beijing is. Because of the serious invasion of foreign wine in Tianjin, most of the local Erguotou is going extinct.

However, Tianjin is one of the three major production bases of Red Star Erguotou. From this point of view, some Red Star Erguotou should also be Tianjin specialties. Tianjin used to have Dengfu Erguotou, Zhigu Erguotou, Chunxiang Erguotou, and Erguotou produced by Yuyang Brewery, but most of them are no longer produced.

Shanxi Province is not only the largest fragrance wine production base in the country, but also the birthplace of domestic fragrance wine. All types of liquor related to fragrant liquor are produced in Shanxi, such as Erguotou, Laobaigan, fragrant Daqu, Xiaoqu, etc.

Currently, Red Star Erguotou has a winery in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. This winery was previously the winery of Shanxi famous liquor Liuquxiang. After being acquired by Red Star, it was changed into the production base of Red Star Erguotou. In the history of Shanxi Province, Erguotou wines such as Wenfeng Tower, Hengshan Erguotou, and Shanxi Erguotou also appeared.

Xiaojiaolou Erguotou is affiliated to Sichuan Yuanhong Xiaojiaolou Liquor Industry. It is a pure grain 52-degree strong-flavor liquor produced by the distillery. The price is around tens of yuan. Xiaojiaolou Liquor Industry is one of the "Ten Little Golden Flowers of Sichuan Liquor" and is also a time-honored product in China. Xiaojiaolou Erguotou is known as the "Sichuan-style strong-flavor Erguotou" and is one of the few non-flavored Erguotou.

Xiaojiaolou Liquor follows the ancient brewing process passed down by our ancestors for hundreds of years, draws on the underground sweet spring water of Bajiao Well in Daba Mountain, and uses traditional strong-flavor multi-grain and single-grain cross ingredients to produce Erguotou liquor. The taste is soft and mellow, with a distinct aftertaste, which is completely different from the fragrant Erguotou style.

In the past few decades of liquor development, about a dozen provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) have produced Erguotou liquor, but few have persisted. In addition to the above-mentioned provinces, some Erguotou are also produced in parts of the northeast and northwest, such as Guxiayan Erguotou in Ningxia.

Erguotou Liquor has always been positioned as a popular liquor. We cannot afford to drink Moutai and Wuliangye, but it is good to enjoy a bottle of Erguotou every day.