When it comes to wine, we usually drink white wine, beer, etc., but once when I went to eat noodles, I found that there was a rice wine seller inside. After ordering a bowl, I found that it was almost the same as rice wine. Is this rice wine? Is it rice wine?

What materials are used to make rice wine?

Rice wine is a type of rice wine. It is made from rice. Unlike white wine, its color is not Transparent, but light yellow. Depending on the amount of sugar contained in rice wine, rice wine can be divided into four types: dry rice wine, semi-dry rice wine, sweet rice wine and semi-sweet rice wine. Rice wine has a rich flavor and is an indispensable seasoning in cooking.

The brewing method of rice wine

1. Making koji

Before brewing rice wine, the koji must be made half a year in advance. Generally, the koji is made in the hot weather. Production, using wheat kernels, yeast, hemp leaves, etc. to make traditional koji after filling and fermentation. The rice wine brewed using this koji is full of aroma and is more traditional and simple.

2. Rice soaking

The time for rice wine brewing is generally chosen near the twelfth lunar month of each year. Due to the low temperature in the twelfth lunar month, millet is not easy to deteriorate when soaked in water. At the same time, the low temperature can ensure The slow fermentation of millet rice wine can prevent the temperature from being too high and the wine quality will easily become sour. Furthermore, there are no mosquitoes in the weather in the twelfth lunar month, which can prevent the rice wine from being contaminated by mosquitoes and deteriorating.

To make rice wine, you need to use millet specially used for cooking wine, commonly known as wine rice. This millet is different from the millet we usually see in shopping malls. The millet in shopping malls is commonly known as rice, which is specially used for cooking rice. , the wine rice used here is wine rice. Friends who try to make it themselves must find out before selling it. If there is no wine rice for sale in the local market, you can choose to use glutinous rice instead. There is not much difference in the taste of rice wine. Millet should be soaked about 24 hours in advance in winter, and can be placed indoors to avoid freezing at low temperatures outdoors. At the same time, the millet should always be submerged in water to prevent it from becoming crispy when leaving the water. The cooked wine residue becomes a thin paste.

After the millet is fully soaked, wash it repeatedly several times before picking it up and placing it in a bamboo basket to drain the water. Full soaking can ensure that the millet is cooked thoroughly and not raw during the process of cooking the rice wine. Draining the water from the millet can be done half an hour before cooking the wine.

3. Preparing the song

This is another major raw material for brewing rice wine. The brown ring in the wheat Daqu is caused by the fermentation of millet. This is a sign of high-quality Daqu. , it smells like rotten wheat, but it is this smell that creates the mellow aroma of rice wine.

Before brewing rice wine, the wheat Daqu should be chopped into medium-sized pieces and can be easily mixed with cooked millet. When cutting Daqu, remember not to be contaminated with salt, moisture, grease, etc. to prevent the rice wine from deteriorating during the fermentation process. During the storage of wheat Daqu, it is inevitable that moisture will return. After chopping the Daqu, it can be exposed to the sun to allow the water to evaporate and avoid the deterioration of rice wine caused by raw water.

4. Cooking wine

Before brewing rice wine, the tiles around the pot should be cleaned to avoid the sticky millet spilling and wasting during the wine cooking process. First put two-thirds of the water in the pot to boil and wait until the millet is added.

After the water in the pot is boiled, you can add millet. The ratio of millet to water must be well controlled. Too much water will produce a light-colored wine with poor quality. If there is less water, the millet will easily react. Raw, rice wine easily becomes sour.

After putting the millet into the pot, stir it constantly. It is best to use a handle made of toona wood to stir, so that the wine will be more mellow. Continuous stirring will help the millet heat evenly and avoid scum forming on the bottom of the pot.

As the water in the pot continues to evaporate, the millet becomes more and more viscous. This is to increase the frequency of stirring. At the same time, it is necessary to watch the color change of the millet in the pot. If there is too little water, In this case, you can stir the millet and add boiling hot water around the pot. At this time, the water vapor is relatively large. If possible, you can turn on the exhaust fan in the city or do it outdoors.

As time goes by, the millet in the pot turns dark brown due to the high temperature, and it is almost ready. After the millet turns dark brown, you can twist the rice grains to see if there is a hard core. If If not, even if it is cooked, stop burning the fire at this time.

5. Mix the koji

Use a shovel to shovel the cooked millet into the dustpan prepared in advance. The heavier colored millet on top is caused by the high temperature at the bottom of the pot. This is an important sign of traditional brewing of rice wine, so when you drink rice wine and find black residue like millet in it, don’t think it is fake and blended rice wine. This just proves that it is purely hand-brewed rice wine.

Spread the cooked millet flat to facilitate heat dissipation. After it reaches temperature, you can mix in Daqu. If you put it at the bottom of the jar, you can mix a little more Daqu. If you put it on top, you can add a little less Daqu. , which is beneficial to the fermentation of rice wine. At the same time, old wine lees from previous years can also be used to help fermentation. Generally, one pound of wheat koji can ferment about ten pounds of millet.

6. Fermentation in the vat

Fermentation is an important step in brewing rice wine. Our handmade rice wine follows the ancient method and adopts the traditional winter brewing process of one brew in one winter. Brewing starts around the winter solstice every year. Due to the low indoor temperature and long fermentation time, the rice wine brewed in this way is richer in nutrients. Generally, the fermentation room temperature is controlled at about 10 degrees Celsius. Too high a temperature can easily lead to rapid fermentation of rice wine. Turn sour. Generally, winter-brewed rice wine can be pressed after three to six months.

7. Pressing

After a long fermentation, the rice wine must be pressed. Pressing is mainly to remove the lees in the rice wine and obtain the precipitated wine liquid. If you drink it by yourself , without filtering, it is more nutritious to drink rice wine with lees, and pressing is just for convenience of bottling and selling.

The rice wine pressing uses traditional gravity pressing, using wooden instruments to slowly precipitate the clear wine liquid through the gauze under the gravity of the rice wine itself.

8. Bottling

The last step - bottling, although the conditions are relatively simple and not as good as a modern filling production line, we will try our best to make it as clean and hygienic as possible , all bottles are new bottles formed at one time, and then rinsed with cold boiled water to ensure cleanliness and hygiene.

Which brand of rice wine is the best

1. Guyue Longshan

(Founded in 1664, China’s well-known trademark, China’s famous brand product, China’s 500 most famous Value brand, Zhejiang Guyue Longshan Shaoxing Liquor Co., Ltd.)

2. Kuaiji Mountain

(Founded in 1743, China’s well-known trademark, China’s famous brand product, Chinese time-honored brand, National Geographical Indication product , Kuaijishan Shaoxing Wine Co., Ltd.)

3. Shikumen-Hejiu

(China's well-known trademark, China's famous brand products, Shanghai's famous trademark, Shanghai's famous brand products, Chinese rice wine Top ten brands, Shanghai Jinfeng Liquor Co., Ltd.)

4. Tower Brand

(China's well-known trademarks, Chinese famous brand products, Chinese time-honored brands, Zhejiang Province famous trademarks, China's top ten Yellow rice wine brand, Zhejiang Tapai Shaoxing Wine Co., Ltd.)

5. Nuerhong

(Founded in 1919, a well-known trademark in China, a Chinese time-honored brand, a famous trademark in Zhejiang Province, and a high-tech in Zhejiang Province Enterprise, Shaoxing Nerhong Winemaking Co., Ltd.)

6. Jimo

(Established in 1949, Chinese time-honored brand, yellow rice wine green food, Shandong famous brand product, top ten Chinese rice wine brands, Shandong Provincial famous trademark, Shandong Jimo Yellow Wine Factory)

7. Xitang

(Founded in 1618, China’s well-known trademark, national origin mark, national geographical indication protected product, Zhejiang famous brand product , Zhejiang Jiashan Rice Wine Co., Ltd.)

8. Shazhou

(In 1886, it was a Chinese famous brand, a Chinese time-honored brand, a Chinese well-known trademark, and one of the drafting and formulation units of the national standard for rice wine, Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Brewing Co., Ltd.)

9. Shanhao

(Founded in 1958, China Famous Trademark, Zhejiang Famous Trademark, Top Ten Influential Chinese Rice Wine Brands, Top Ten Chinese Yellow Rice Wine Brands , Zhejiang Shanhao Liquor Group)

10. Guyue Tower

(China's well-known trademark, national high-tech enterprise, vice-president unit of the National Rice Wine Association, famous brand, scenic mountains and rivers in Hunan Biotechnology Co., Ltd.)

What kind of rice is used for rice wine

Raw materials for rice wine

Any rice can make wine, among which glutinous rice is the best.

At present, in addition to glutinous rice, japonica rice and indica rice are also often used as the main raw materials for rice wine brewing. High-quality and high-yielding glutinous rice varieties such as Jingyin 15, Xiangshuangnuo 4, Zaozhennuo, and Xiangxue Nuo, which were cultivated in the 1980s, provide favorable conditions for the use of glutinous rice raw materials in the production of rice wine Shenghu 24.

1. Glutinous rice

Glutinous rice is divided into two categories: japonica glutinous rice and indica glutinous rice. The starch of japonica glutinous rice is almost all amylopectin, while indica glutinous rice contains 0.2% to 4.6% amylose. Amylopectin has a loose structure and is easy to be cooked and gelatinized; amylose has a tight structure and consumes a lot of energy during cooking, absorbs a lot of water, and has a high rice yield.

When using glutinous rice to produce rice wine, in addition to meeting the general requirements for rice, fresh glutinous rice must also be used as much as possible. When aged glutinous rice is white, it is brittle, ferments quickly, and the rice has poor solubility; the lipids contained during fermentation are converted into aldehyde and ketone compounds with an odor due to oxidation or hydrolysis; the rice slurry water is often bitter and should not be used. Pay special attention to the fact that glutinous rice must not be mixed with other rice, otherwise it will cause the soaked rice to absorb water, uneven cooking and gelatinization, the rice grains to regenerate and age, and precipitate to produce acid, which will affect the quality of the wine and reduce the yield of the wine.

2. Japonica rice

Japonica rice contains 15% to 23% amylose. The yield per mu of amylose japonica rice is higher than that of glutinous rice. Rice grains with high protein content will appear fluffy, dry and dark in color when cooked. After cooling, they will become hard and the cooked rice will elongate. During cooking, hot water should be sprayed to make the rice grains fully absorb water and gelatinize completely to ensure the normal progress of saccharification and fermentation. The amylose content in japonica rice is related to the variety and is controlled by the genetic factors of the seeds. In addition, the climate during growth also has an impact.

3. Indica rice

Indica rice has a long and thin grain shape, low starch content, and is brittle when refined. It contains amylose proportion as high as 23%~35%. Hybrid late indica rice can be used to brew rice wine. Early and medium indica rice absorb more water during cooking, resulting in dry and fluffy rice grains, dark color, easy aging of starch, and low wine yield. Aged starch is difficult to saccharify during fermentation and becomes a nutrient source for acid-producing bacteria, causing the rice wine to become acidic and deteriorate its flavor. The amylose content directly affects the difficulty of cooking rice. We should try to use rice with a low amylose ratio and a high amylopectin ratio to produce rice wine.

4. Black rice

Black rice, also known as black rice, is a treasure of rice in my country. In ancient times, it was often used for palace consumption and was also called tribute rice. In terms of chemical composition, black rice is similar to ordinary rice in terms of starch, protein and other contents. It is especially rich in lysine and macro and trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron that are necessary for the human body. Liquor made from black rice is particularly rich in nutrients and has the effect of enhancing human metabolism.

5. Millet

Millet is used as raw material for the production of rice wine in the north. Millet, commonly known as rhubarb rice, has bright color, plump grains, and golden yellow rice grains. Rice is divided into three types: black, white, and yellow. The yellow millet with large black navel is the best, known as longan millet. It is easy to cook and gelatinize. It is a waxy variety and is suitable for wine making.

6. Corn

In recent years, some domestic manufacturers have begun to use corn as raw material to make rice wine, opening up new raw materials for rice wine. Our country's improved corn varieties include Golden Queen, Fangcha No. 2, Horse Tooth, etc. Corn is characterized by its rich fat content, which is mainly concentrated in the germ. The content reaches 30% to 40% of the dry matter of the germ. When making wine, it will affect the saccharification and fermentation and the flavor of the finished wine. The germ must be removed first.

Corn starch is stored in the endosperm. The starch granules are irregularly shaped, tightly packed, hard, and in a glassy state. Amylose accounts for 10% to 15%, and amylopectin is 85% to 90%. , yellow corn has a higher starch content than white corn. Corn starch has a high gelatinization temperature and is difficult to gelatinize during cooking. Pay attention to crushing during production, choose appropriate soaking time and temperature, and adjust cooking pressure and time to prevent aging and regeneration due to opaque cooking gelatinization, or excessive water content and rice grains. If it is too rotten, it will be unfavorable for fermentation and cause abnormal conditions such as high acidity and low alcohol content. Corn must be peeled, degerminated and made into corn grits before it can be used for wine making. Most of the protein contained in corn is alcohol-soluble protein, which is beneficial to the stability of wine.