The brewing technology of wine two thousand years ago is very different from that of modern liquor. Two million years ago BC, people stored inexhaustible wild fruits, and there was no way to keep them fresh. Fermentable sugar contained in wild fruit meets mold and yeast in the air and is fermented to form naturally brewed fruit wine. So people have mastered microorganisms? Mold? The law of biological reproduction, using grain to make koji medicine to make wine. The wine at this time still belongs to fermented wine, and its alcohol content is relatively low. Different from the popularity of modern distilled liquor, this low-alcohol fermented liquor has long occupied the mainstream of liquor consumption in China.
According to Wang Saishi of Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, distilled liquor originated in Yuan Dynasty. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, what was it about? Soju? 、? Steamed wine? Scattered historical data, but before the Song Dynasty, shochu did not belong to the category of distilled liquor, but refers to the grain fermented wine after low-temperature heating. With the appearance of distillers in Yuan Dynasty, distilled liquor officially entered the historical stage. In the yuan dynasty, steamed wine was called by people at that time? Araghi? The etymology is Arabic? Arak? , is it? Sweating and shochu? The meaning of. Soju is the main name of distilled liquor in China in Yuan Dynasty. The highest concentration of distilled liquor in Yuan Dynasty is about 70%, while the highest concentration of traditional fermented liquor before Song Dynasty can reach 20? .
In addition to the difference in brewing technology and alcohol content, the color of fine wine two thousand years ago is also very different from now. Most of the wines thousands of years ago were green, but now the wines are transparent and yellowish. Bai Juyi wrote in the poem "Drunk with Li Eleven and Remember Yuan Jiu". There is a ray of green in the old bottle and a ray of red in the quiet stove? The green foam on the surface of wine is also called wine. In ancient times, bronzes were mostly used as wine containers. After a long time, copper ions will appear green when they are melted into wine. Moreover, the ancient wine brewing was rough, and even the distiller's grains were not filtered out, so the wine surface was covered with a layer of light green bad bubbles. So there was wine in ancient times? Green wine? Known as.
Liquor, which is popular now, was not accepted by the upper class before the founding of New China. Distilled liquor was still in the drinking range of the civilian class until the Ming and Qing Dynasties and was not accepted by the upper class. What's in Qingshiduo? Yellow rice wine is expensive to buy, and white wine is cheap to buy. The reciting of sentences is a true portrayal of this phenomenon at that time. This phenomenon was gradually broken in the Qing Dynasty, and liquor gradually became the mainstream. For the reason of this phenomenon, Wang Saishi thinks it is:? Since the mid-Qing Dynasty, people's living standards have been declining, and the drinking economic value of liquor is more cost-effective. ? Specifically, the alcohol content of yellow rice wine is low, but the price is high, so it is not easy to get drunk when drinking in large quantities, and the total drinking cost is high. As time goes on, people gradually accept high alcohol.
Our popular wine is named after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). "Overview of China Liquor" mentioned that China liquor is also called shochu, kaoliang liquor and white dry liquor. Liquor is called liquor because its liquor is colorless. After the founding of New China, the name liquor was unified to replace the previously used names such as shochu or sorghum.
Of course, the above discussion is only the tip of the iceberg of China wine history, and more details need to be explored and discovered.