Chinese wine culture has a long and profound history, and the world of alcoholic beverages is vast and intricate. Drinking has become an integral part of Chinese people’s lives. As the saying goes, “Wine is the essence of grains; the more you drink, the younger you feel.” So, here comes the question: How is Baijiu brewed? In this issue, the wine critic will join fellow wine enthusiasts to witness the magical process of Baijiu brewing.
In fact, the principle of brewing is relatively simple in theory—it involves using microorganisms to ferment and produce beverages containing a certain concentration of alcohol. However, the actual operation is far more complex. Generally speaking, the creation of a bottle of Baijiu goes through several steps: ingredient selection, starter-making, fermentation, distillation, aging, blending, and bottling. Below, the wine critic will do his best to present the details in plain and easy-to-understand language:
1. Ingredient Selection
- Raw materials: Grains like sorghum, corn, wheat, rice, glutinous rice, barley, buckwheat, and highland barley, along with beans (excluding tubers, fruits, and vegetables), serve as the main ingredients.
- Quality requirements: These crops should be uniform, plump, fresh, free from insect damage, mildew, at an appropriate dryness level, and free from sediment, strange odors, and other impurities.
Water and some auxiliary materials are also crucial. Remember the saying, “Water is the blood of wine” and “Good water makes good wine”? That perfectly sums up how important water is in brewing.
2. Starter-Making
The starter is like the “bone” of wine, and making it is super important in brewing. When we look at how grains are used to make alcohol around the world, there are two main ways. One way is to let grains sprout, and the enzymes from sprouting turn the starches in grains into sugars. Then, yeast turns those sugars into alcohol—this is how beer is made. The other way is to use moldy grains to make a starter. The enzymes in the starter help turn the grains into wine through a process called saccharification, which is turning starch into glucose. And yep, Baijiu is made using this second method!
This brick-like thing? That’s the starter.
3. Fermentation
Only Baijiu made with solid materials throughout the whole process—from mixing ingredients, steaming grains, saccharification, fermentation, to distilling—can be called solid-state fermented Baijiu. During fermentation, the sugars made in the last step are turned into alcohol.
4. Distillation
The alcohol from fermentation alone isn’t very strong. To boost the alcohol content, we need to distill it. We usually use a zeng barrel (that’s a traditional distillation container, kind of like a wooden barrel with a grate at the bottom for air to pass through, except for the semi-solid method). Sometimes, we even pour leftover liquid and wine tails into the bottom of the pot during distillation. After distilling, the raw wine is pretty strong, but wines from different batches taste and feel different, so we store them separately.
5. Aging
Aging, or as we also say, maturation, is what makes “wine get better with age”. The strong raw wine from distillation is just a half-finished product—it’s harsh and not smooth. It needs to sit in a special place for a while to age naturally. Then it becomes soft, tasty, and super fragrant. Ceramic jars are the best for storing wine. For bigger storage, we can use stainless steel, but try to avoid aluminum containers. And remember, we should always let the wine age naturally—no using chemical shortcuts!
6. Blending
Yes, blending! Some people in the industry call it “blending and adjusting” to avoid confusion, but our kind of blending is totally different from the sketchy “mixing three essences with water” you might have heard of. Here, we mix wines from different batches and grades, along with flavoring wines. But adding artificial esters or flavors that don’t come from Baijiu fermentation? That’s a big no-no!
The raw wine from the zeng has an alcohol content of 70 – 85 proof, but it doesn’t taste right yet. Since wines from different batches vary, we blend them to make the taste consistent, get rid of impurities, balance the flavors, lower the alcohol level, and make it ready for you to enjoy.
7. Bottling
Once the blended wine passes all the quality checks, it’s time to bottle it up, stick on a label, and send it out to the market for you to try!