1. Raw material treatment: Daqu is widely used in China. The basic processes and procedures of raw material treatment are fine grinding or crushing, moistening (soaking rice), steaming (steaming rice), spreading and cooling (sprinkling water to cool down), turning over materials, and fermenting in tanks or pits.
2. Daqu-making: Daqu-making is made of starch-containing grains (including barley, wheat and bran), beans, potatoes and fruits containing glucose as raw materials and culture media, which are crushed and made into blocks or cakes by adding water, and cultivated at a certain temperature. Daqu is rich in microorganisms and culture medium components, such as mold, bacteria, yeast, lactic acid bacteria and so on. There are Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Mucor and other beneficial strains in mold. Qu is the carrier of various enzymes used in wine making, but it has a great influence on the quality of wine, so Qu is the mother of wine.
3. Starch saccharification: Sugar raw materials can only be fermented by leavening agents containing microorganisms such as yeast; As for starchy cereal raw materials, because yeast itself does not contain glucoamylase, and starch is composed of many glucose molecules, it is necessary to gelatinize starch to make it into dextrin, oligosaccharide and fermentable sugar when making wine with starchy cereal. Saccharifying agent contains not only enzymes that can decompose starch, but also some other enzymes that can decompose fat, protein and pectin in raw materials. Daqu and malt are commonly used saccharifying agents in wine making; Daqu is a product composed of cultivated molds and lactic acid bacteria such as grains and bran. Some natural Daqu and Xiaoqu cultivated by non-artificially isolated microorganisms often have the dual functions of saccharifying agent and fermenting agent.
4. Alcohol fermentation: Alcohol fermentation is the main stage of brewing, and sugar raw materials can be directly converted into alcohol by microorganisms such as yeast or bacteria. Alcohol fermentation is a very complicated biochemical process, which requires a series of enzymes. Alcohol is the main product of the fermentation process. In addition to alcohol, other substances synthesized by microorganisms such as yeast and inherent components in sugar raw materials, such as aromatic compounds, organic acids, tannins, vitamins, minerals, salts, esters, etc. , often determines the quality and style of wine.
5. Distilled liquor: The so-called distilled liquor is a process of concentrating and separating alcohol from the original wine by heating and using the difference of boiling points, and cooling to obtain highly alcoholic wine. At normal atmospheric pressure, the boiling point of water is 100℃, and the boiling point of alcohol is 78.3℃. When black liquor is heated between two temperatures, it will produce a lot of alcoholic steam. When this steam is collected in the pipeline and condensed, it will be separated from the original wine, thus forming wine with high alcohol content. In the distillation process, the alcohol in the original juice liquor is distilled and collected, and the alcohol concentration is controlled. Flavonoids in the original juice wine will also be distilled together, so that the distilled wine has a unique aroma and taste.
6. Aging: Liquor has vitality. The completion of a series of processes such as saccharification, fermentation and distillation does not mean that the whole brewing process is over. The newly brewed wine has not completely completed the material transformation that reflects the style of the wine. Its wine quality is generally poor, and the wine body lacks fullness, so the new wine must be aged in a specific environment. After a period of storage, the mellow wine quality was finally formed and deepened. This process of cellar storage of newly brewed wine is usually called aging.
7. Blending and seasoning: Blending and seasoning process is a process of mixing, adjusting and proofreading different kinds, different years and different places of origin according to a certain proportion and referring to the wine quality standard of finished wine. Blending adjustment can continuously obtain balanced and coordinated wine with stable quality and traditional and authentic style.