Make your own liquor

In the era we live in, food safety is very worrying. In order to reduce the cost of making wine, some unscrupulous vendors use methanol instead of ethanol to make liquor, which makes many people who love drinking dare not drink the wine bought in the store. Therefore, many people want to make their own liquor. Today let us learn about the raw material formula and production process of making our own liquor.

1. Raw material formula

Any raw material containing starch and sugar can be used to brew liquor, but the flavors of liquor brewed from different raw materials are different.

1. Grains such as sorghum, corn, and barley; potatoes such as sweet potatoes and cassava; sugar-containing raw materials such as sugarcane and beet residue and waste molasses can all be used to make wine.

2. Sorghum bran, rice bran, bran, rice washing water, starch residue, sweet potato seeds, beet heads and tails, etc. can all be used as substitute raw materials.

3. Wild plants, such as acorns, Jerusalem artichokes, pears, and golden cherry, can also be used as substitute raw materials.

2. Principle

my country's traditional liquor brewing process is a solid-state fermentation method, which requires the addition of some auxiliary materials during fermentation to adjust the starch concentration, maintain the softness of the mash, and maintain the water content. Commonly used auxiliary materials include rice husks, bran, corn cobs, sorghum husks, peanut skins, etc. In addition to raw materials and auxiliary materials, distiller's yeast and yeast are also needed. When producing liquor with starch as raw material, the starch needs to be hydrolyzed by a variety of amylases to produce sugar that can be fermented so that it can be used by yeast. This process is called saccharification, and the saccharifying agent used is called qu. Qu is a crude enzyme preparation that uses starch-based raw materials as culture medium to cultivate a variety of molds and accumulate a large amount of amylase. The commonly used saccharification kojis at present are Daqu, Xiaoqu and Gluten Qu. The most widely used in production is bran. In addition, sugar is converted into alcohol and other substances by the alcohol-degrading enzymes secreted by yeast, which is called alcoholic fermentation. The fermentation agent used in this process is called yeast starter.

3. Production method

1. The raw materials are crushed.

The purpose of crushing the raw materials is to facilitate cooking and make full use of the starch. The requirements for crushing fineness vary according to the characteristics of the raw materials. For raw materials such as dried potatoes and corn, more than 60% of them pass through a 20-hole sieve.

2. Ingredients.

Combine new materials, distiller's grains, auxiliary materials and water together to lay the foundation for saccharification and fermentation. The ingredients should be determined according to the size of the steamer and pit, the amount of starch in the raw materials, the temperature, the production process and the fermentation time. The specific manifestation of whether the ingredients are appropriate depends on the starch concentration entering the pool, the acidity and looseness of the mash. Generally, a starch concentration of 14-16%, an acidity of 0.6-0.8, and a moisture content of 48-50% are appropriate.

3. Cooking and gelatinization.

Cooking is used to gelatinize starch. It is beneficial to the action of amylase and can also kill miscellaneous bacteria. The cooking temperature and time depend on the type of raw materials, degree of crushing, etc. Generally, the material is steamed at normal pressure for 20 to 30 minutes. The requirements for steaming are that the food is steamed thoroughly on the outside, cooked but not sticky, and has no raw core inside. Mix the raw materials and the fermented mash, and steam the wine and the materials at the same time, which is called "mixed steaming and mixed burning". In the early stage, the wine is mainly steamed, and the temperature in the steamer is required to be 85-90℃. After steaming the wine, it should be maintained for a period of gelatinization time. If the wine and ingredients are steamed separately, it is called "steaming and cooking".

4. cool down.

For the steamed raw materials, the material should be cooled rapidly by lifting or drying the residue to reach a temperature suitable for the growth of microorganisms. If the air temperature is between 5 and 10°C, the product temperature should be reduced to 30 to 32°C. If the air temperature is between 10 and 15°C, the product temperature should be reduced to 25 to 28°C. In summer, the temperature should be reduced to a level where it no longer drops. Throwing or drying the residue can also volatilize odors and absorb oxygen.

5. Stir the mash.

Solid-state fermentation of glutinous rice wine adopts a bilateral fermentation process of saccharification and fermentation. After the residue is removed, the koji and yeast are added at the same time. The amount of koji used depends on its saccharifying power, and is generally 8-10% of the main ingredients of brewing. The amount of yeast used is generally 4-6% of the total input amount (that is, 4-6% of the main ingredients are used to cultivate the yeast). In order to facilitate the normal progress of the enzymatic reaction, water should be added when mixing the mash (called adding slurry in the factory), and the moisture content of the mash should be controlled at 58-62% when entering the pool.

6. Fermentation in cellar.

When entering the cellar, the temperature of the mash should be between 18 and 20°C (not exceeding 26°C in summer). The mash entering the cellar should not be pressed too tightly or too loose. Generally, it is appropriate to load about 630 to 640 kilograms of mash per cubic meter of volume. After loading, cover the mash with a layer of bran, seal it with cellar mud, and then add another layer of bran. The fermentation process mainly involves controlling the temperature and analyzing the changes in the moisture, acidity, alcohol content, and starch residue of the mash at any time. The length of fermentation time is determined by various factors and can range from 3 days to 4 to 5 days. Generally, fermentation ends when the temperature in the cellar rises to 36-37°C.

7. Steamed wine.

The fermented and mature mash is called fragrant mash, which contains extremely complex ingredients. By distilling the wine, the alcohol, water, higher alcohols, acids and other effective ingredients in the mash are evaporated into steam, and then cooled to obtain white wine. During distillation, alcohol, aromatic substances, sweet substances, etc. should be extracted as much as possible, and impurities should be removed as much as possible by pinching off the head and tail.