Chapter 50: Distilled Liquor

After the banquet with Zhang Zhuo and Li Mo

Cheng Feng fell into silence once again

Although two figures of young master status were helping to find someone who could teach Medical Skill

Cheng Feng still felt the hope was slim

Cheng Feng began tinkering with distilled liquor at home; this was an idea he only came up with after having a little bit of interaction with Li Mo

That meal was valuable

But the Yunchun Brew that Li Mo cherished and kept was likely even more precious

Cheng Feng had even asked about the price of Yunchun Brew

Sorry, Yunchun Brew is a seasonal masterpiece

It only looks at the person, not the price

It is a special supply for people with status

Ordinary people are not worthy of it

Cheng Feng needs money now

To buy a house, buy women, buy servants,

Cheng Feng needs a place to arrange this whole family

It will also be easier to settle things when children are born later

Now that the three women in Room One are all pregnant, Cheng Feng feels that Room Two is almost there too

If he needs to speed up his cultivation progress next

Then the frequency of having fun naturally needs to keep up

Pregnancy is inevitable

Before, Cheng Feng only cared about struggling to survive

How could he have any leisure time to pay attention to things like liquor

The liquor that came with buying the house was the first time Cheng Feng had come into contact with it

Returning home, he prepared brush and ink

He wrote down all the methods and ways regarding distillation that he understood from his past life

And organized the content and sequence

1. Pour the fermented liquor into a steamer, heat the steamer with fire, and bring the liquor to a boil.

2. Place the Distiller on the steamer, ensuring the bottom of the Distiller is in contact with the steam from the steamer. The Distiller usually has a long neck and a spherical top.

3. Guide the steam by installing a conduit at the top of the Distiller to lead the steam into a cooling container.

4. Cool the steam: In the cooling container, use water or other cooling media to cool the steam. In this way, the steam will condense into liquid, which is the initially distilled liquor.

5. Collect the liquor: Collect the distilled liquor through an opening at the bottom or side of the Distiller.

6. Prepare the utensils: You need a large steamer, a copper or pottery Distiller, a cooling container (such as a wooden barrel or a large pottery jar), and some conduits.

Simple Distiller: Also known as an atmospheric Distiller, it is the most basic type of Distiller. It achieves the separation of mixtures by heating the mixture to vaporize it, and then cooling and condensing it in a condenser.

Cheng Feng drew and wrote out the required items and functions as much as possible

Then he found a famous blacksmith in the area to forge the Distiller

Although some styles were a bit strange, the blacksmith could still meet Cheng Feng's requirements

Carrying a strange apparatus

Cheng Feng brought Xiao Qing to the kitchen

He took a jar of the liquor he had kept earlier and began experiment after experiment

Burning firewood to steam the liquor

He placed the entire Distiller over the pot

The steamed liquor, after turning into mist, adhered to the inside of the Distiller's pipes

It condensed into large droplets along the side conduit and flowed down the pipe

To the large pottery jar wrapped in cold water next to it

Amidst the alternation of cold and heat, the distilled liquor slowly condensed and gathered in the pottery jar

A fragrance of liquor permeated the air

It was a liquor fragrance several times stronger than the liquor from the tavern

Smelling the liquor fragrance in the air

Cheng Feng knew he had already succeeded more than halfway

As long as there were no mistakes in the early stages, proving it could really be done according to the methods of his past life

The later stages were nothing more than a matter of slow improvement

Next, he tasted the newly produced distilled liquor

It was as if it had been brewed anew

Extraordinary

Looking at the results that appeared after more than ten days of failure

Cheng Feng was already very satisfied

The two jars of liquor from the house in the beginning were divided into several portions of liquor

When the experiments first started, either the heat was too high and it burned dry, or the fire was too small and there was no movement

Under Cheng Feng's command, Xiao Qing kept picking up firewood and adding it to the fire

But looking at the finished liquor product

Cheng Feng was not very satisfied.

The appearance and aroma were insufficient.

After drinking it, the taste also lacked character.

After the two jars of wine at home were used up and he was still unsatisfied,

Cheng Feng felt it might be because the amount he used was too small.

He used all of his remaining three taels of silver to buy Ordinary wine.

It was still the Ordinary wine from that Hu Family Winery.

Three large jars, six small jars.

A full sixty jin.

The old Shopkeeper of the Hu family did not care whether it was for weddings, funerals, or private consumption.

He sold it as long as he was paid.

This sale ended up selling out Cheng Feng's good news.

Watching it boil in the large pot,

trial after trial,

almost made Cheng Feng doubt himself.

Finally, he distilled a wine that Cheng Feng was relatively satisfied with.

Holding a small spoon, Cheng Feng finally confirmed the feasibility of distilled wine.

After that, it was time to continue experimenting.

Cheng Feng had tasted national liquors from his past life, such as Moutai and Wuliangye.

He could not brew them, but his refined palate remained.

Comparing the subsequent batches of distilled wine at different levels,

Cheng Feng removed the batches of wine that were not up to standard.

As for the remaining three types of wine,

based on their different concentrations, Cheng Feng also ranked them into three different levels.

According to the notes in Cheng Feng's own experimental journal from the past dozen days,

one unit of base wine is half a jin.

Sixty jin is 120 units of base wine.

After repeated distillation, three units of Ordinary wine can distill one unit of wine that is a cut above Ordinary wine,

enough to rival the premium selections in taverns.

After repeated distillation, five units of Ordinary wine can distill a wine similar to the ordinary industrial liquor of his past life.

Seven units of Ordinary wine can be repeatedly distilled into one unit of wine enough to rival the Second Pot Head of his past life.

Plus, removing the somewhat murky initial distilled wine, this requires repeated distillation.

This was so Cheng Feng would not waste anything.

And it was precisely these initial batches of wine that needed repeated distillation—

after being distilled five times, they produced a wine that even Cheng Feng could not stop praising.

The taste was mellow, with a long-lasting aftertaste.

Cheng Feng decided not to sell this wine.

He would keep it as his trump card.

In his precious handwritten notes,

the combination of Chinese characters and Arabic numerals was enough to make those learned scholars dizzy.

As for top-tier wines like Moutai and Wuliangye,

there were currently no conditions to achieve them.

But just the wine comparable to Second Pot Head

should be enough to dominate in this Qingxi County.

For the sake of security,

Cheng Feng named the wine comparable to premium tavern brews "Spring Dawn."

Cheng Feng named the industrial liquor that was a higher grade than Spring Dawn "Summer Injury."

Cheng Feng named the wine similar to Second Pot Head "Autumn Sorrow."

And there was one more trump card that Cheng Feng intended to call "Winter Hibernation."

Cheng Feng also tried using more Ordinary wine for distillation.

Unfortunately, his limited funds

restricted Cheng Feng's delusions.

Cheng Feng's wine was very simple.

After the Ordinary wine was distilled, the impurities in the liquor were removed.

The key lay in the Distiller and the underlying principles, which were not available here in Great Zhou.

You talk about water vapor; who understands that?

But if you talk about the white steam rising when the water in the pot boils,

look around, who here doesn't understand that?

Whose family hasn't boiled water???

Aside from the little bit of knowledge from watching videos in his past life.

The cost is just firewood and Ordinary liquor.

There is almost no special cost.

The Ordinary liquor Cheng Feng bought is also grain-based liquor.

It is equivalent to undergoing secondary processing and purification.

The taste, the color of the liquor, and the aroma have all been elevated by a grade.

And this is also Cheng Feng's basic entry-level product.

According to Li Mo, Yunchun Brew is mainly brewed using melted ice and snow from early spring mixed with ingredients.

Cheng Feng's liquor is entirely based on the foundation of the basic liquor.

It is merely raising the price.

Cheng Feng found a few small porcelain bottles.

He separated the distilled liquor he had tasted into grades according to its taste and aroma.

And he stuck labels on them.

He used the Chinese characters from his past life.

After that, he just waited to open up the market.

Autumn Sorrow also belongs to an extremely high-grade liquor.

Cheng Feng asks himself if it is not inferior to the Yunchun Brew treasured by Li Mo.

But Cheng Feng still prepared to hide it first.

He could open up the market using the most Ordinary liquor.

Afterwards, Summer Injury would be more convenient to launch, following a mid-to-high-end route.

Autumn Sorrow will only be for the high-end route in the future.

Winter Sleep counts as his biggest trump card.

It will not easily appear on the market.

Xiao Qing watched as Cheng Feng used this strange apparatus to turn those turbid liquors.

Into such fragrant liquor.

She thought about how her master could be so capable.

He used a strange object to turn Ordinary liquor into fine wine.

Cheng Feng instructed Xiao Qing to forget about the events of these past few days.

Do not tell anyone.

Do not even mention it at home.

Cheng Feng did not want those women to worry.

Actually, the women were not worried about Cheng Feng.

What big problem could happen in the kitchen?

They were just curious.

The three women in Room One who were pregnant.

Under Cheng Feng's care, they could be said to have nothing to worry about.

If they wanted someone to chat with, there was someone to chat with.

If they wanted to read and learn, or cultivate their character, Chen Min could help.

Plus, Chen Min's daughter, Chen Zhu, was running and jumping around the courtyard.

Showing the first signs of a child's innocence and liveliness.

The women in the courtyard also began to look forward to what it would be like when their own children were born.

For these ten or so days, Cheng Feng had been acting mysterious in the kitchen with Xiao Qing.

And from time to time, a burst of liquor fragrance would waft out.

Thinking back to the strange thing called a Distiller that Cheng Feng had asked the blacksmith to forge.

How could the women not be curious?

Seeing the kitchen door open, Cheng Feng and Xiao Qing walked out carrying several small porcelain bottles.

The crowd gathered around the two of them, asking questions incessantly.

Xiao Qing, following Cheng Feng's instructions, only said she was tending the fire and burning wood.

She did not do anything else.

Sixty catties of Ordinary liquor.

Under Cheng Feng's experimentation.

Ten catties of Spring Dawn were obtained.

Eight catties of Summer Injury.

Five catties of Autumn Sorrow.

Three catties of Winter Sleep.

A total of twenty-six catties.

Of course, there was definitely waste during the experiment.

There was also the turbid initial liquor that Cheng Feng kept.

It was about ten catties or so.

The rest were either undrinkable or wasted.

Looking at the experimental records in his hand.

Cheng Feng did not care about any waste.

With this thing,

Cheng Feng would have the means of production from now on.

He would no longer be like water without a source.

The current Cheng Feng still lacked the foundation and strength to expand production.

He could only conduct small-scale business.

In the future,

the future is promising!