Chapter 154 Are You Brewing Wine Again?

"You call this a villa?" Hu Erleng stared wide-eyed at the house before him.

Long Teng nodded and said, "Yeah, it's a villa. Is there a problem?"

"Are you sure this isn't a manor?" Qi Kun pointed at the building.

"A big villa! A big villa!" Long Teng laughed. "Fengnan Mountain used to be barren land with poor soil, completely uncultivable. As you know, urban construction is the best way to boost the GDP, so back when the penultimate mayor was in office, he asked my father's Long Group to develop this land. The land price was dirt cheap."

Yang Meng frowned and asked, "Does anyone actually buy houses here?"

Duan Bowen explained, "When my father and Uncle Long developed this place, it was practically a massive burden. Back then, it was utterly desolate, with barely a soul within a five-kilometer radius. Almost nobody came here except for pious pilgrims."

"Pious pilgrims?" Yang Meng asked, puzzled.

Duan Bowen pointed to Fengnan Mountain ahead and said, "Xiantan Taoist Temple on Fengnan Mountain has the best incense and most visitors in our city. The abbot is Daoist Master Yunhe. You know him, don't you?"

Yang Meng had a sudden realization. "Oh, so that old Daoist hangs out around here! Doesn't that make us neighbors?"

Hu Erleng looked around. "Can houses here even be sold?"

Duan Bowen explained, "Developing this place was quite a hassle back then. Forget about amenities; there wasn't even a proper road leading here. So Uncle Long's approach was to build very large houses in a Western manor style. Still, all the houses here were sold. Being neighbors with Xiantan Taoist Temple definitely means it's a geomantic treasure trove. Once the roads were paved, plenty of people bought homes here."

Qi Kun asked curiously, "How come nobody seems to be living here?"

Duan Bowen nodded. "Yeah, even though all the houses were sold, the occupancy rate is indeed low. Many people just bought houses here as vacation homes or are simply waiting for the property value to appreciate."

"They just leave them empty like that?" Qi Kun asked, baffled.

Duan Bowen nodded. "Right, many houses are just left empty like that. The house Mr. Yang is staying in has been vacant all along. I've been tidying it up recently, otherwise it really wouldn't be convenient to move in."

Qi Kun clicked his tongue. "I really don't understand the lives of the rich. I want to buy a small apartment and can't even afford it."

Hearing this, Yang Meng patted Qi Kun and said, "My friend, let's face reality. The current situation is that those who need houses can't afford them, and those who can afford houses don't lack them. Let's go, stop staring outside, let's head in and take a look! Oh right, Bowen, don't forget to pay the fine later for calling me Mr. Yang again."

Duan Bowen smiled bitterly. "Alright, I accept the penalty. Brother Yang, the garage over there can fit three cars, and your motorcycle can be parked there. You guys go ahead and help push Brother Yang's bike into the garage. Oh, and the things you asked me to prepare are all ready! They're in the back storage room now."

Hu Erleng clicked his tongue in amazement. "A storage room? A garage? When will I ever get to live in a place like this?!"

Yang Meng laughed. "If you want to live here, come on over. I didn't buy this place anyway, I'm just borrowing it for a while."

Hu Erleng waved his hand. "I wouldn't dare live here! I already owe it to your good fortune that I have a barbecue joint; should I take advantage of you further by staying here? I could never do such a thing. Besides, everything is terribly inconvenient here. You can suffer by yourself!" What he said wasn't sour grapes—living here really was inconvenient. It was over ten kilometers from the downtown area, and the nearest supermarket was several kilometers away. Even buying a pack of cigarettes was a hassle.

At that moment, Duan Bowen said, "Brother Yang, do you have any idea how much running around I had to do to find the things you requested? I almost broke my legs, and in the end, I had to rely on a friend in the countryside to track them down."

Qi Kun asked curiously, "What on earth did you have Secretary Duan buy that's so mysterious?"

Yang Meng smiled. "Why don't you come with me and see for yourself? You'll recognize it too."

The group walked together to the storage room. Qi Kun took a look at what was stored inside and froze in surprise. "Aren't these a *zengtong* and a *tianguo*? What are you trying to do? Are you going to brew wine?"

Duan Bowen was startled. "You recognize these things?"

Hu Erleng, standing nearby, laughed. "Secretary Duan, what you just said is funny. City folks might not recognize items like this, but we country folk certainly do. There's an old man named Fang in our village who runs a distillery. The liquor drunk in our village and several neighboring ones is all brewed by him. How do you think we built up our tolerance for alcohol? We used to sneak over to Old Man Fang's place as kids to help out, and then steal liquor to drink."

"Well, you couldn't really call it stealing; Old Man Fang knew all along," Yang Meng said.

Hu Erleng nodded. "Mengmeng, if you want to brew wine, aren't you missing a big earthen stove and an iron wok?"

Yang Meng smiled. "I can just build one myself. Haven't you noticed there are bricks, mortar, and everything else right here?"

"You're actually planning to brew wine?" Hu Erleng and Qi Kun stared at Yang Meng in unison.

Yang Meng nodded. "I want to study it. The key is, I owe someone some wine."

"Owe who?" Hu Erleng asked.

Yang Meng smiled without answering.

Could he possibly tell Hu Erleng and the others that he owed wine to an immortal of mysterious origin?

"Brother Yang, I've bought ready-made distiller's yeast for you. They're all *daqu*—we have medium-temperature, high-temperature, and ultra-high-temperature varieties," Duan Bowen said.

Distiller's yeast is an essential raw material for brewing, mainly divided into five categories: wheat Qu, small Qu, *daqu*, red Qu, and bran Qu.

The two most primary types are "small Qu" and "daqu." Small Qu is unique to the south, while *daqu* is a specialty of the north. The north generally uses wheat Qu, while the south is accustomed to rice Qu.

Small Qu has existed since the Jin Dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty, people began adding a wide variety of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to it. Each family's formula was a closely guarded secret, yet remarkably sophisticated. For instance, the renowned domestic brewing master Zhou Henggang once collected a secret herbal Qu formula in Qionglai, Sichuan, which used a staggering 72 kinds of medicinal herbs!

Most modern small Qu contains medicinal ingredients, though a tiny minority of places still insist on brewing with traditional, unadulterated small Qu.

On the other hand, *daqu* evolved from traditional northern wheat Qu. Originally referring to larger-sized wheat Qu, the term eventually became specialized to denote wheat Qu specifically used for distilled liquor.

Depending on the fermentation temperature, *daqu* is categorized into medium-temperature, high-temperature, and ultra-high-temperature. Medium-temperature *daqu* is used for brewing light-aroma baijiu, high-temperature *daqu* for strong-aroma baijiu, and ultra-high-temperature *daqu* for sauce-aroma baijiu.

Looking at the bricks of *daqu* piled on the ground, Hu Erleng suddenly burst out laughing. "Mengmeng, this reminds me of when Old Man Fang used to make distiller's yeast back when we were kids! Back then, we worked our fingers to the bone every day like a couple of grandkids. And now you can just buy the finished product directly."

"What? Is making distiller's yeast really that exhausting?" Long Teng asked.

Hu Erleng explained, "You bet! Distiller's yeast, to put it bluntly, is evolved from moldy grains! The process of making *daqu* is also called 'treading Qu.' Just hearing the name makes it obvious—it's literally trodden out with people's feet. Back then, Old Man Fang was responsible for overseeing the filling of the mold with the Qu dough, and the few of us took turns stepping on it. Old Man Fang said that a truly meticulous Qu-making process requires sixty people to tread a single brick of *daqu*, with each person taking exactly three steps—not one step more! Moreover, once the Qu was shaped, it had to go into a fully enclosed Qu-room where the temperature was extremely high. Periodically, we had to go inside to flip the blocks of *daqu* over. We had to go in stark naked, and even then, it was unbearably hot!"

Qi Kun remarked, "Nowadays, these are all mechanically pressed *daqu* blocks, right? Not as troublesome as when we were kids."

Yang Meng, however, said, "No, no. Those traditional, famous distilleries still use traditional Qu-making methods to brew their wine. Only small wineries use mechanically produced yeast."

Qi Kun picked up the *zengtong* and *tianguo* lying on the ground and chuckled. "This suddenly reminds me of some web novels I've read."

"Huh? What does this have to do with web novels?" Yang Meng asked, puzzled.

Qi Kun replied, "What's the most popular trope right now? Transmigration. What are the three treasures of transmigration? Potatoes, glass, and baijiu. Almost every transmigration story features these three things, and in most books, the distillation equipment for baijiu is made out of glass. I suspect those authors just took the distillation experiment from junior high school physics class and assumed it was the only way to distill alcohol! Who would have thought that real wine-steaming equipment is actually this simple?"

Many people assume that distilling baijiu is a highly complex craft, but in reality, distilled liquor is quite straightforward.

First, you need a large stove—the kind of big iron wok setup used in the countryside. The fermented mash is poured into the wok and heated. The wooden *zengtong* barrel is fitted over the wok to ensure steam doesn't escape, and finally, a specially crafted iron wok called a *tianguo* (heaven pot) is placed on top of the *zengtong*. Cold water is added inside the *tianguo*. When the steam from the *zengtong* hits the low-temperature *tianguo*, it condenses into baijiu at the bottom of the pot, and then flows out of the *zengtong* via a spout at the base of the *tianguo*. This is how distilled baijiu is made.

With every batch of liquor brewed, the portion that flows out first is called the "pot head," which has a relatively high alcohol content of around 75 degrees. The alcohol concentration continuously drops thereafter until it hits just a dozen degrees or so near the end, which is called the "tail." By discarding the head and tail and keeping the middle cut, you get *erguotou*.

Of course, the craft of making *erguotou* generally belongs to the category of closely guarded secrets—at the very least, Old Man Fang didn't know how to brew it.

Duan Bowen smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, let me tell you, there is a mountain spring up on Fengnan Mountain, and I've heard the water is exceptional. Although I don't know anything about brewing, I do know that grain is the flesh of wine, Qu is the bone of wine, and water is the blood of wine. No matter what kind of wine you want to brew, at the very least, having this water means you have the best foundation!"

Yang Meng grinned broadly and said, "Alright then, nobody bother me for a while. I'm going to study wine-making."

Duan Bowen continued, "Brother Yang, let's not stay out here. Let's go inside and see what else you might be missing so I can have it delivered. Oh, and you should check your study too. Tell me directly if you have any feedback so I can make adjustments."

"There's a study too?" Qi Kun's eyes widened as he turned to Long Teng. "Long Teng, do you still need a pendant hanging off your thigh?"

Long Teng humorously put on a serious expression, looked Qi Kun up and down, and said, "Lobster, I'm sorry, you're too fat. My thighs aren't strong enough to hang on to you."

"Hahahahahahaha."