The rise of the prince

Chapter 83 Equipment Completion
In the winter afternoon, the sun was high, the stove was drained, and the two days of good weather had completely dried up. Li Ye tried it with his feet, and it didn't budge. It wasn't as strong as cement, but it was more than enough.

They called Yan Shen and the servants of the mansion, and slowly placed the solid heavy wine cage on it while yelling, and then Li Ye brought two long gauze covers.

"What is this, son?" Yan Shen asked curiously.

This is what Li Ye asked Qiu'er Yueer to make. He sewed gauze into slender bags. There are four bags in total. After filling them with moist yellow mud or distiller's grains, they can seal the air and put them in two pots. The place in contact with the wine cage is used to block the exposure of steam.

"Don't ask, take two people to find some yellow sticks and fill these two bags. It doesn't need to be too full, about [-]% is enough." Li Ye ordered.

"Ah, is such a good cloth used to hold mud?" Yan Shen looked puzzled.

"Just go if you're told, don't dawdle!" Li Ye urged.

Yan Shen nodded, and quickly took the two servants to do what Li Ye told him. The reason why he only filled them with [-]% full was because the two bags had to be rolled up at the end. If they were too full, they couldn’t be rolled up. The length was just like a wine cage. The circumference is a bit longer for adjustment.

After a while, Yan Shen and two servants came back carrying two long bags full of yellow mud.Li Ye put two layers on one of them so that the soil would not leak out.

Then put the unset ring on the bridge between the wine cage and the bottom pot, and then put ashes on the outside to seal it. The remaining one is used to seal the air between the top of the wine cage and the sky pot, but the sky pot is movable. It is disassembled and used to cool the alcohol vapor to liquefy it, so it is not urgent to put it on at this time.

Afterwards, he tried to install the wine tank again, and found that Zhao Si's carpentry was really good. The outlet and the wine tank were tightly seamed. Generally speaking, the joints were still sealed with wet towels or yellow mud to prevent air from leaking out, so the size of the gap didn't matter, but Strive for perfection, be better and better naturally.

Next, put a circular grid panel made of bamboo and wrapped in gauze on the bottom of the cage, which is just a circle smaller than the wine cage, and can be easily put down and taken out. It is completely suitable. So far, all the equipment for a complete set of distilled wine brewing has been completely completed. , as long as you assemble it, you can make wine!

Li Ye was so excited that he laughed three times, and everyone present at the scene was rewarded with a consistent amount of money. This thing is a cornucopia!

Everyone was overjoyed, but at the same time they didn't know why, they were at a loss when they saw the strange thing that Shizi fiddled with for a long time, why Shizi was happy, and what was this thing used for?
Li Ye knows that these things will be difficult to explain for a while, and he still needs a brewer at this time. Many things seem easy but difficult to do, just like the seemingly simplest part of wine making, fermenting grain. Cooked, then sprinkle with koji and mix, keep room temperature to let it ferment.

But the question is how much to maintain the indoor temperature?And in this era without thermometers, how to judge whether the temperature is high or low?How many days is best for fermentation?How to maintain the temperature can be effective and so on.
The only answer to this mass of questions is experience!The experience passed down from generation to generation and then accumulated over the years cannot be made casually overnight. This is the importance of talents.

And there are indeed wine-making masters in the palace. Although they are not as good as the winemakers in Degong's Plum Garden, they always have experience. In fact, many big families can recruit or directly raise such talents, and the palace is naturally no exception.

Li Ye went to see the brewer of the palace in person. He was a grey-haired and bearded little old man named Gu Feng. He frowned when he heard Li Ye's intentions and said, "Your Majesty has a destiny, so of course this old slave dare not refuse to listen. It's just your Majesty. It's winter now." , the bitter cold is pressing, and the food is not easy to distribute, even if it is distributed, I am afraid it will not be distributed well."

When the old man said hair, he meant fermentation, and Li Ye naturally understood his worry.

Wine making is nothing more than allowing the starch in the grain to ferment under the action of microorganisms, mainly yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and increasing the temperature can speed up the function of microorganisms. Generally speaking, a temperature of around [-] is the most suitable temperature, but it is winter now, and even if the indoor temperature Sunny weather is no more than a dozen degrees at most, and when the weather is bad, it can go below zero, which is very unfavorable for fermentation.

"It's okay. If it doesn't work, I will burn the fire in the four corners of the grain room every day, and then use the quilt to cover the grain." Li Ye said decisively, the quilt has a good heat insulation effect, and then keep burning the fire in the four corners of the house to let the warm air circulate. If the indoor temperature is not enough, ferment for a few more days.

Seeing that he was so decisive, Gu Feng had never seen such a big battle, so of course he couldn't refuse the words, and said quickly: "In that case, I will do my best!"

Li Ye then asked Yan Shen to find Yan Yan for some money, and took people to the street to buy six quilts, which were specially used to cover the grain.

Covering the wine and food with a quilt, Yan Shen looked confused, he had never seen such an operation in his life
After a busy day, Gu Feng had already started cooking grains in the afternoon. He cooked wheat, which was more than 400 catties. After cooking, he dried it and sprinkled it with distiller's koji after the wheat cooled down. It took a lot of hard work, and several servants were so busy that they were sweating profusely, and then put the wheat in three large vats, sealed them, wrapped them with thick cotton quilts, and lit charcoal fires in the four corners of the house.

From now on, it will be Gufeng's work. He must always pay attention to the surrounding temperature, day and night, and rely on experience to judge in time when there is a situation, and then adjust.The fermentation process usually lasts about ten days, but the freezing weather will slow down the microbial activity, and it may take a few more days.

Li Ye patted him on the shoulder and said, "The next step is to work hard on you."

"What are you talking about, son! This is what this old slave should do." Gu Feng was taken aback, and quickly knelt down and said, it seems that many things cannot be changed overnight.

In the afternoon, several gentlemen from a certain academy in the city came to visit. Li Ye asked Yan Yan to help block them as usual. He naturally understood the thoughts of these literati. Whoever is not holding the heart of making things difficult, just wants to see how good he is, and most of them don't believe that he can write that poem.

Li Ye didn't have time to pay attention to it. He taught the two girls math at night, was busy with distilling wine during the day, and practiced martial arts in the morning. The whole day was full, so he didn't have time to talk to them.

On the other hand, after having dinner with Qiu'er and Yue'er in the evening, Yan Shen came to report that there were two more visits, but when he was about to refuse as usual, Yan Shen said that he was not a scholar.

"Did they say who they were?"

Yan Shen shook his head: "I didn't report my name and family background, I only said that I was a descendant of the prince's family."

Prince Xiao's family friend?Being able to use family friends to show that the relationship between the two families is very good, Li Ye thought for a while and said, "Take them to the main hall." Yan Shen took the order and left.

(End of this chapter)