Chapter 221

Qing Guozhi, "Hey, you explain it more clearly than we older folks. We shouldn't keep the first and last drops of wine, but we can use them for other things; don't waste them."

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "Okay."

Once the wine starts to distill, the rest of the wine is produced very quickly. The alcohol turns into water vapor, which then drips through the condenser into the jars they use to store the wine, like the tinkling of a spring.

The entire kitchen, inside and out, was filled with the aroma of wine and steam.

Qing Mengzhu sniffed and said to Ming Chunxi, "It smells so good! Even I, who don't like drinking, can smell the fragrance."

Ming Chunxi also smelled it. "It does smell very good, and it's strong liquor."

Qing Mengzhu: "Let's collect a little more and then pour it out to taste."

Hearing their conversation, Qing Guozhi joined in. "I must say, I'm over seventy years old, and I've tasted dozens, even hundreds, of different kinds of wine, but none of them are as fragrant as this one."

Qing Mengzhu thought for a moment and said, "I smelled the homemade liquor when I was a child; it smelled very good."

Qing Guozhi: "How can they be the same? The baijiu you smelled when you were a child had an ordinary aroma, but this is not ordinary; it has an indescribable fragrance."

The wine had to be poured out drop by drop, and now all three of them were itching to taste it, but they could only wait.

After waiting for more than half an hour, a thin layer of wine had accumulated in the wine jar. Qing Mengzhu quickly brought over bowls and poured out the bottom of two bowls of wine.

Qing Guozhi looked at the meager amount in the bowl and said, "Hey, why didn't you pour more?"

Qing Mengzhu smiled and said, "Try it first, just in case you don't like it."

Qing Mengzhu spoke, she picked up the bowl of wine, took a small sip, and then handed the bowl to Ming Chunxi, where there was still a small sip left.

The moment the wine touched his lips, Qing Mengzhu immediately forgot to observe the expressions of the two people beside him; his attention was entirely focused on the wine.

I don't know if they fermented it well or distilled it well, but the wine was fragrant, strong, and bitter, and it was extremely stimulating to drink.

He quickly swallowed the wine, then the bitterness almost brought tears to his eyes, and his cheeks flushed red.

The wine was down, but the aroma still lingered in his mouth and nose. The previous bitterness had all disappeared, leaving only a pleasant aftertaste that made him feel slightly tipsy.

No, I feel a little dizzy.

Qing Mengzhu leaned against Ming Chunxi, shifting her weight towards him.

Ming Chunxi's hand firmly held Qing Mengzhu's waist, supporting him to prevent him from falling, while a faint blush appeared on his handsome face.

After a moment, Qing Mengzhu murmured, "This wine is really strong."

Ming Chunxi: "It's about fifty or sixty degrees."

Qing Guozhi, standing beside him, shook his head and said, "It should be around 62 degrees. That's how I feel when I drink 62 or 63 degrees. But this wine is still better; it's mellow, fragrant, and refreshing. It's much more comfortable to drink than those famous wines."

Qing Mengzhu quickly reached out a hand to help him, saying somewhat nervously, "Sixteenth Grandpa, please drink less, don't get drunk."

Qing Guozhi laughed heartily, "I'm not drunk. How could I get drunk from such a small amount of wine?"

Qing Mengzhu nodded repeatedly. "It's good that you're not drunk."

The liquor was quite strong, and none of them dared to drink much. After finishing that small amount, they continued to wait for the liquor to be distilled.

The liquor distilled today smells amazing; the aroma can be smelled throughout half the village.

All morning, people kept coming over to ask them what kind of liquor they were distilling, and why it smelled so good.

Qing Mengzhu pretended to be ignorant and said it was homemade wine. In the end, no one who came to ask about it was invited to taste the wine. Everyone was disappointed, but they were too embarrassed to say so directly.

In the end, Qing Mengzhu only gave Qing Guozhi a small bottle of wine to take home and drink, and even specially told Qing Xun, who came to pick him up, to keep an eye on the old man and not let him drink too much at once.

When they heard that the wine was ready by evening, Zhou Yan and the others came over.

Qing Mengzhu then poured out the wine and let Zhou Yan, Zhao Hexi, and Chu Yanhuan taste it.

Chu Yanhuan held the bowl, looking at the wine inside, and said somewhat dejectedly, "Brother Mengzhu, there are only two sips left."

Qing Mengzhu: "Sixteenth Grandpa this wine is 62 proof. You should try it first, so you don't get drunk after just one sip."

Chu Yanhuan muttered, "No, I can hold my liquor very well."

Zhou Yan touched the liquor to his lips. "This liquor is surprisingly strong?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, it's probably because we fermented it ourselves, making it especially high-quality."

They used yeast they bought from the Interstellar Mall when brewing this batch of liquor, so it's normal for the alcohol content to be a bit high.

Actually, it's not just the alcohol content that's important; Qing Mengzhu also felt that the yield of this batch of liquor was slightly higher than that of ordinary liquor. When he weighed it right after distillation, it weighed 32.7 jin (16.8 kg), a yield that is difficult to achieve for most homemade liquor.

He asked Qing Guozhi, and he said that generally, fifty catties of rice would yield only about twenty catties of wine.

After everyone tasted the wine, they all said that the wine from Qing Mengzhu's family was delicious, fragrant and strong, and exceptionally clear and sweet.

Qing Mengzhu couldn't really taste it; he could only taste the aroma of the wine and feel the pleasant buzz after drinking it.

Zhou Yan explained, "This wine is actually a bit pungent when it's first distilled. If you put it in jars and let it age for a year or six months, the taste will become smoother and more refined, and the aroma will be more harmonious."

Zhao Hexi was already a little drunk. He propped his head up with his hand and asked, slightly slurring his words, "Can we drink during the New Year?"

Zhou Yan: "It should taste better when we try it during the New Year than it does now."

Qing Mengzhu was also a little drunk; even while sitting, she leaned towards Ming Chunxi, snuggling close to him affectionately. "Then let's leave it for now, we'll drink it again during the New Year!"

Zhou Yan: "Go ahead and store it. I'll get you a big wine jar next year. Using a good jar for aging will yield even better results."

Qing Mengzhu nodded vigorously. "Okay!"

Chapter 221

In the morning, Qing Mengzhu went to the large vat to scoop out the lees left over from distilling the liquor.

These distiller's grains contain very little alcohol and can be used to feed cattle, especially pregnant cows.

Their rice is good; it has nourishing properties.

As Qing Mengzhu was scooping out the fermented grains, Zhao Hexi came over, carrying a basket of bright red strawberries. The sweet aroma of strawberries filled the air as she approached.

Qing Mengzhu smelled the aroma first, turned around to look, and then saw Zhao Hexi.

Qing Mengzhu put down her spoon, picked up the strawberries, washed them, popped a large strawberry into her mouth, and then walked over to Zhao Hexi and said, "Shall we start selling strawberries today?"

Zhao Hexi: "Yes, didn't we say we wanted to select Superior Grade vegetables? Let's start with strawberries, pick out the biggest and reddest ones, and sell them separately."

Qing Mengzhu had already finished a strawberry and was very satisfied with the taste. "Our strawberries are delicious, much better than the ones outside. Would you like one?"

Zhao Hexi rubbed her stomach. "I already ate a lot before coming here, if I eat any more I'll probably be stuffed."

Qing Mengzhu then pulled the basket back to her side and took a large strawberry to eat.

Zhao Hexi turned his head and glanced at it. "Are you scooping up the lees to feed the cattle on the mountain? Why is there still straw underneath?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I asked the veterinarian before, and he said that we can't feed cows too much distiller's grains, especially pregnant cows, because they might not be able to adapt and would feel uncomfortable. So I prepared some hay and fermented bamboo leaves, which I plan to feed them together later."

Zhao Hexi: "You've put so much effort into this, why don't you raise pigs?"

Qing Mengzhu had never really thought of it before, "Raising pigs is so troublesome, I don't have the time or energy."

Zhao Hexi: "Your two mountains are so big, if you raise pigs, you can just let them graze on the mountains, why do you need to spend so much time and energy?"

Qing Mengzhu: "You can let pigs graze on the mountain?"

Zhao Hexi: "Why not? There are several black pig farms nearby. They raise pigs in the mountains. I see that these two mountains are so big that they can't even use them all just to raise cattle and hazel grouse. If you want to raise pigs, just put them up there and feed them some grass and swill every day."

Zhao Hexi found it increasingly feasible. "Don't the farm and canteen have swill every day? You won't need to cook pig feed separately; just have someone bring it back in the evening. The free-range black pigs from the mountains should taste much better than the big white pigs from outside."