7 Secrets About Baijiu Degrees

There are often drinkers in the background who ask: "What is the best degree of Baijiu to drink?", "Is low-alcohol wine blended with high-alcohol and water?" Similar questions, obviously I don't know enough about Baijiu degree. Today, I will sort out these questions with you.

The journey of alcohol degree

Chinese wine is brewed from crop raw materials. About 5000 to 3000 BC, grain wine has appeared in China, and rice wine was brewed at that time, which is estimated to be only a few degrees. Later in the Song Dynasty, people gradually mastered the method of brewing wine with koji, and began to make wine in large quantities. The degree of wine has been further improved, reaching more than ten degrees.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, only after the Liao Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom entered China did they create distilled spirits. Although fermented spirits emerged again in the Ming Dynasty, after the Manchu and Qing Dynasties entered the customs, they had a soft spot for highly concentrated and extremely cold-resistant distilled spirits, so the spicy and hot distilled spirits gradually replaced the mellow and strong fermented spirits and became the mainstream.

How to detect alcohol content

The definition of alcohol content refers to the percentage of capacity contained in pure ethanol (alcohol) in wine. If the pure ethanol content in 100 ml of a certain wine is 10 ml, the alcohol content of this wine is 10 degrees, but the capacity increases or decreases with the temperature. My country stipulates that it is detected at a temperature of 20 ° C. That is, at 20 ° C, the number of milliliters of pure ethanol in 100 ml of wine is the alcohol content of the wine.

How many degrees is Baijiu divided into?

The current standard Baijiu traffic degrees are generally 28 degrees, 33 degrees, 35 degrees, 38 degrees, 39 degrees, 40 degrees, 43 degrees, 45 degrees, 48 degrees, 50 degrees, 52 degrees, 53 degrees, 56 degrees, 60 degrees, 68 degrees.

Fourth, the degree has nothing to do with the quality and flavor

The degree of alcohol in Baijiu does not and cannot represent the quality of the wine, the quality of the flavor, and the quality of the wine. High alcohol can still have some effects as an alcohol addiction.

Self-brewing wine can be as high as 75 degrees

Among the Baijiu listed in my country, the strongest wine is probably the grain wine brewed by some rural areas and ethnic minorities, with a degree of up to 75 degrees. Because the wine with a high degree is not blended, it is recommended to drink less.

Low-alcohol wine is not blended with high-alcohol wine and water

The wine brewed after the grain is fermented is generally more than ten degrees, and the wine of more than ten degrees is distilled, and the wine that comes out in the early stage can reach more than 80 degrees (called the head of the wine). To strangle the head and remove the tail, is to remove the two ends of the distillation and take the middle part, generally up to 50 degrees. The true alcohol degree of the finished product is determined by blending different batches and wines with each other. Since low-alcohol wine is not easy to preserve, the finished low-alcohol wine is obtained by reducing the degree of treatment (called "stirring" in the winemaking process), not simply blending with water as people often say.

The craftsmanship of high-quality low-alcohol wine is more complicated than that of high-quality wine

The production of low-grade Baijiu generally requires a series of processes such as selecting the wine base, adding water to reduce the degree, dealing with turbidity, flavoring and seasoning, and standing storage to produce high-quality low-grade Baijiu. Once the degree is reduced, the following problems will occur: First, there are obvious changes in the flavor and style of the original wine; second, there is white turbidity or even precipitation after the degree is reduced; third, the taste is not reconciled and water flavor is easy to appear. Therefore, the production of low-grade Baijiu requires maintaining the style of the original wine without turbidity. It is necessary to ensure that the quality of low-grade Baijiu is "low but not light", "low but not miscellaneous", and "low but not turbid", and has obvious typicality.