A traditional liquor production workshop

Authored by QIU Dunlian

Luzhou is famous for its liquor. Once you enter the Luzhou city in Southwest China, you can smell a blast of wine fragrance everywhere. The smell is nice to me although I am not addicted to wine.

I visited one liquor production workshop last week with several teachers from Sichuan Univeristy. Here is a heritage protection site of traditional wine production workshop. The liquor production process is purely tradtional, which is also a culture in my eyes. The production workshop and wine storage room are all in one storey houses with grey brick walls  and grey tile roofs. It is said, the thick white mold on the wall and on the earth pot surface, the dark and wet environment are all  the  important components of quality wine produciton.

从每晚中央电视台的广告节目中，大家一定早就对 “醉美”泸州的美名非常熟悉了。就像歌里唱的那样，“风过泸州带酒香，香飘万里四海扬”！上周末跟随川大的老师一起参观了泸州的一家酒厂，见识了酿酒的全过程，并品尝了多种不同风味的原度酒。对酒的生产有一些基本的感性认识。
我们刚一走进酒厂，一股甘醇浓洌的酒香扑鼻而来。酒厂的生产环境与我们电视中看到的象征着品味与经典的镜头似乎有较大的出入。懂得优质白酒生产工艺的师傅却认为，这样的环境才是生产好酒的环境。用川大一位老师开玩笑的话来说，就是要在“脏乱差”的地方才能生产出好酒！

The house with grey brick walls and grey tile roof. 据说这种青砖灰瓦，阴暗潮湿的环境更适合好酒的生产。

The road leading to the wine storage room. 生产车间外的地面到处散落的酒糟似乎还散发着酒香.

The white mold on the outside wall of the production workshop.生产车间外的墙壁上的白霉。

The wine pots 酒坛

The white mold on the pot outside wall 酒坛上的白霉

This is the wine production workshop 白酒生产车间

The big wood steamer for steaming wine  用于蒸酒的木蒸子。纯高粱或者高粱混合其它粮食一起在蒸子中蒸。然后放到摊晾床上摊晾和加曲药。

The tilt bamoo bed is for spreading the steamed grain and mixing it iwth the wine yeast. with  右边倾斜的竹编摊晾床是用于摊晾蒸好的粮食并与曲药混合的地方。

Wine pits（to let the steamed grain added with wine yeast to be fermented in the pits. It is covered by earth). 摊晾和混合了曲药的粮食（主要是高粱）放入窖池，外面用泥封盖，让其发酵。

The well-fermented grain (mainly sorghum) is taken out from the pits to produce wine 揭开表面的窖泥，将发酵好的粮食从窖池中取出，用于蒸酒。

Mycelium can be clearly seen in the well-fermented substrate. 发酵好的料中可见生长良好的菌丝体

The good fermented substrate is in gold color. 发酵得好的料呈金黄色

The fermented grain is mixed with scurf grain and then added to the steamer.将发酵好的料与秕谷混合，然后上蒸子蒸,蒸出来的就是酒。

wine storage house 新生产的酒在这里贮藏半年左右，让酒中的有毒有害成分挥发

A wine storage house (Some wine has been stored for decades) 窖藏室（这里有数十年的窖藏酒）

环境指标自动监测仪

Professors from Sichuan University installed environment monitoring instrument in the wine production workshop and wine storage house to minitor the temperature, humidity, light, and alcohol concentration automatically.