The craft of making mijiu, or rice wine, in Mashan town has been passed down from generation to generation. In the past, local residents would drink their home-made rice wine to celebrate Spring Festival annually. This alcoholic beverage doesn’t pale in comparison with huangjiu, yellow liquor of Wuxi city in Jiangsu province.
Guzhu village of Mashan town borders Lake Taihu. Home-made rice wine is the signature drink here for celebrating the annual Spring Festival. Local villagers make rice wine from the beginning of winter, one of the 24 solar terms of China that divide the seasons leading to Spring Festival and the best time to make rice wine here. Since local villagers start to make rice wine in the beginning of winter, usually falling in October of the Chinese lunar calendar, the home-made liquor here enjoys a beautiful name, shiyuebai, which literally means "October white"; Chinesebaijiutranslates to "white liquor".
The craft of making rice wine here is quite complicated. The instructions are as follows:
● Fresh rice straw is a must to make the savory rice wine. Boil the straw, and put the boiled straw at the bottom of a wooden pail.
● Steam the rice. If the rice is steamed badly, the rice wine will be turbid; if it is not steamed enough, you can’t make the rice wine. Therefore, time and temperature must be appropriate.
● Mix the Chinese yeast ball with the boiled rice. Stir the mixture quickly so as to blend them well for fermentation.
 |
● Put the stirred mixture of the Chinese yeast ball and boiled rice into a vat to ferment until the boiled rice becomes dull yellow. When you open the vat lid, bingo! The rich aroma of home-made rice wine will waft all around.
