『北山酒經』の造酒法について : 北宋時代浙江の一造酒法

Abstract

Beishanjiujing, written by Zhu Gong 朱肱 in the late Northern Song era, explains the production in those days of alcoholic drinks in Zhejiang province, which formed the origin of today's Zhejianghuangjiu 浙江黄酒. As the explanation is more detailed than any other pre-modern book, this book is of great importance for the research on brewing history. In this essay, the method of brewing described in Beishanjiujing is compared with today's method of producing Shaoxingjiu 紹興酒 a well-known type of today's Zhejianghuangjiu. The method of brewing in Beishanjiujing includes the following characteristics in comparison with today's Shaoxingjiu. The qu 麹, used by far less quantities than today, was put entirely into the jiumu 酒母, while today some of the qu is put in together with rice. Although this process may be less effective than today's, such a defect was made up for by adding a lot more jiumu and rice several times in small amounts. Furthermore, because only a small amount of water was used for brewing, the lao 醪 after full fermentation was much denser than that of today. According to Beishanjiujing, alcohol was gotten by the squeezing after the fermentation was completed. This method is similar to that of today's Shaoxingjiu. As dense lao made it very hard to get alcohol by the squeezing, water was added before the squeezing and after the fermentation was completed.