Chapter 6 The Calculus of the Brewmaster
In the early morning, Yang Fan got up and stretched beautifully.
This was his first night of rest after coming to the Song Dynasty. When he opened the window, every cell in his body seemed to be breathing the fresh air of the Song Dynasty and was comfortable all over.
With a squeak, the door opened, and the little one changed into a clean new dress and appeared in front of Yang Fan. He was no longer the image of a sloppy beggar.
Although she is still dressed as a man, Yang Fan can tell that she is a little beauty.
"It's quite pleasing to the eye!" Yang Fan said with a smile.
"What does it mean?" Xiao Budian asked.
"It means you are pretty and make people feel comfortable!" Yang Fan explained.
Xiao Budian snorted, but his eyes were full of smugness. Obviously, she felt comfortable listening to this, so she said, "It seems that you are quite cognitive. Let me tell you good news. I have found a job for you. Not far from here, there is a wine shop called Zuixianlou. They are missing a winemaker. I told Boss Wu there that you are a wine brewer, so Boss Wu invites you to come over!"
"Nonsense! Where am I a winemaking master?" Yang Fan said speechlessly.
Xiao Budian said immediately: "It was obviously when you were drinking yesterday that Dasong wine was like rice soup, and it was not good at all. You said that the wine in Guigu in your hometown is Qiongzi Yuli, and the wine brewed by three-year-old children is better than the ones here. Since you three-year-old children in Guigu can make wine, then you must be a master of brewing, Brother Yang, you must be a winemaking master!"
Only then did Yang Fan remember what he said when he was drinking with Xiao Budian last night. He did say so, but he was just showing off in front of others. How could he make wine?
Now that he is being beaten by a young general, Yang Fan is so embarrassed.
"I don't care if you are good at it or not, are you pretending to be stupid? In short, I've been talking big in front of others. If you make me lose face, I hate you for the rest of my life!" Xiao Budian'er suddenly had a calm face and said fiercely.
Yang Fan looked helpless, and she wanted to save face in love with this little girl. Seeing her ruthless voice, if she really pretended to be a bear, she would definitely hold a grudge against herself for the rest of her life.
"I'll try it!" Yang Fan said with a wry smile. Although he had never brewed wine, he was still a college student at least, and the basic principles were clear.
"I know that you are awesome in Guigu!" said the little guy happily, laughing and happy.
"It's true, changing your face is like changing the sky!" Yang Fan muttered unhappily.
When the little girl heard this, she stuck out her tongue mischievously, and Yang Fan naturally didn't care about her, a little girl.
At this time, the inn servant brought face wash and mouth-washing salt. Yang Fan didn't know how to use it, so the little guy immediately stepped forward and gave instructions.
"I see that your teeth are so white and shiny. Why don't you rinse your mouth with fine salt? Or do you have a better way?" Xiao Budian asked curiously.
"Of course there is a better way!" Yang Fan nodded with a proud look on his face.
"What method?" Xiao Budian asked.
"Secret!" Yang Fan suddenly smiled wickedly, revealing a row of white teeth.
"Tsk! Why are you so awesome! If you don't say it, forget it! I don't care!" Xiao Budian immediately curled his lips, feeling unwilling, but there was nothing he could do.
After Yang Fan finished washing up, he remembered something. He looked at the young man's new clothes and asked, "Didn't you give me your wallet? Where did you get the money to buy new clothes?"
"Isn't this simple?" Xiao Budian gave Yang Fan a blank look and took out another exquisite wallet from his arms again. It was exactly the same as the one he had given to Yang Fan before. She immediately said proudly: "The eggs cannot be placed in one basket, they must be placed in two baskets. If they are broken, they will be one more lump! You understand!"
Yang Fan nodded with emotion. This little girl is really smart and tight. It seems that she will be more careful in the future. Otherwise, when will she be sold to her and she will probably have to count the money for her!
Thinking of this, Yang Fan suddenly wanted to make up the little girl, and he immediately reached out to hook up with his fingers at the little girl.
"What are you doing?" Xiao Budian asked in confusion.
Yang Fan smiled and said, "My mirror is worth tens of thousands of taels of gold. It is probably difficult for you to pay it off at once, so you pay a little interest every day and give me your wallet as today's interest!"
"How can you do this? You bully people!" Xiao Budian immediately pouted, and his big eyes were staring at him and protested like a cow bell.
Yang Fan directly ignored her protest and said toughly: "Either give me a mirror or a wallet!"
The little guy stared at Yang Fan fiercely, and he really couldn't bear the little mirror he was in. He finally got defeated and handed his wallet to Yang Fan obediently.
"Be good!" Yang Fan took the wallet, opened it and saw that there were dozens of taels of silver inside. He immediately laughed, and he blew the little one's head and left.
"Don't let my head play!" Xiao Budian said in anger. Seeing that Yang Fan ignored her, he hurriedly shouted again: "What are you doing?"
"Didn't you say you helped me find a job? Of course, I went to see the owner of the restaurant!" Yang Fantou replied without looking back and went downstairs.
"I have no conscience! I know I was the job I found for you and I treated me like this! Yang Fan! Stinky Yang Fan! I'm so angry!" Xiao Budian stomped his feet in anger, gritted his teeth, and then chased after him.
Zuixianlou is the largest wine shop in Hangzhou. According to the Song Dynasty, the production of commodities such as salt, tea, wine, alum, and incense is supervised by the government. Private operations must be approved by the government, priced by the government, and strictly monitored it, and used as a monopoly. The Song Dynasty emphasized business and suppressed agriculture because it had to pay a lot of money to the Liao Kingdom every year, and the huge bureaucratic group and millions of troops had to support it. In addition, the war with the Western Xia continued, the national strength was exhausted and the financial pressure was huge. In order to seek taxes, the business and suppress agriculture.
Taking Hangzhou as an example, in the third year of Tianxi, there was only one question for drinking and drinking, one million coins, one million coins, one million coins, and one million coins, and three hundred million coins of qu coins, which was a huge profit.
In such a profitable industry, merchants naturally were unwilling to be monopolized by the court, so there were policies and countermeasures from the top. In Hangzhou, merchants regularly purchased a batch of wine and koji from the government, but rarely sold it. Most of the wines they served to customers were secretly brewed by their own workshops, so as to avoid the supervision of the government and evade taxes.
Zuixianlou is the largest wine shop in Hangzhou city, so it naturally has its own secret winemaking channels. However, the government has strict supervision of winemakers and can only work in wine shops designated by the government. Making wine privately is a serious crime. Therefore, there are very few winemakers outside, and they have become the target of the bosses of major wine shops, and they can be hot with bare hands.
Yang Fan and Xiaobudian came all the way to Zuixianlou, and learned about these situations since Xiaobudian's place.
Boss Wu had been waiting at the door for a long time. When he saw Yang Fan and Xiao Budian come together, he immediately greeted him with a smile, and was very attentive.
Yang Fan also knew Boss Wu's attentive purpose, so after introducing each other, he took the initiative to visit the secret winery in Zuixianlou.
Boss Wu was a little hesitant. After all, setting up a winery privately was a serious crime. However, after looking at her, he nodded when he saw her, and then agreed to take Yang Fan over in person.
The secret wine shop in Zuixianlou is very big. The equipment mainly produces rice wine, rice wine and various fruit wines. The degree of these wines is generally not high. The purification process only does the corresponding impurity filtration. There is no equipment similar to distillation, so the quality is very low.
"Seeing that Mr. Yang is young, he is already a master of winemaking. I wonder if it will open my eyes to ordinary people and others, so as to avoid not knowing that the world is high and the earth is rich!"
A group of workers in the winery had heard that Boss Wu had invited a new brewing master. Huang Xiang, who was originally planning to take over the position of winery chief manager, was very unhappy when he heard this. Seeing that Yang Fan was only in his twenties, he felt even more envious and jealous, so he immediately ran Yang Fan with words.
Yang Fan could naturally hear what Huang Xiang said and looked at Boss Wu. Although the latter was unhappy that Huang Xiang said this, he did not interrupt. Obviously, he also used Huang Xiang to test Yang Fan's ability.
Yang Fan glanced at Xiao Budian, saw her nervous look, so he smiled and said, "Since that's the case, it's okay for Yang to show off his skills. He just needs some tools. I hope Boss Wu will send someone to make it!"
When Boss Wu heard this, he felt energetic and hurriedly said, "Young Master Yang, but it's okay. I will immediately order someone to purchase and produce any tools you want!"
Yang Fan then told the tools he needed, and Boss Wu immediately ordered someone to purchase them, and some of the iron tools were immediately drawn and images were asked to be made by craftsmen.
Taking advantage of this period, Yang Fan roughly understood the entire brewing process of the winery. Although he did not understand brewing, he quickly mastered the entire brewing process based on the principles he learned and the introduction of the winery staff.
Yang Fan does not need to master the entire brewing process. He only needs to make some adjustments to the key processes and add a distilled wine process.
Soon, Boss Wu prepared all the tools Yang Fan asked for and watched Yang Fan with Huang Xiang and other people.
Yang Fan was about to demonstrate to everyone, but Xiao Budian suddenly stopped him and ordered everyone to go out and not to watch.
"You are stupid, how can you see such a thing for others? If someone learns it, what do you want to do as a winemaker?" Xiao Budian gave Yang Fan annoyed and taught him a lesson without hesitation.
Yang Fan smiled bitterly, and he didn't think so much. After listening to the little boy's explanation, he realized her painstaking efforts. He didn't blame her, but instead felt grateful.
In the Song Dynasty, there were not really famous wines, but famous wines were as expensive as gold. The winemakers kept it strictly confidential in order to monopolize interests.
"I know! You go out too!" Yang Fan said with a smile.
Little Budian almost fainted. She wanted to drive others away and she would do something to secretly learn, but Yang Fan was smart and drove her away.
The little Budian glared at Yang Fan angrily, with a look of being ruthless, and then left the room unwillingly.
Yang Fan smiled and then studied brewing white wine alone in the room.
He does not need to master the entire brewing process, he only needs to repeatedly distillate the fruit wine and rice wine with low alcohol content.
Yang Fan just built a simple distiller platform. He didn't need to brew a large amount of liquor. Now he only needs to make a few glasses of liquor with high alcohol content for Boss Wu and others to try it, so that they can believe that they are masters of brewing. As for what to do in the future, he was inspired by what he said since he was a child. Why do he have to work for others? Wouldn't it be more profitable to work on his own?
Thinking of this, Yang Fan was immediately full of energy. After most of the day, he harmed dozens of jars of rice wine and fruit wine, he finally got a pot of real white wine with a wine level of about 60 degrees in the evening.
After dismantling the simple distillation equipment, Yang Fan opened the door and walked out with a pot of white wine.
Because of continuous experimentation and tasting, Yang Fan drank a lot of wine and was already seventy-seven minutes drunk at this moment.
Yang Fan staggered to Boss Wu, handed him the wine pot, and said, "Boss Wu, you can try it!"
Boss Wu hurriedly took the wine pot and carefully poured out a glass. Before he could drink it, the aroma of the wine cheered him up.
Under the gaze of people around, Boss Wu began to taste it, and then couldn't help but drink it all, shouting that he was good wine.
Huang Xiang, who was beside him, didn't care about his identity, poured a glass directly, looked at the pure color, smelled the aroma of the wine, tasted the spicy taste, and couldn't help but drink it all, and praised the good wine three times in a row.
"This is the best wine I have ever seen!" Huang Xiang looked at Yang Fan with a complicated face. Although he was unwilling to give up, his admiration for the wine made him admire Yang Fan, so he said: "The wine is clear and transparent, fragrant, and has a clean and refreshing taste. It is far more excellent than the soju we bought from Siam. We are worthy of being a winemaking master. Admiration! Admiration!"
Yang Fan nodded slightly and smiled, "Master Huang has been awarded too much, so the winemaking master cannot be said to be. It's just that the predecessors planted trees and later enjoyed the cool air!"
The little guy holding Yang Fan was leaning at him, curling his lips and muttering in a low voice: "You're actually modest? I thought you would say you would even vomit if you drink too much!"
Boss Wu laughed and immediately stepped forward and said, "Mr. Yang really opened his eyes to ordinary people. This wine should only be found in heaven, and it is rare to taste it on earth. On behalf of our boss, I hired Mr. Yang as the general manager of the winery, with a monthly salary of 30 staples. What does Mr. Yang mean?"
Yang Fan had a little idea in his mind, and immediately said with a drink: "I am just thirty stakes, I am not interested!"
Boss Wu was stunned and hurriedly said, "If this Young Master Yang is not satisfied, we can discuss it again. How much is it better for Mr. Yang to offer a price? If it is within Wu's responsibility, he will respond immediately without saying a word! Even if it is not within Wu's responsibility, Wu will definitely convince the boss to agree!"
Yang Fan's eyes rolled and he immediately smiled and said, "This is a little tired today. It's getting late. Let's talk about it another day!"
Chapter completed!