中国古代酒曲制造发展简述

Brief Introduction to the Development of the Production Technology of Liquor Starter in Ancient China

酒曲是中国古代人民的伟大发明,它使人们能够利用五谷来酿制"天之美禄"的酒。古人用酒曲酿酒有着悠久的历史,在漫长的发展历程中,古人制造酒曲的工艺与技术不断改进,从商代以前的曲糵共存,到周代发展成单用散曲酿制酒、醴,汉代到北魏时期,块曲成为酒曲的主要形式,酒曲的种类更加丰富,《齐民要术》中就记载了9种酒曲的详细制作方法,同时"草曲"在南方也得以普遍应用。唐代时期红曲已经出现在诗歌当中,并且出现"竖曲如隔子眼"的堆曲方法,宋代酒曲人工接种技术得到应用,中草药广泛应用于酒曲制作中。大曲由于蒸馏酒主体地位的确立,在元明清时期得到快速发展,该时期小曲中加入的中草药更加丰富,红曲的制造方法在该时期发展成熟并普遍应用。至此,我国传统四大酒曲——麦曲、小曲、红曲和大曲都形成了成熟的制造工艺,并广泛应用。

Liquor starter is the great invention of ancient Chinese. People use liquor starter to produce liquor. The use of liquor starter has a long history. During the long development period of liquor starter, its production techniques always kept constant improvement as follows： the coexistance of ＂Qu＂ and ＂Nie＂ prior to Shang Dynasty, the single use of starter to produce liquor in Zhou Dynasty, and caky starter in Han Dynasty. In the book of ＂Qi Min Yao Shu＂, the production of nine kinds of starter were recorded in details. On the other hand, grass starter was widely used in South China. Red starter firstly emerged in the poems in Tang Dynasty, and a method for starter stacking presented at the same time. In Song Dynasty, artificial inoculating technology of starter began to spread and herbs were used widely in the production of liquor starter. Daqu experienced a rapid development in the period of Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty due to its dominant role in distilling liquor. In that period, more herbs were added in Xiaoqu production and the production technology of red starter ripened and spread widely. Until then, the four liquor starter including wheat starter, Xiaoqu, red starter and Daqu had formed matured production technology.