How Baijiu Is Made: Qu, Pits and Patience

Whisky is made from a liquid mash. So are vodka, rum and most of the world's spirits. Baijiu is different from the first step, and that is where its extraordinary aromas come from.

1. The grain

The main grain is sorghum, 高粱 (gāoliang), a hardy cereal that grows well in China's dry regions. Its tough grains survive repeated steaming, which is exactly what baijiu needs. Some styles add rice, glutinous rice, wheat or corn: Wuliangye's name itself means "five-grain liquor". In the south, rice aroma baijiu is made entirely from rice.

2. The starter: qu

Qu (曲) is the soul of baijiu. Grain, usually wheat, is crushed, moistened and pressed into bricks or cakes, then left in a warm room for weeks. Wild yeasts, moulds and bacteria from the air and the building colonise it. The bricks are dried and stored for months before use.

• **Big qu** (大曲, dàqū) is made from wheat, or from barley and peas, in large bricks. It is used for most northern and Sichuan styles. Sauce aroma uses a qu made at high temperature, which gives its roasted, savoury notes.
• **Small qu** (小曲, xiǎoqū) is made from rice in small balls and gives lighter, softer spirits in the south.

Each distillery's qu is unique, shaped by its climate and its microbes. In Maotai, the qu is still trodden into shape by foot every summer.

3. Solid-state fermentation

Instead of making a liquid, the cooked grains are mixed with ground qu and fermented almost dry (固态发酵, gùtài fājiào). Depending on the style, they ferment:

• in **mud pits** dug into the earth, for strong aroma;
• in **clay jars** buried in the ground, for light aroma, as at Fenjiu in Shanxi;
• in **stone-walled pits** and open piles, for sauce aroma in Guizhou.

Rice aroma is the exception: it ferments in a semi-solid state, closer to a rice wine, before distillation.

4. The living pits

For strong aroma baijiu, fermentation happens in pits lined with mud. The pits are used continuously, and part of the old fermented grain is mixed back in with every new batch. Their microbes grow richer every year. At Luzhou Laojiao, pits have been fermenting without interruption since 1573. In this style, producers boast about the age of their pits, not the age of the spirit.

5. Distillation

The fermented grains, not a liquid, are loaded layer by layer into a steamer still (甑桶, zèngtǒng). Steam rises through the damp grain and carries the alcohol and aromas away to the condenser. The distiller separates the first, middle and last parts of the run, keeping the best heart. Traditionally, master distillers judge the strength by the size and life of the bubbles in the spirit, a skill called 看花摘酒 (kàn huā zhāi jiǔ), "reading the flowers".

Often, fresh grain and qu are then added to the spent grain and the cycle repeats.

6. The patience of Moutai

The most extreme example is sauce aroma. At Moutai, a single production cycle lasts a year: the qu is made around the Dragon Boat Festival, the sorghum goes in around the Double Ninth Festival, and the grains are steamed nine times, fermented eight times and distilled seven times, before years of ageing in clay jars and a final blend.

7. Ageing and blending

Most quality baijiu rests in clay jars (陶坛, táotán), which let it breathe and soften. Some distilleries age it in caves. The final spirit is a careful blend of many batches, ages and parts of the distillation (勾调, gōudiào), a craft as respected as the master blender's in Scotch whisky.

In one sentence

Baijiu is made from grain that ferments almost dry with a wild starter, in pits, jars or piles, and distilled like no other spirit in the world.