Although Li Mengxi knew that metal pot lids were needed for cooking pots, and he also knew that copper pot lids were best, he didn't know the more detailed details.

The pot lid must be made of copper, and, more importantly, the thicker the pot lid, the better, because the thicker the lid, the slower the lid will heat up and the better the cooling effect will be.

Or if the pot lid is too thin, the alcohol steam will heat up the lid after a while of burning. No matter how quickly the cooling water is changed, the temperature will be difficult to drop, and the condensation effect will be poor.

Therefore, the thicker the lid of the steamer, the better.

However, the blacksmiths are well-intentioned to save materials, so they can get as little copper as possible, but the two are completely opposite to each other.

There are generally two types of casting of metal tools: forging and casting. There is currently no cold forging related process in the craftsman camp.

Compared with iron, copper has a much lower melting point, that is, copper can easily turn into copper water.

The blacksmiths put the copper ingots in pottery urns and set them on fire for a long time to burn out a urn of copper water. Then they poured the copper water into the mold. When the mold was filled, there was still a bottom of the urn of copper liquid.

, just enough.

Li Mengxi originally thought that he would have to wait until the afternoon for the pot lid to be ready. Unexpectedly, before noon, the blacksmiths delivered the pot lid that was still hot. Li Mengxi was slightly surprised.

Check the finished pot lid. It is bright yellow all over and slightly purple. The shape of the pot is regular and round, and it also has the long nose it should have.

Then check the upper and lower water holes to see how thick they are. Pour water in from the top and it will flow out from the bottom, which fully meets the condensation needs.

However, Li Mengxi discovered something.

Condensation mainly relies on water, but if it is filled with water, it is too difficult to add water through the small opening as thick as a tachyon.

Li Mengxi asked if there was a way to add a funnel or something. The leader of the craftsmen thought about it and said it was easy to do.

The pot lid was taken back by the craftsman and improved.

Not long after, the craftsman sent back the pot lid. It was probably poured with copper juice and was very rough. A small funnel that was half flat but not round was embedded crookedly in the water spout.

It seems that the hastily added funnel will not be too strong, but I think it is only used for adding water. As long as there is no collision, it will not affect the use.

Everything is ready.

Distillation began, and except for Zhang Fei's five jars of wine, all the other wines were moved to the stove.

Li Mengxi and military doctor Tian Bu didn't care whether the wine was good or bad. They opened a jar and poured it into the big iron pot. They poured nineteen jars of wine into it before the pot was barely a quarter full.

three.

After that, fill the copper pot lid with water, put a small stick into the water outlet at the bottom, put the pot lid on the edge of the pot, pour water around it, and seal it.

Take another clean jar, place it at the wine outlet, and light a fire.

After breaking a piece of firewood and stuffing it into the stove, Li Mengxi raised his head and said to Tian Bu, a military doctor standing nearby, "Do you understand, Tian Bu? This is the method of making money that a certain person said is worth a thousand dollars."

Add water to the pot lid, and when the wine vapor reaches the pot lid, the wine liquid will condense, and then flow down the pot lid, and the liquor will be made.”

Tian Bu could see clearly that compared with using a small still, using a large iron pot to steam a large pot at a time was the only way to steam a large amount of spirits.

While lighting the fire, Li Mengxi was thinking about a question: cut off the head and tail of distilled wine, you know.

Another point is, what is the evaporation temperature of alcohol?

You know, if you boil the water in the pot, the water vapor and alcohol will boil together, which will mix a lot of steam in the wine.

Therefore, the most appropriate temperature should be less than 100 degrees, which is just enough for alcohol to evaporate, but not enough for water to boil.

Unfortunately, Li Mengxi couldn't remember the temperature at which alcohol boils.

Even if the exact value can be known, there is no way to accurately control the temperature.

After much deliberation, there is only one way. When the water boils, remove the fire and add two ladles of cold water into the pot. In this way, the wine that has just reached 100 degrees is added with two ladles of cold water, and the temperature immediately drops below 100 degrees.

At the same time, with only two ladles of cold water, the temperature will not drop too much, and the remaining temperature is still enough to distill alcohol.

Relying on this method of constantly adding water to stop boiling, the temperature can be easily controlled below 100 degrees, which is conducive to the high-efficiency production of alcohol.

Not long after the stove was burning, some wine came out of the pot.

After receiving about half a bowl of wine, Tian Bu took away the jar at the right time and replaced it with a new, larger jar.

After burning for a while, Li Mengxi went to lift the lid of the pot, and sure enough, the water was boiling.

As he thought, Li Mengxi quickly removed the fire, then poured a ladle of cold water over the pot and put the cold water into the pot. The effect was immediate, and the pot that had been burning calmed down after a bowl of water was poured into it.

After closing the lid again, Li Mengxi went to look at the mouth of the wine. The fire had been removed, but the wine was still flowing out.

My guess is correct, the boiling stop method is useful.

However, when you lift the lid of the pot, a lot of alcohol will escape, which is also a problem.

Perhaps, you can make a device for adding cold water? Add a water injection port on the edge of the pot. When you notice that the wine is boiling, pour cold water in, so you don't have to lift the pot.

When Li Mengxi told Tian Bu, the military doctor next to him, what he thought was an ingenious design, Tian Bu replied, "I'm afraid the fire will be too big, so why not use a small fire to burn it?"

In one sentence, Li Mengxi was stunned by the question.

That's right, if you have experience and can control the heat well, and slowly heat it over low heat, you can also control the temperature of the wine just right.

But Li Mengxi thought about it again, experience, the most important thing is experience. Maybe a master who has been making liquor for more than ten and a half years can accurately master the heat, but distilling spirits is a technology that was popularized on a large scale in the late Han Dynasty. Where can it go in this world?

Find a master chef with decades of experience in cooking pots.

Therefore, instead of trying to control the heat, it is better to directly control the water temperature.

Tian Bu's method was not good, and Li Mengxi refuted Tian Bu ruthlessly.

Tian Bu, on the other hand, didn't quite understand why the military advisor thought it was extremely difficult to light a fire.

The process of steaming the wine is very fast. After a while, you can see that the wine is getting less and less. At this point, the strong wine has steamed out to almost three full jars. The aroma of the wine is fragrant. The stove is near the wounded barracks, and the wounded soldiers smell the smell of wine.

A group of wounded soldiers gathered around to watch. The wounded soldiers were almost drooling with greed.

Li Mengxi handed two of the three jars of steamed spirits to Tian Bu for medical use. The remaining jar was dissatisfied. Li Mengxi took some quicklime and poured it into the wine. This step was to remove the water that could not be completely removed from the wine.

's cleaner.

The alcohol produced by distillation cannot reach 100% purity because it is always mixed with a large amount of water vapor. After further treatment with quicklime, the alcohol concentration can reach more than 90%.

With the alcohol in hand, Li Mengxi returned to the City Lord's Mansion with a jar of wine that was turbid due to the lime sprinkled on it. The wine jar was not covered. As soon as he returned to the City Lord's Mansion, the aroma of wine filled the room.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Guan Yu became energetic when he smelled the aroma of wine, and said that he had not tasted wine for a long time, so he wanted to take a bowl and drink.

Li Mengxi had no choice but to explain the situation, but Guan Yu gave up angrily.

One question, it is certain that alcohol can decolorize. In biology class experiments, alcohol can extract the chlorophyll from leaves. However, if it is dead plant tissue, such as raw hemp, can alcohol still extract and decolorize it?

Furthermore, assuming that alcohol can decolorize, what concentration of alcohol has the best decolorization effect? ​​Is it 100%, or 75%?

Both questions are unknown.

Li Mengxi found some boiled raw sesame and planned to throw it into the wine jar to soak it, but he felt that the color of the sesame was still bland and not as gray as autumn.

After thinking about it, Li Mengxi decided to use wheat straw because wheat straw is darker in color. Similarly, if it is decolored, the contrast will be more obvious.

Li Mengxi went to get a large handful of wheat straw, and after handling it for a while, he stuffed the straw directly into the wine jar.

Guan Yu felt heartbroken when he saw Li Mengxi ruining a jar of good wine.

——

time flies.

An hour later, Li Mengxi took the wheat straw out of the wine jar and looked at it. Surprisingly, the wheat straw was still wheat straw and had not discolored.

Why was this, Li Mengxi was at a loss.

Could it be that the soaking time is not enough?

In order to try again, Li Mengxi simply asked Guan Yu to help him seal the wine jar completely, and planned to soak it for two months before taking it out for a look.

At the same time, Li Mengxi envisioned what would happen two months later. Suppose, two months later, the wheat straw turned white after being soaked. Then why, after soaking for an hour, the wheat straw did not change. But after soaking for two months, the wheat straw changed drastically. Why?

?

Of course it’s time, but why does it change significantly as time goes by?

(It's...the reaction rate.) Li Mengxi suddenly remembered, (The reaction rate is too slow, so it takes a long time. If there is a catalyst, the rate can be increased thousands of times.)

But, alcohol decolorization, I don’t know what can catalyze this process.

(And if there is no catalyst...) Li Mengxi recalled that when making paper, the pulp had to be boiled for a long time. If you want to shorten the boiling time, you can use a pressure cooker.

(Alcohol can be heated to a low temperature of 20 to 30 degrees. When the temperature is high, the molecules move violently and the activity increases hundreds or thousands of times. Therefore, the decolorization reaction that can be completed in two months can be completed in a few days...)

There was no need to wait two months to see what was going on. Li Mengxi stood up in excitement, picked up the newly sealed wine jar, walked to the fire and started burning it.
Chapter completed!