The Production Method and Detailed Steps for Goji Berry Wine

Traditional Chinese medicine holds that goji berries have the functions of nourishing weakness, supplementing essence and qi, dispelling cold wind, strengthening yang, stopping tears, and fortifying the waist and legs; regular consumption strengthens the sinews and bones and prolongs life. Modern scientific research has proven that the active component of goji berries is goji polysaccharide, whose main components include arabinose, glucose, galactose, mannose, xylose, and rhamnose. Goji polysaccharide has the effects of enhancing body immunity, resisting tumors, and resisting aging, and also has obvious effects in lowering blood lipids, lowering blood sugar, tolerating hypoxia, and resisting fatigue. It can be processed into goji berry wine and other goji berry beverages. There are mainly two methods for making goji berry wine: the soaking method and the brewing method.

I. Soaking Method

1. Material selection: Select top-grade ripe Ningxia goji berries, and remove moldy, deteriorated, inferior berries and other debris. Quickly wash with clean water to remove dust and other impurities, then sun-dry until dry and set aside. Then choose ordinary drinking liquor and test its alcohol content.

2. Container preparation: For soaking goji berry wine, the container may be a glass jar with a lid, a porcelain jar, etc. Wash the container and let it dry. For a container without a lid, use silk cloth or a pig or sheep bladder that has been inflated and sun-dried, with wheat bran, rice husk, etc. placed inside as a cover.

3. Preparation of other items: Prepare silk cloth and gauze, and clean water (deodorized).

4. Crushing: Crush the sun-dried goji berries (or grind them with a steel mill), requiring uniform crushing and exposure of the seeds.

5. Soaking: Place the crushed goji berries into the container, then pour in baijiu. The general ratio is 300 grams of goji berries per 1000 grams of baijiu. Stir well, seal, and place in a cool, dry place. At the beginning, stir once every 2-3 days; after 7 days, stir once every 2 days; after soaking for 2 weeks, it can be filtered.

6. Filtration: Slowly filter the soaked wine through silk cloth or gauze (gauze needs 4 layers) into another container. Finally, press the goji berries forcefully until no more wine liquid can be filtered out, then discard them. Let the filtered wine liquid stand for 7 days, then perform a second filtration; silk cloth needs 2 layers, and gauze needs 6-8 layers; filter slowly as described above. At this time, the liquid obtained should be an orange, transparent liquid. Place it in a cool place, sealed and undisturbed, for 30 days. If there is sediment at the bottom of the container or the liquid is still cloudy, it can be filtered multiple times, or mechanical filtration may be used.

7. Blending: According to drinking needs, the prepared goji berry wine can be adjusted to different alcohol contents. Generally, drinking goji berry wine is at a relatively high alcohol content, namely 24-55 degrees.

After soaking, the alcohol content will decrease, causing each batch of wine to have a different alcohol content, so it should be adjusted to a uniform alcohol content. The specific method is to use an alcoholmeter to measure the alcohol content after soaking, calculate the amount of alcohol that should be added, pour it in, and stir evenly.

8. Finished product: The wine should be a clear, transparent orange-red liquid, slightly viscous, with a rich, sweet, fragrant, and mellow flavor.

II. Fermentation Brewing Method. The fermentation brewing method uses a mixed fermentation of goji berries and grain, and can be further divided into two types: the yellow rice wine fermentation method and the baijiu fermentation method. The following briefly introduces the brewing of goji berry wine by the yellow rice wine fermentation method.

1. Material selection: For goji berries, select high-quality goji berries produced in Ningxia, requiring no moldy, rotten, or deteriorated berries and other impurities. For the fermentation starter (or saccharifying agent and wine-making yeast), use glutinous rice or red grain (hulled). The mass ratio of goji berries to grain is generally 1:2.

2. Production method

(1) Soaking: Soak glutinous rice, red grain, or a mixture of glutinous rice and red grain in warm water until thoroughly soaked (during soaking, add less water and add it frequently to ensure thorough soaking without excess water). This process takes 2-3 days. Crush the goji berries and soak them in clean water until thoroughly soaked; the amount of water added should be just enough to soak them through without excess water.

(2) Steaming the materials: Steam the soaked grain until cooked and thoroughly steamed, with no undercooked parts, then quickly cool to room temperature; place the cooled rice into the prepared fermentation container; cook the soaked goji berries, cool to room temperature, and soak in water.

(3) Adding the starter: Soak the starter (or saccharifying agent and yeast) in warm water until thoroughly activated, pour it into the fermentation container, mix well, and keep warm for fermentation. The temperature is generally controlled between 32-38°C, and as much as possible not exceeding 36°C, because if the temperature is too low or too high, the quality of the wine will be poor. Stir once every 4 hours; after two days, stir once every 12 hours; after 3 days, basically stop stirring. After 6-7 days of fermentation, pour the soaked goji berries and liquid together into the fermentation container, stir evenly, and after a short while it can be filtered.

(4) Filtration: Filter with 4 layers of gauze or silk cloth into jars. Add 100 grams of 75-degree edible alcohol to each jar opening, then seal.

(5) Clarification and aging: Place the filtered and sealed jars in a cool place and store for more than six months. The wine liquid will further clarify and mature, and a small amount of sediment will appear at the bottom of the jars.

(6) Blending: Gently pour out the wine liquid after half a year of storage, and filter the bottom part through six to eight layers of gauze. For further clarification, a small amount of clarifying limewater may be added and stirred evenly; after standing for 7 days, filter through six to eight layers of gauze. Take out the clarified liquid, measure the alcohol content with an alcoholmeter, and blend accordingly. Generally, the natural alcohol content after fermentation is not less than 16 degrees, and this degree is relatively suitable. The specific adjustment method is the same as above. If a higher content is desired, edible alcohol can be used to adjust to the ideal alcohol content. The goji berry wine obtained by the yellow rice wine method can have part of its flavor adjusted with brown sugar. The specific method is to dissolve and filter the brown sugar, pour it into the wine liquid, and stir evenly. Let the adjusted goji berry wine stand for two months, then filter to remove impurities (because after adjusting the alcohol content, cloudiness or partial sediment may still appear); bottle it and it is the finished product. The color is light orange-red, clear and transparent, with the special flavor of goji berry wine.

In addition, goji polysaccharide may also be extracted first and directly poured into drinking liquor in a certain proportion and stirred evenly to obtain goji berry wine.