Chapter 151 Brewing and Grain

Peter started to tinker with something again. He made some strange things in the alchemy room he built.

Alchemy originated in Egypt and developed in the Hellenistic period. In the Middle Ages, Europeans believed that they could turn stones into gold through some means, so they began a lot of experiments. Although there was no gold, they also promoted the development of chemistry.

In Spain, a Christian country occupied by Arabs, Jews in the gap between Arabs and Christianity began the first translation work. However, since they were not alchemists and were not very proficient in Latin, the translations of works such as "Seventy Theories" at that time were obscure and even completely lost. Later, some scholars in the Christian world began to contact alchemy, which officially announced the opening of the European period of alchemy.

Peter also built an alchemy room and tinkered with it when he was bored. And he exchanged letters with other alchemists under pseudonyms. For example, he learned from a crazy alchemist in Florence that gold would appear after a series of processes such as distilling urine.

. . . It is also a unique insight.

However, Peter's recent research topic is: how to improve brewing technology.

The most common alcohol in Europe now is wine, and grain alcohol is relatively rare. Although there is beer, the alcohol content is too low. If there is a higher alcohol content grain alcohol, it will be fine. The Russians should like it.

He remembered that vodka has an extra filtering step, first filter the original wine, and then distill it. In this era, charcoal can only be used for filtering. First, the original wine brewed with barley is filtered with charcoal, and then distilled with a brandy distiller from the Crusades. In this way, the alcohol concentration is as high as 90%, and then it is diluted with distilled water, so that a bottle of crystal clear new wine is ready.

During the production process, Peter did not dare to sleep, for fear that the experiment would fail. Moreover, 1.5 kg of charcoal must be used for continuous filtration for no less than 8 hours for every 10 liters of distillate. Such torture is unbearable. If Peter had not done something else, the Grand Duke would have thought that his son had gone astray in alchemy.

Finally, after a week of "alchemy", 12 bottles of crystal clear wine were successfully produced. I just haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how it works.

Peter took a sip, and a strong feeling spread in his mouth. The spicy taste rushed straight to the top of Peter's head, and Peter almost fainted.

"It looks okay"

Such wine will definitely conquer the Cossacks and those who live in high latitudes. This taste is very suitable for them. Moreover, the wine before adding water can be used as medical alcohol, which really achieves multiple uses of one wine.

In addition to brewing, Peter also conducted some other experiments, but most of them failed. It can be seen that such success will not last, and this kind of thing can only be left to professionals.

Dobruja's grain harvest is good every year. The application of iron farm tools and fertilizers has greatly increased grain production. The regulation of grain prices has been successful. Whether it is a good year or a bad year, the price will not be too outrageous, so as to avoid the situation of low grain prices hurting farmers as much as possible.

Even so, Dobruja's granaries are almost full. A large amount of grain is piled up here, and it will go moldy if it is not eaten.

In order to consume this grain, Peter started with the local staple bread. Peter ordered that no strange things, including stones and soil, should be mixed into the bread. At most, bran and straw should be added, and the proportion should not exceed one-fifth.

Peter was still very uneasy in his heart, thinking that his heart was too dark. In order to prevent the taste of black bread from deteriorating, he specifically ordered the bakers to add less straw. However, the supervisor did it even darker than him. Peter ordered to add 20% straw to the bread, and he directly asked to add 30%...

In their opinion, the lord's idea of ​​adding straw to the bread was absolutely a genius idea. And he felt that adding straw was much kinder than adding stones and soil.

You know, black bread with soil and stones added is almost as hard as a brick, and you can use it directly to fight. It is particularly hard on the teeth when eating. But after replacing the soil and stones with straw, the black bread is not so brick-like and tastes much softer. Although it cannot be compared with pure black bread, it is much better than those "black stick" black breads.

This is also why Peter has never eaten real "black stick" bread, the kind of black stick bread that can be used as bricks. The black-hearted boss can mix 20% of soil in it. When the soil is dried in the oven, how can it not be hard? Therefore, when eating black stick bread, it is often melted with hot water. Because the soil components must be softened with hot water, otherwise it is impossible to eat.

The black bread mixed with straw bran is different. In any case, straw bran is also edible-although the grade is too low. But for the poor people in the Middle Ages, the ingredients in the bread are all edible, which is already a good treatment. After all, straw bran can also be digested by the stomach, but it is not nutritious, but at least it can resist hunger.

The improvement of bread has won the hearts of another group of people. They have eaten more than people in most countries. With spare money, they will buy some cakes to improve. The increasingly abundant food shows that the peasants are getting better and better.

But even with such consumption, there is still a lot of food. Peter could only sell it, and in addition to selling it to the Caucasus region, he could also sell it to Western Europe and Castile.

Although Castile is a large country, most of its territory is plateau. Only 11% of the country's land is located in plains below 200 meters above sea level. Only in these plains are there agricultural activities. Moreover, not all of these 11% of plains have been reclaimed into farmland. Therefore, although Castile and Aragon look large, the cultivated land area is not large. In addition, there are still many people, so the price of grain is relatively expensive. It is a very cost-effective business to transport grain there for sale. Moreover, according to reliable information, the demand for grain in Iberia is much greater than that in the UK, and it relies on imports all year round. Aragon transports a large amount of grain back to the country from the "Golden Basin" of the colony of Sicily every year, and imports a large amount of grain from neighboring France.

In addition, the Balkans are also mountainous. The main sources of grain are concentrated in the lower reaches of the Danube and Vojvodina. Now that most of the Balkans are included in the territory of Wallachia, grain naturally flows.

Some farmers began to grow other crops to earn more income. The most common one was grapes, because corn and potatoes that were suitable for planting were still in America. The planting of sugar beets also increased, but it was a pity that they were not the high-sugar beets of later generations, otherwise half of the sugarcane plantations in Cyprus would be gone.