In October 2023, the international journal Food Chemistry: X published a research paper by Professor Li Xiuting  from the School of food and health titled Spatial heterogeneity of microbiota and flavor across different rounds of sauce-flavor Baijiu in Northern China.

Sauce-flavor Baijiu is one of the typical representatives of traditional Baijiu brewing in China. Its brewing technology is extremely complex, the liquor has a strong Maotai flavor, and its style is very unique. The production cycle of soy sauce wine is as long as one year, including seven rounds of stacking fermentation and cellar fermentation. After fermentation in the cellar, the fermented mash is distilled to form seven different styles of base liquor. Southern regions such as Guizhou and Sichuan in China are the main production areas for soy sauce wine, while other regions such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong also produce soy sauce wine with distinct northern regional characteristics. At present, there is a lot of in-depth research on the brewing process and principles in the main production areas of soy sauce wine. However, the succession and changes of microorganisms during the seven rounds of stacking and fermentation in the cellar throughout the year, as well as their impact on the flavor of the base wine, in the northern region of soy sauce wine production, are not yet clear. Therefore, analyzing the brewing mechanism of the distinctive regional characteristics of northern soy sauce wine can help us gain a deeper understanding of the reasons for the formation of the unique style of northern soy sauce wine and explore the root causes of the differences between southern and northern soy sauce wine. This study focuses on the production process of soy sauce wine in Beijing, and for the first time explores the microbial community structure characteristics and their correlation with flavor compounds during the full fermentation process of northern soy sauce wine. It reveals the volatile flavor compounds in the base wine of seven rounds of northern soy sauce wine, clarifies that bacteria have a more significant impact on differential flavor compounds with high contribution value, and further explores and analyzes the root causes of differences between southern and northern soy sauce wine, aiming to provide new perspectives and basic data for the study of soy sauce wine brewing mechanisms.