Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor


Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc., also known as Kinmen Distillery, KKL, is a distillery in Kinmen County, Taiwan and owned by Kinmen County Government. The distillery is known for its Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, and provides great tax income for the local government. The company also runs a basketball team, the Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Basketball, in the Super Basketball League of Taiwan.

History

Yeh Hua-cheng opened Jincheng Distillery in 1950 to make Kaoliang in Kinmen. The next year, 1951, Commander Hu Lien in charge of the Kinmen Defense Command tasted Yeh's Kaoliang and thought it was great. At the time, Hu had to resolve the financial issue of his forces, therefore this gave him an idea to open up a distillery for the Defense Command. Hu initially wanted to contract Yeh for his Kaoliang, but was turned down as Yeh thought he could not produce that amount of liquor. Hu then decided to invited Yeh to become technician for his distillery, but to no avail.
On 3 September 1952, Hu decided to use his authority and forcefully appoint Yeh as the Technical Section Manager for the Command's distillery, Affiliated Distillery of Kinmen Economy Control Division, and Yeh's distillery is also confiscated to be used by Affiliated Distillery while Hu built a new factory for the distillery.
In 1954, the construction of a new factory has complete, and was named "Jiulong River Distillery". In 1956, with the relocation of Fujian Provincial Government to Taiwan, Jiulong River Distillery was renamed as Kinmen Distillery. On Feb 16 1998, the government-owned company was founded, and Kinmen Distillery was no longer directly managed by the local government.