This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Evidence for Neolithic rice beer discovered in China
A newly-published study has revealed evidence for the production of rice beer in China’s Lower Yangtze dating back more than 10,000 years.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), offers new insights into the emergence of the brewing of alcohol in East Asia, as well as into the cultivation of rice, but specifically in relation to the Shangshan culture of the Lower Yangtze river valley in what is now China, which existed around 8,000 BC.
The researchers, Stanford University, the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Geology and Geophysics, and the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, took what the abstract of the study described as a “multiproxy approach (phytolith, starch, and fungi) to analyse microfossil remains associated with pottery vessels from the earliest phase of the Shangshan site”.
Analysing sherds, pottery fragments of jars, pots and basins which may have been used for the storage and preparation of food and drink, the presence of rice phytoliths was discovered – though rice was not the only organic matter found, with traces of acorn and lily present too.
Starch granules were also found, and these showed signs of enzymatic degradation and gelatinisation, hallmarks of fermentation. Furthermore, the yeasts analysed were like those still used today in China for qu, an alcoholic fermentation starter that can be used for producing drinks such as baijiu. It is the oldest evidence of such a process in East Asia.
“The emergence of this fermentation technology is attributable to the early development of rice domestication and the arrival of the wet-warm Holocene climate, which was favourable for fungal growth,” the study suggested.
The researchers believe that the rice beer may have played a role in rituals, being consumed ceremonially. Rice is used by big brewers in East Asia today, with beers such as Asahi, from Japan, and China’s Tsingtao, using the grain in the recipe.
Related news
Fierce Beer closes Manchester bar