5,000 Year Old Craft Beer Found In Ancient Chinese Pottery

(Photo : Getty Images/Graeme Robertson) Ancient Chinese villagers may have been enjoying beer 5,000 years ago, according to a new study.

Ancient Chinese villagers may have been enjoying beer 5,000 years ago, according to a new study.

An archaeological study of vessels dug up from the Shaanxi province of China has unearthed equipment used to make beer, writes The Guardian. Archaelogists have dated the equipment to between 3400 and 2900 BC and even have the recipe used to make the ancient brew.

"China has an early tradition of fermentation and evidence of rice-based fermented beverage has been found from the 9000-year-old Jiahu site. However, to our knowledge, [the new discovery] is the first direct evidence of in situ beer making in China," Jiajing Wang of Stanford University, first author of the new research, told The Guardian.

Researchers analyzed residues contained in the vessels, revealing the ingredients used to make the ancient beer. The results showed the beverage was created using a number of different plants, including broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) and barley.

The discovery of the beer vessel has also provided archaeologists with the earliest evidence that barley was used in ancient China - arriving almost 1,000 years before current estimates.

Archaeologists are fascinated by the discovery as it suggests that the crop may have been used to make alcohol before it was grown as a food source - and that beer may have even played a part in how the ancient society developed.

"Beer was probably an important part of ritual feasting in ancient China," said Wang, according to a news release. "So it's possible that this finding of beer is associated with increased social complexity and changing events of the time."

The different shapes and styles of the funnels and other pottery fragments from the site in the Shaanxi province of China suggest that each of the vessels had a different purpose to do with the different stages of beer making.

The researchers analyzed the yellow residues present in the vessels, looking closely at the shape and size of the remaining starch grains and the miniscule silica formations present within plant cells - known as phytoliths.

They found that the beer contained broomcorn millet, Job's tears, lily, yam, barley and snake gourd root. Chemical analysis of the residues, combined with the damage inflicted on the starch grains, suggests that the beverage was created in a similar way to modern practices.

"The beer was made by going through three processes, including malting, mashing, and fermentation," said Wang.

However, researchers are not sure how the brew would taste in comparison to a modern day beer.

"I really have no idea," said Wang. "That is beyond our research methods."

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.