It's not every day you come across a beer recipe in an academic journal. But researchers think they've found the earliest evidence of beer production in China.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and claims to reveal the components of a 5,000-year-old beer.
The research suggests alcohol was the initial reason barley spread across Eurasia to the Central Plain of China. This theory would knock out the belief that its movement was motivated by people who wanted to use barley as food.
Researchers found what they believe to be beer-making supplies at an excavation site in North China. They analyzed beer residue from funnels and pottery shards.
Apparently, if you're looking to replicate this really, really old beer, you'll need broomcorn millet, Job's tears, tubers and barley, of course.
This video includes images from shizhao / CC BY 2.0, Forest and Kim Starr / CC BY 2.0, Leslie Seaton / CC BY 2.0 and coniferconifer / CC BY 2.0.
