Scientists recreate 5,000-year-old Chinese beer recipe

New Delhi: Scientists have been able to recreate what they claim to be a 5,000-year-old beer recipe.

Researchers discovered the ancient recipe by studying the residue on the inner walls of pottery vessels found in an excavated site in northeast China.

The research provides the earliest evidence of beer production in China so far.

"Archaeology is not just about reading books and analysing artifacts," said Li Liu, a professor in Chinese archaeology at Stanford University in the US.

"Trying to imitate ancient behaviour and make things with the ancient method helps students really put themselves into the past and understand why people did what they did," said Liu.

The ancient Chinese made beer mainly with cereal grains, including millet and barley, as well as with Job's tears, a type of grass in Asia, researchers said. Traces of yam and lily root parts also appeared in the concoction.

Liu said she was particularly surprised to find barley ? which is used to make beer today ? in the recipe because the earliest evidence to date of barley seeds in China dates to 4,000 years ago.

This suggests why barley, which was first domesticated in western Asia, spread to China.

(With PTI inputs)