We don’t often think of China when we look for the origins of beer, but an archeological analysis published by Stanford researchers last year shed light on ancient brewing history that points to the Chinese as some of the earliest people to brew beer—around 5,000 years ago.
The findings inspired Barry Chan, brewmaster for Lucky Envelope Brewing, to start experimenting and figuring out how that ancient beer would have tasted. The researchers were able to use chemical analysis of those brewing vessels to give rudimentary ratios of the different grains and starches that were used. So Chan had a basic guide to the beer’s content that included barley but also more unusual ingredients like Chinese squash, a grain called Job’s tears, and dried lily flowers.
