5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Discovered

I have to admit, China isn't the first place my mind conjures when I think about beer. An Oktoberfest in Germany, a dark English pub with a table full of bitters and ciders, a guy drinking a Guinness while overlooking a beautiful field in Ireland, a guy shotgunning Natty Ice before a college football game somewhere in the American South... these are all beer settings I imagine.

But I do think of incredibly rich, interesting history when I imagine China. And that's kind of what we have here: a crazy old historical document of beer courtesy of China.

According to NPR, there was a recent discovery at the Central Plain of China of vessels and equipment believed to have been used in the brewing of beer in the years between 3400 and 2900 B.C. Patrick McGovern, an expert in ancient fermented beverage history, says that the techniques used by those who brewed beer with this equipment would be largely the same as how the process is performed today.

For all the details, you can check out the report here.