# How Chinese brewers refined their booze 5,000 years ago

Source: [Science News - Mathematics, Economics, Archaeology, Fossils](https://phys.org/news/2026-11-chinese-brewers-refined-booze-years.html) · 2026-11-13 · Life
Page: https://themorning.science/story/how-chinese-brewers-refined-their-booze-5-000-years-ago-299481e433f3ed18
Kind: research · Impact: low

## In brief

- Microscopic residues on ancient pottery in eastern China suggest brewers more than 5,000 years ago used red mold to make rice alcohol.
- The same evidence indicates the drink was strained through cloth to separate the liquid.
- The source reports the findings as appearing to show these methods, based on pottery residue analysis.

## Why it matters

The findings add concrete evidence about early fermentation and filtering techniques in prehistoric China, relevant to archaeologists studying ancient food processing and residue analysis.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-13: Science News reports the research on ancient Chinese brewing with red mold and cloth filtering

## Coverage

- [How Chinese brewers refined their booze 5,000 years ago](https://phys.org/news/2026-11-chinese-brewers-refined-booze-years.html) — Science News - Mathematics, Economics, Archaeology, Fossils, 2026-11-13

Tags: archaeology, ancient china, fermentation, pottery residue, brewing history

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science