The vessels, in various forms which suggests they had different uses in the production of the beer, date to a Neolithic period of Chinese history and a culture known as ‘Yangshao’, which existed in the area around the Yellow River in the modern provinces of Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi.The discovery is the first known evidence of beer production in China and is also the earliest-known evidence of barley use, which also means the crop appeared in the area 1,000 years earlier than previous estimates had placed it.

via 5,000-year-old Chinese beer recipe discovered.