Economist, Sept 9, 2017 (III)

choi

* There is no need to read the rest of the text.

Microbrew  l  All the Beer in China; Consumers are increasingly willing to pay up for craft beer.

Quote:

"EVIDENCE unearthed at Mijiaya in Shaanxi province proved an ancient tradition of making beer. Brewers were operating 5,000 years ago, using grains such as millet and Job's tear (a kind of pearl barley). This year a couple of small-scale brewers lovingly recreated that Neolithic ale. The cloudy, hop-free beverage would challenge even the bravest microbrew devotee. Ladislao Raphael of Moonzen Brewery in Hong Kong describes it as 'sour and funky.'

In China: "Wheat beers are popular * * * Domestic brewers must also make the most of readily available ingredients [such as wheat]. Barley in China is mostly poor quality and importing it is costly.

Note:
(a) Not for All the Tea in China. The Phrase Finder, undated.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meani ... e-tea-in-china.html

(b) Mijiaya  米家崖遗址 (located at present-day 陕西省西安市灞桥区十里铺米家崖村 东北600米)
(i)
(A) 金石,专家揭秘：在西安发现五千年前啤酒的前前后后. 西安日报, May 31,2017
http://www.sanqinzx.com/a/renwen/lishi/2016/0531/4501.html
("美国斯坦福大学东亚语言与文化系教授刘莉，以前就是陕西省考古研究院的职员 * * * 她到了美国，对陕西的考古依然十分关心。可能她接触国外东西比较多，从米家崖遗址发掘报告上看到漏斗、灶等器物，感觉跟酿造啤酒的器物比较相似 * * * 在考古发掘报告里，考古人员 [at Shaanxi, before 刘莉 joined in] 把漏斗、灶、小口尖底瓶等归入陶容器之列，重点描述其外部特征，没有详细分析其功用。 * * * 从漏斗上提取残留物后，中美两国研究人员进行了系统分析。通过现代仪器对残留物中淀粉粒的观察，发现很多淀粉粒有损伤的迹象，一些淀粉粒的中心出现明显缺坑，一些淀粉粒变形和糊化。这些迹象与模拟酿酒实验过程中淀粉粒的损伤特征类似。此外，在残留物里还发现了谷物壳上特有的植硅体。这说明残留物中含有谷物的壳。在啤酒酿造过程中，特别是第一步发芽时，谷壳是必不可少的。通过进一步化学分析，研究人员还发现残留物中含有草酸，并认为此草酸可能来源于草酸钙，也称作啤酒石。这是啤酒酿造时的副产品。其次，中美研究人员确定，它的原料为黍、大麦、薏米和少量根茎作物混合而成。 [2004年在米家崖遗址发掘的负责人、陕西省考古研究院研究员] 邢福来说，这次研究发现的大麦等，当年他们考古发掘没有看到，都几千年了，好多都碳化了，凭肉眼判断不出来是什么东西。在刘莉等人提出之前，他们并没有想到这里的文物和酿酒有关。 * * * '啤酒'早在6000年前就有，居住在美索不达米亚地区的苏美尔人 [Sumerians] 用大麦芽酿制啤酒。中国最早开始生产啤酒的时间，过去一直认为是1900年，由俄罗斯技师引入。如果在米家崖发现的确实是啤酒生产工艺，就把中国生产啤酒的时间往前推了5000年左右。 邢福来解释，虽然在米家崖的发现直接叫啤酒可能不合适，它跟现在啤酒制造工艺还是存在些区别，但是应该跟类似于啤酒这种酿造工艺有关系。研究成果报告中说得很清楚，是中国历史记载中的谷芽酒，即利用发芽的谷物制成的酒，其工序与西方啤酒一致。 * * * 再一个，既然5000年前中国有啤酒，为啥米酒、黄酒、白酒都能流传下来，唯独啤酒没有流传下来？ * * * 记者从网上看到，有人著文称，据考证，早在新石器时代中期，居住在青海的古羌族在黄河上游开始栽培大麦，距今已有5000年的历史。 无论古羌族栽培大麦说法是否可靠，这项科研成果，起码用实物印证了中国在5000年前就有大麦")
(B) Wang J et al, Revealing a 5,000-Y-Old Beer Recipe in China. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113: 6444–6448 (2016).
www.pnas.org/content/113/23/6444
(Result: "The starch assemblage mainly consists of millet, Triticeae, and Job's tears, with a smaller contribution from tubers that include snake gourd root (Trichosanthes kirilowii), yam (Dioscorea sp.), and lily (Lilium sp.) (Fig 3 A–F). A high percentage of starch grains (n = 166, 30.7%) exhibit signs of damage, and among them two types of damage closely resemble that produced by beer brewing. First, some grains show pits and channels on their surface, ranging from being slightly pitted to completely hollow (Fig 4A). Second, a large number of starch grains are swollen, folded, and distorted (Fig 4B); some still retain their individual boundaries, but many merge into one another. These two damage patterns precisely match the morphological changes developed during malting and mashing")
(ii) What surprises me is PRC pronounces 崖 as "ya."  Taiwanese government romanizes it as "yai" (which does not appear in PRC pinyin).

丙丁, '崖' 字读音小考. 晋京民之子的博客, Sept 13, 2008.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5375d4df0100atoj.html
(iii) Job's tears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job%27s_tears
(Coix lacryma-jobi; is native to Southeast Asia; Job's tears are also commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley in Asian supermarkets, although C lacryma-jobi is not closely related to barley (Hordeum vulgare); The species was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 with the epithet as a Latin translation of the metaphorical tear of [biblical prophet] Job)

(c) craft beer  精酿啤酒
(i) Ladislao Raphael is also spelled Laszlo Raphael (he was born in City of Mexico and grew up in US). Both given names are derived from Ladislaus I of Hungary (c 1040 – 1095). Ladislao Raphael's Hong-Kongese-born wife is Michelle Wong Raphael. They have no Chinese name, and are the co-founders of Moonzen Brewery 门神啤酒厂.
(ii) funky (adj) "having an offensive odor : FOUL"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/funky

Funky has many a definition, but I think the above is it.

(d) "Great Leap Brewing, a stalwart of Beijing's craft scene"

大跃啤酒  (2013- ; 创始人: both 高泰山 Carl SETZER (from Cleveland, Ohio) and 刘芳)
(e) "Panda Brew 熊猫精酿（益阳）酒业有限公司 founded in Beijing by Dinghao 潘丁浩 in 2013."