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Malt-fermentation residues in Neolithic ceramic vessels from the lower Yellow River

Proteomics moves a Longshan site east of Jinan into the earliest East Asian evidence of malt fermentation.

Shuchi Liang1†, Qiaomei Fu2, Cen Gao1

* Equal contribution · † Corresponding author

B.E.E.R. 647, 290–297 (2026)

Received: 9 December 2025
Accepted: 22 July 2026
Published: 9 September 2026
DOI: 10.1038/sbeer-026-18405-6

Abstract

We analysed calcareous crusts on the inner walls of 14 ceramic vessels from a Longshan ash pit near Chengziya, Zhangqiu, by palaeoproteomics and plant microfossils, identifying amylase residues of Hordeum and Setaria, yeast enolase and a fermentation-specific organic-acid profile. Dates are 4,300–4,100 cal BP. Compared with contemporaneous rice-wine evidence, the assemblage is closer to a “malt mash” than to distillation or a simple grain wine. The result pushes the history of fermented drink in North China earlier, and opens a long-durée line to the malt tradition of today’s City of Springs.

Subject: Archaeology and history

The narrative of East Asian fermented drink has long been centred on rice wine1. In the grain structure of Longshan culture on the lower Yellow River, millet, foxtail millet and barley sit together, which is the raw-material condition for a malt mash.

Assays in a brewing laboratory
Fig. 1 | Wort assays in the laboratory. Palaeoproteomics uses the same enzymatic markers as modern brewing analysis.

In the crusts we see amylase, yeast protein and lactic-acid-bacteria peptidoglycan together, pointing to a mixed fermentation rather than a single inoculation. That can be read against the modern ecology of open fermentation.

Methods

  1. Calcareous crusts were decalcified with EDTA and analysed by shotgun proteomics.
  2. AMS ¹⁴C was measured at the Peking University accelerator mass-spectrometry laboratory.

Data availability. Mass-spectrometry data: ProteomeXchange PXD-BEER-LONGSHAN.

Acknowledgements. The Shandong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology assisted with sampling.

Author contributions. L.S.C. designed the study; Q.F. supervised the proteomics; G.C. carried out the microfossil work.

Competing interests. The authors declare no competing interests.

Authors and affiliations

  1. 1. Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
  2. 2. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Corresponding author: Shuchi Liang (sliang@sdu.edu.cn)

References

  1. 1. McGovern, P. E. et al. Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. PNAS 101, 17593–17598 (2004).
  2. 2. Liu, L. et al. The origins of specialized pottery and beer brewing. PNAS 116, 201902650 (2019).
  3. 3. Wang, J. et al. Revealing a 5,000-y-old beer recipe in China. PNAS 113, 6444–6448 (2016).