Highland barley brew bubbles in an earthenware jar as a woman steadies a thick bamboo tube slanted into its mouth, the brew in a wooden vat beside it foams, a bowl holds the drink, and boiled barley steams on a cloth.
Malt and highland barley
Introduction
Undistilled grain brews other than huangjiu and rice wine, chiefly beer and highland barley brew.
Beer and highland barley brews covers the undistilled grain brews other than huangjiu, rice wine and fruit wine, chiefly beer and the traditional highland barley brew of the Tibetans, together with za jiu. Beer came to China in the late Qing: a Russian merchant opened a brewery in Harbin in 1900, German and British merchants built one in Qingdao in 1903, and breweries were set up in many places afterwards. Tibetans enjoy highland barley brew; in a village in Shannan, Tibet, the barley is boiled, cooled and fermented in clay jars, a practice of several centuries. Za jiu is fermented from highland barley or wheat and sipped through a hollow bamboo tube, and it is found in Qiang areas. The highland barley liquor of Huzhu in Qinghai is distilled and counts as light-aroma baijiu, so it belongs to Light-Aroma Baijiu and is only cross-referenced here; the national standard GB/T 19331-2007 covers Huzhu highland barley liquor as a geographical-indication product, and GB/T 4927-2008 covers beer. Only drinks with a Chinese brewing tradition, or a Chinese brand or place identity, are taken in.