Sounds like a fun class. At the end of Liu’s class, each student tried to imitate the ancient Chinese beer using either wheat, millet or barley seeds. The

Sounds like a fun class. At the end of Liu’s class, each student tried to imitate the ancient Chinese beer using either wheat, millet or barley seeds. The students first covered their grain with water and let it sprout, in a process called malting. After the grain sprouted, the students crushed the seeds and put them in water again. The container with the mixture was then placed in the oven and heated to 65 degrees Celsius (149 F) for an hour, in a process called mashing. Afterward, the students sealed the container with plastic and let it stand at room temperature for about a week to ferment. The ancient Chinese beer looked more like porridge and likely tasted sweeter and fruitier than the clear, bitter beers of today. The ingredients used for fermentation were not filtered out, and straws were commonly used for drinking, Liu said.