A 5000 year old beer recipe uncovered in China shows that people there were importing a critical ingredient from thousands of miles away which has made the finding “surprising” according to researchers.

Jugs, pots and funnels — containing remnants of mashed grains and other starches  – all parts of cache of ancient brewing equipment were recently discovered by two Chinese institutions and a team of archaeologists from Stanford University and Brigham Young University.

Their analysis reveals “a surprising beer recipe” containing a grain called broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), another grain called Job’s tears or Chinese pearl barley (Coix lacrymajobi), and some sort of tuber, say the researchers who were working at the Mijiaya dig site.

The analysis of those grain residues on the interiors of the vessels helped compile the “recipe” by the researchers. Indications of a culture that understood advanced brewing techniques that are very similar to modern methods is pointed by the evidence, say scholars.

“All indications are that ancient peoples, including those at Mijiaya, applied the same principles and techniques as brewers do today,” said Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved with the research.

The Shang dynasty, which spanned roughly 1250-1046 B.C., has the earliest reference to beer in Chinese literature wrote the Mijiaya site researchers in their study. Yangshao culture — a Neolithic people who lived near the banks of China’s Yellow River, was the basis for the origination of this Shang-era beermaking culture, believes some scholars. The time when the Yangshao were beginning large-scale agriculture in the region coincides with the age of the brewing equipment.

“To our knowledge, our data provide the earliest direct evidence of in situ beer production in China, showing that an advanced beer brewing technique was established around 5,000 (years) ago,” the researchers wrote in a study published Monday in the the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Barley – one the ingredients involved, has been one of the most surprising aspects of the find. Barley was first cultivated in western Eurasia, and it would not become an important crop in China until the Han Dynasty era, 3,000 years later. It was not grown for food in China at the tie to which the brewing equipment belongs.

This has made the researchers believe that barley was brought into the area specifically for beer-making. The farmers in the region probably either grew small patches of it in their fields or traded their own crops for the grain.

Gthe beer that was produced then would be comparable to a $70,000 bottle of Bordeaux that a modern member of the wealthy elite might pull out to “to impress our friends and stay in power”, said McGovern in an email to CNBC.

The possession of beer may have been something of a status symbol and an “exotic” beverage to the locals. The locals around the Yellow River managed to develop a complex culture and social hierarchy through the development of farming in the region, suggests the scholars.

“Like other alcoholic beverages, beer is one of the most widely used and versatile drugs in the world and it have been used for negotiating different kinds of social relationships,” the authors wrote.

(Adapted from CNBC)