Alcoholic drinks in China Alcoholic drinks in China Alcoholic drinks in China seem to precede the earliest stages of Chinese civilization. They include rice and grape wine, beer, and various liquors including "baijiu", the most-consumed distilled spirit in the world. ("jiǔ") is the Chinese character referring to any drink containing appreciable quantities of ethanol. Its Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as "*tsuʔ", at which point it was generally applied to drinks made from fermented millet. By the time of the first certain use of distillation during the Jin and Southern Song dynasties, the Middle Chinese pronunciation was "tsjuw". It is often translated into
Barley wine at a higher rate than other beers. Thus, barley wines tend to suffer a further price premium as compared with other beers. Similarly, many jurisdictions have different regulations regarding where beers and wines can be sold, leading to confusion regarding in which category barley wines fall and therefore limiting access. A variation on the barley wine style involves adding a large quantity of wheat to the mash bill, resulting in what is referred to as wheat wine. This style originated in the United States in the 1980s. Barley wine Barley wine is a style of strong ale of between 6-11%