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Alcoholic drinks from Northern China

Medicine-steeping base wine (浸藥酒法)浸藥酒

A 6th-century recipe from the Qimin Yaoshu for a millet wine brewed to steep wujia bark and other medicines in. Only the clean heart of the qu cake is used, soaked in one and a half times its volume of water, and the millet goes in as seven equal lots, one a day without a break.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks24 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe recipe fixes only the qu-to-water ratio (1 dou qu powder to 1.5 dou water). The millet has no fixed amount and is split into seven equal lots.
Spring-wine qu or coarse qu, not divine qu1 dou (as powder)A third is cut from every edge, corner and face of each cake, and the hole is dug out; the core is chopped, sun-dried and ground[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Water1.5 dou per dou of qu powder[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Proso millet (黍), finely husked and washed until the water runs clearNo fixed amount; the brewer judges it by the strength of the qu, split into seven equal lots[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (trimmed spring-wine or coarse qu)

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: The outer third of each qu cake is cut away to leave a clean core

Step 1 of 4
Trim the qu cakes to their core
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

The trimmed-off qu is still strong and is used for other brews. Output: clean qu core, chopped, dried and ground.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

A 6th-century recipe from the Qimin Yaoshu for a millet wine brewed to steep wujia bark and other medicines in. Only the clean heart of the qu cake is used, soaked in one and a half times its volume of water, and the millet goes in as seven equal lots, one a day without a break. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, add a lot of cold millet every day for seven days, takes 24 h (Jia Sixie 2026).

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]Add a lot of cold millet every day for seven days

What makes this one different

The qu is trimmed to its clean core before use, the millet goes in as exactly seven daily lots, and the wine is a base for steeped medicines rather than a drink in itself. It can be brewed in any season.

Related ferments

Safety

The text says to bury the bran (it writes 糖, where chapter 67 writes 糠, bran) and the slops (瀋) so that livestock do not eat them. It says the millet must be washed until the water runs clear, and the steamed millet is spread until very cold. The text names only wujia bark and then says any medicine, and steeping herbs in wine is the risky part. Aconite root in homemade medicinal wine is a known cause of poisoning that can stop the heart, it has no antidote, and alcohol makes it act faster [lei2025]. Do not steep a root or bark you cannot identify, and do not treat this wine as a medicine. A 2025 review of Chinese rice wine names ethyl carbamate, a potential carcinogen that forms from ethanol and nitrogen compounds during fermentation and storage, and biogenic amines as its main safety concerns; it speaks of rice wine in general, not of this recipe.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Qimin Yaoshu chapter 66 (笨麴餅酒), compiled by Jia Sixie in the 6th century. Right after it the book quotes the Bowu zhi for a pepper wine of spring wine, dried ginger, pepper and pomegranate juice. Wikipedia dates the book to 544 CE on one account and to 533–544 CE on another.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Temperature, salt and pH
The 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu gives warmth only in words, and no study we found has measured this recipe.
  1. [qmys-ws] Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), juan 7, ch. 66 笨麴餅酒, 浸藥酒法; transcription on Chinese Wikisource (齊民要術/卷第七), read 2026-10archive
  2. [qmys-siku] Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu, Siku quanshu edition, juan 7, transcription on Chinese Wikisource (齊民要術 (四庫全書本)/卷07), read 2026-10archive
  3. [qmys-wp] Wikipedia, Qimin Yaoshu (dates the book to 544 CE on one account and to 533–544 CE on another)wiki
  4. [jiuqu-wp] Wikipedia, Jiuqu (qu as a starter that carries moulds, yeasts and bacteria; Aspergillus and Rhizopus its main functional moulds)wiki
  5. [lei2025] Lei Y., Yi Q., Lu J. et al. 2025, When the cure turns toxic, a case report on toxic alkaloids identified by public mass spectral databases, Frontiers in Medicine 12:1681334 (general safety text only)paper
  6. [peng2025] Peng B. et al. 2025, Rice Wine Fermentation - Unveiling Key Factors Shaping Quality, Flavor, and Technological Evolution, Foods 14(14), 2544paper