Sweet Fermented Grains

Last updated 2026-11-15 — After the Qingming Festival, it becomes the season when people in Lanzhou commonly make sweet fermented grains, a traditional snack in Lanzhou also known as fermented wine grains. There are two varieties: one made from oats and the other from highland barley, an ingredient unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The preparation methods for both are largely similar. For oats, they are placed in a sack or a woven winnowing basket and repeatedly rubbed to remove the outer husk; for highland barley, the fine husk is first cleaned off before the grain is boiled in a pot until about 80% cooked. It is then taken out to dry on a flat surface. Depending on the quantity, a measured amount of distiller’s yeast is mixed in evenly, after which the mixture is placed in a ceramic basin and covered tightly to ferment either on a warm heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) or near a stove. In two or three days, when a fragrant wine aroma emerges, it is ready. When eaten, it has a rich, mellow wine flavor, hence the name “sweet fermented grains.”