Step 1 · Meet the five drinks
Grain, grape or rice?
The quickest way to understand the five drinks is to ask one question: what is it made from?
Grapes. Wine, of course, and brandy, which is distilled from wine.
Grain. Baijiu is made from grain, most often sorghum (高粱, gāoliang), a tall cereal that grows well across China. Some baijiu blends several grains: the famous "five grain" recipes use sorghum, rice, glutinous rice, wheat and corn.
Rice and millet. Rice wine is brewed mainly from glutinous rice in the south, around Shaoxing, and from millet in parts of the north.
Barley. Beer is brewed from malted barley and hops, often with some rice added to make it lighter.
One ingredient connects baijiu and rice wine, and has no real equivalent in European drinks: qu (曲), the fermentation starter made from grain. You will meet it in step 3.