FermenteaWhere food goes to change
626 sourced equipment pages: vessels, tools, appliances and built structures.
At Hemudu in Yuyao, Zhejiang, later Neolithic pits held stored acorns. Archaeologists describe profiles from straight-sided to bell-shaped, while cautioning that excavated outlines may be truncated.
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A below-floor, mud-lined fermentation chamber used in Chinese strong-aroma baijiu production. Its grain mash ferments in contact with the chamber’s microbial pit mud; shape and pit ecology vary among cellars.
Fixed rectangular brick-lined fermentation pools at the Liu Ling Zui distillery in Xushui, Hebei. Heritage accounts disagree on their date and total number.
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A sixth-century Chinese agricultural text describes a seasonal earthen pit for keeping fresh vegetables through winter, with vegetable kinds separated by alternating rows of produce and soil under a thick straw cover.
A steamer cooks food above heated water under a cover. The broad term includes improvised pot-and-rack setups, metal tiers and basket steamers; individual forms have different designs and uses.
The INKBIRD ITC-308 is a plug-in, probe-led temperature controller with separate heating and cooling outputs. Its relays switch compatible appliances; they do not heat, cool or validate the food themselves.
A maker-branded range of electric food dehydrators using forced horizontal airflow. Tray counts, controls and dimensions vary by model; the 3900B is one documented nine-tray example.
A folding electric food dehydrator with glass front doors, mesh shelves, filtered circulating air and two programmable time-temperature stages. Brød & Taylor also documents its use as a chamber for sealed yogurt jars.
A heated-air cabinet with trays for drying fruit and other crops; PHilMech documents cabinet/convection dryers in Cebu's dried-mango trade and several Philippine equipment variants.
A jiuhai is a large vessel for storing and maturing baijiu. This entry focuses on a documented Xifeng example: a giant basket woven from local twigs and lined with layered paper, cloth and coatings. Other jiuhai use different materials.
Painted long-necked hu vessels and bowls from Qiaotou, Zhejiang, associated with residues the researchers interpret as beer; the evidence concerns drinking and serving, not proof that these vessels were fermenters.
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Excavated Mijiaya pottery includes wide-mouth pots, funnels, pointed-bottom jiandiping jars and pottery stoves. Residue analyses support a beer-making interpretation; exact vessel roles remain uncertain.
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An open ceramic vat holds the moist solid mash, or vinegar pei, during Shanxi aged vinegar’s aerobic acetic fermentation. A 2025 study records a Taiyuan example about 1 m wide and 1.2 m high.
A small-mouth globular pottery jar from early Shangshan, ca. 10,000–9,000 cal BP. Residue study supports its possible use in rice-beverage fermentation, while leaving individual vessel functions uncertain.
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Large ceramic jars hold distilled baijiu during maturation. Fenjiu documents rows of aging jars in Shanxi, including specially specified unglazed earthenware; available sources do not establish one universal shape, volume or closure.
The Sichuan paocai jar is a pottery or ceramic crock with a broad body, narrow neck, and annular water trough around its rim. An inverted lid rests in the trough; the seal is separate from the food brine.
Jiahu pottery preserves chemical evidence of an early mixed fermented drink involving rice, honey and fruit. Its jar forms provide archaeological context, not proof one vessel served every brewing stage.
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In Shaoxing Huangjiu production, broad-mouthed pottery vats hold the actively worked rice mash, while smaller pottery jars receive it for post-fermentation. Those jars may later serve a separate storage role.
A buried ceramic fermentation jar holds the solid-state grain charge for light-aroma baijiu. Fenjiu reportage describes porcelain vats set into the floor; the cited sources establish no universal historical profile or dimensions.