Huangjiu, meaning yellow wine, is a Chinese alcoholic beverage, and is most popular in the Jiangnan area. Huangjiu is brewed by mixing boiled grains including rice, glutinous rice or millet with qū as starter culture, followed by saccharification and fermentation at around 13-18 °C for fortnights. Its alcohol content is typically 8%-20%.
Huangjiu is usually pasteurized, aged, and filtered before its final bottling for sale to consumers. Pasteurisation removes impurities as well as stabilising the aromatic flavour compounds. Maturation process can be complicated but important for the development of the layers of flavours and fragrance. A few brands of premium grade huangjiu could have been aged for up to 20 years. Although as huangjiu's name may suggest, its colour is typically light yellow and orange, but it can in fact range from clear to brown. Many famous huangjiu brands use the quality of water involved in the brewing process as a way of advertising, and some consider it to be the most important ingredient.
Huangjiu is commonly consumed warm, as the richness from the flavour compounds are released better when warm. In summer, it is popular to drink sweet huangjiu chilled or on ice. Liaojiu (料酒) is a type of huangjiu used in cooking, an example of this being the liaojiu-type of Shaoxing rice wine. Major producers of huangjiu include China and Taiwan.