How to Write 醅 (pēi) — Meaning “unfiltered wine”

Imagine a wine bottle (酉) with a thick, cloudy layer of unfiltered sediment at the bottom — the 咅 on the right looks like a little cup with foam on top. Picture yourself pouring unfiltered wine (醅) and seeing the cloudy bits floating. This visual links the character to its meaning of unfiltered wine.

The left part 酉 is written with 7 strokes: horizontal, vertical, horizontal, left-falling, vertical fold, horizontal, horizontal. The right part 咅 has 8 strokes starting with a dot and horizontal, then writing 立 (dot, horizontal, points, horizontal) plus 口 below. A common mistake is making the 酉 too wide or forgetting the second horizontal stroke inside the 酉 — keep it balanced and compact.

酩 (mǐng) appears in 酩酊 (mǐng dǐng) meaning "dead drunk," and has the phonetic 名 (míng) — it focuses on drunkenness, not wine type. 酪 (lào) means "cheese" or "curd" and uses the phonetic 各 (gè) — it is a dairy product, not alcohol. 醅 specifically means unfiltered wine, with the distinctive 咅 component.

醅 is a literary or classical term, rarely used in daily conversation but appears in poetry and historical texts. For example, the Tang poem "Green ants' newly fermented wine, small red clay stove" (绿蚁新醅酒) uses 醅 to describe freshly made unfiltered wine. Learners may encounter it in Chinese food culture articles about traditional brewing methods.

Common words containing 醅 include: 醅酒 (pēi jiǔ) — unfiltered wine; 酒醅 (jiǔ pēi) — unfiltered wine / fermenting mash; 醅面 (pēi miàn) — the surface of fermenting wine.