Archeologists working on a 2400-meter-high mountaintop in southern Peru have unearthed an ancient brewery.

Expedition leader Patrick Williams of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, this week called the 1000-year-old find at Cerro Baul the oldest large-scale brewery ever discovered in the Andes.

Mr. Williams says it was apparently built by members of the Wari Empire at least four centuries before the Incan empire ruled.

Researchers from the Field Museum and the University of Florida have unearthed the remains of more than 20 preparation vats and open-hearth fire pits used to prepare the fermented beverage known as chicha. That drink was similar to beer, but was made of local grains, fruit and pepper seeds rather than barley and hops.

Project botanists are attempting to recreate the ancient brew.