In order to obtain high lovastatin producing Monascus strains for liquor-making, lovastatin content, Monascus pigment color value, citrinin content and Monascus enzyme production capacity were used for evaluation indexes, and a H5-3 strain with high lovastatin production was screened from 40 Hongqu samples collected from different producing areas by solid-state fermentation. The strain H5-3 was identified as Monascus purpureus by morphological observation and molecular identification. After detection, the yields of lovastatin and Monascus pigment produced by strain H5-3 were 17.90mg/g and 3195.27μ/g, respectively. The activities of glucoamylase, liquefying enzyme and acid protease were 2514.26U/g, 0.32U/g and 300.19U/g, respectively. And no citrinin was detected indicating that the strain H5-3 could be used as functional Monascus sp. strain for Hongqu Huangjiu brewing. Furthermore, Monascus purpureus H5-3 was applied to the brewing of Hongqu Huangjiu. The content of lovastatin and Monascus pigment color value in Hongqu Huangjiu were 63.75mg/L and 22.86μ/mL, respectively. The contents of alcohol, total acid and amino nitrogen were 14.86%, 4.90g/L and 0.83g/L, respectively. By analyzing the flavor compounds of Hongqu Huangjiu, the results indicated that the mass concentration of organic acids was 12.70g/L, and lactic acid, acetic acid, succinic acid, tartaric acid and citric acid were the main components, respectively accounting for 28.2%, 21.9%, 14.5%, 12.2% and 5.7% of the total mass fraction. And the mass concentration of free amino acids was 3540.58mg/L. In the volatile flavor compounds, esters and alcohols were the main components, accounting for 48.4% and 43.9%, respectively. The contents of ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, diethyl succinate, n-propanol and phenylethanol were higher, which contributed a lot to the flavor. Thus the proportion of organic acids, free amino acids and volatile flavor compounds was coordinated and balanced. The research was expected to be of reference value for the exploration and utilization of traditional Monascus species resources and the promotion of health function of Hongqu Huangjiu.