CNN is reporting that the World’s ‘Oldest Beer’ Found in Shipwreck in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Åland Islands. The Ålands are an autonomous group of nearly 6,000 islands near Finland. The cargo ship is believed to have been sailing from Denmark, most likely Copenhagen, sometime between 1800 and 1830 possibly bound for St. Petersburg, Russia. There’s also speculation that t may have been sent “by France’s King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court.”
Initially, divers found bottles of Champagne, but later found additional bottles, some of which burst from the pressure upon reaching the surface, revealing that there was beer inside them. From the CNN report:
“At the moment, we believe that these are by far the world’s oldest bottles of beer,” Rainer Juslin, permanent secretary of the island’s ministry of education, science and culture, told CNN on Friday via telephone from Mariehamn, the capital of the Aland Islands.
“It seems that we have not only salvaged the oldest champagne in the world, but also the oldest still drinkable beer. The culture in the beer is still living.”
It will certainly be interesting to see what further analysis of the beer reveals.
I bet it was salty hahaha!!I bet that will be on there next label!!!! Good for them!!$$$$$
I bet it will be skunky? I would try it anyway.
Skunky???
I sincerely doubt it. “Skunkiness” comes only from exposure to light…something that these samples would have been well protected from at the dark bottom of the sea. Between the lack of light and the cold temperatures, I’d say that these samples would have been pretty well protected. Given the preservative nature of alcohol, hops, and yeast, (not to mention the cold temps of the sea floor) a tasting would be pretty interesting. I’d certainly take a sip if it were offered.
I’d be very interested to hear about the results of 1) a tasting of the brew and 2) attempts to culture up the yeast that surely resides in the bottles. I’m sure that someone will track down the latter and attempt a brew with it…as was done years ago with Flagship Porter.
I wonder what style it was…could it have been, a legitimate Russian Imperial Stout? What would it mean if they could confirm the speculation that it was headed for the high court? What then?…Calagione!