Oldest Beer in the World

[flyandski365]

World's 'oldest beer' found in shipwreck
By Les Neuhaus, CNN
September 3, 2010 6:33 a.m. EDT
The shipwrecked cargo of champagne and beer is believed to date from between 1800 and 1830.

Divers first discovered dozens of bottles of champagne
Now they have recovered what they believe is the world's oldest beer
The finds were in the same shipwreck in the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea
(CNN) -- First there was the discovery of dozens of bottles of 200-year-old champagne, but now salvage divers have recovered what they believe to be the world's oldest beer, taking advertisers' notion of 'drinkability' to another level.
Though the effort to lift the reserve of champagne had just ended, researchers uncovered a small collection of bottled beer on Wednesday from the same shipwreck south of the autonomous Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea.
"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."
Juslin said officials had talked to a local brewer about whether the new-found beer might be able to yield its recipe after experts decipher the brew's ingredients.
The newest find came as divers unearthed bottles separate from the earlier champagne find. While lifting a few to the surface, one exploded from pressure. A dark fluid seeped from the broken bottle, which they realized was beer.
All the cargo on the ship -- including the beer and champagne -- is believed to have been transported sometime between 1800 and 1830, according to Juslin. He said the wreck was about 50 meters deep (roughly 164 feet) in between the Aland island chain and Finland.
The cargo was aboard a ship believed to be heading from Copenhagen, Denmark, to St Petersburg, Russia. It could have possibly been sent by France's King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court.
"Champagne of this kind was popular in high levels [of society] and was exclusive to rich groups -- it was not a drink for common people then," Juslin said.
Experts estimated the exclusive bubbly to be worth tens of thousands of euros per bottle. The value of the beer has not been determined. It is also unknown whether the beer went flat while sitting at the bottom of the Baltic for such a long time.
Some of the bottles of champagne were originally produced by Juglar, a premium champagne house no longer in existence, according to Juslin.
He said the cold sea water was a perfect way to store the spirits, with the temperature remaining a near-constant 4-5 degrees Celsius (around freezing temperature in Fahrenheit, or 32 degrees) and no light to expedite the spoiling process.
Investigators and historians have not yet unraveled the mystery surrounding the exact origin of the ship or the date when the ship went down.
Juslin said other artifacts were still lying in the shipwreck, but it would take several months to lift them out of the wreck.
The islands are at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Baltic Sea. They have Swedish-speaking people, though the island itself falls under Finnish protection. The Aland chain forms a Nordic archipelago of more than 6,000 skerries and islands.

It would be cool if they can re-create th brew. Interesting regardless.

[teletripper]

It's only from the 1800's so the recipie for the beer would most likely be the same as the one you could buy in the store in europe I would think.

[Mathematics]

mmmmmmmmmmm baltic porter.

recipe wise they used alot of different ingredients back then...depending on when it was made there were taxes on hops and other bittering agents so folks used whatever they could find for cheap.

[QuikR12]

200 year old champagne? I propose a toast!

[flyandski365]

mmmmmmmmmmm baltic porter.

Heh, I thought the same thing when they said "dark fluid". I think I'm gonna have to pick up a sixer of something dark this evening.

[The AD]

It would be interesting to see if the yeast is still viable.

[dumpy]

It would be interesting to see if the yeast is still viable.

I wonder if it would be a strain that is currently available or something "new". If it's something not currently around, that could be interesting.

The article did say that "the culture is still living".

[belgian]

No love for the Midas Touch? Its delicious, too.

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! It is an ancient Turkish recipe using the original ingredients from the 2700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine & mead; this smooth, sweet, yet dry ale will please the Chardonnay of beer drinker alike.

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits...idas-touch.htm

[Tippster]

5 degrees Celsius is equivalent to 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

[flyandski365]

No love for the Midas Touch? Its delicious, too.



http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits...idas-touch.htm

Thanks belgian, I'll have to try that.

[counterfeitfake]

I really can't imagine that stuff is going to be drinkable anymore.

[Crock]

5 degrees Celsius is equivalent to 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thanks, that was bothering me too.

[irul&ublo]

Oldest Beer in the World

I thought you were going to tell us that they found a Lucky Lager left over from the first time Splat bought a sixer

[Arty50]

Meh. This is much more impressive:

http://www.dui.com/dui-library/dui-shorts/tuts-brew

http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beers/ninkasi.htm

Supposedly, Kirin has done the same too.