an actual museum quality sealed and intact bottle of Samuel Allsopp’s Arctic Ale brewed for the 1852 Expedition to the Arctic lead by Sir Edward Belcher. This bottle of beer is likely the rarest, oldest, and most documented bottle of beer in existence!
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They say you must take the bitter with the sweet - I say I'll take my bitter by the pint!
On tap: Blue & Gray Classic Lager
On tap: Sweet Cherry Stout
On tap: Hard Cider
In Secondary: More Cider!
In Primary: Mead (Raspberry)
I recently opened a 10 year-old 16oz bottle of extract homebrew IPA I found in my basement. To my surprise, it was intact and still poured with a foamy head! It was drinkable, but I confess that I didn't drink much of it.
This is where beer is unlike wine: People have enjoyed bottles of wine that date from the 18th century. That is literally tasting the past.
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Originally posted by ratman03 I recently opened a 10 year-old 16oz bottle of extract homebrew IPA I found in my basement. To my surprise, it was intact and still poured with a foamy head! It was drinkable, but I confess that I didn't drink much of it.
Unfortunately, fellow rat, I don't think you could have picked a more time-sensitive style of beer to try. Most of the west coast style IPAs will be good for several months, but after that the featured hop aromas and flavor deteriorate and leave you with a shadow of their former selves. A traditional brit IPA will survive a bit longer because the hop additions are more for bittering than flavor. The beers that seem to age best have a strong malt body, high ABV, and some to plenty of dark grains.
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Secondary: Dunkelhafern
Keg Conditioning: Nada
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Bottled: Solstice Masala, Impervious Stout, Raspberry Oatmeal Chocolate Stout, Mead, Belgian Quad Rajet
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There's been some discussion that this bottle is a commemorative beer. Someone on another forum mentioned that the label has a trademark on it which is something that didn't exist prior to 1872. The other weird thing about this bottle is why would a brewer bother to make an elaborate multi color custom paper label in 1852 for a beer that was only going on one trip and many felt would never return? The bottle is old, but I doubt it actually sailed on that mission. The description with the bottle was written 67 years after the trip so it isn't much more than a fun story at that point.
This exact same bottle that's for auction right now at the 500K+ mark also could have been bought the last time around on Ebay for a little over $300.00.
Originally posted by jjpm74
This exact same bottle that's for auction right now at the 500K+ mark also could have been bought the last time around on Ebay for a little over $300.00.
I remember reading an article about 10 years ago about some SCUBA divers who found a shipwreck somewhere near the UK. The divers found a bunch of beer on board that had not been contaminated.
When they turned some of it over to a lab, they found that the yeast was a strain that had died out long ago. They were able to grow more yeast and actually bring back that particular strain.
It would be interesting to see what kind of yeast is in that bottle.
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