Finding a 125-year-old bottle of beer would be pretty incredible. Getting to then drink that beer from the 125-year-old bottle would be priceless.
Back in November of 2015, scuba diver Jon Crouse came upon a glass bottle lying at the bottom of Halifax Harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When the bottle was brought up from its watery tomb, they found it half full of what appeared to be beer. Crouse found the bottle’s cork still intact and the name of a brewery upon it: “A. Keith & Son Brewery.”
A. Keith & Son Brewery was founded in 1820 by a Scottish immigrant named Alexander Keith. It’s considered one of the oldest breweries in North America, and is still in operation today, but under a slightly different name: “Alexander Keith’s Brewery.”
Crouse now knows where the beer came from and it’s very likely the beer has not be tainted by the seawater thanks to the cork. Chris Reynolds, co-owner of Stillwell Bar in Halifax, told the Canadian Press that the beer would still be drinkable if the seawater had not penetrated the cork.
“Ninety-nine per cent of beer gets stale, but it doesn’t become poisonous,” Reynolds told the Canadian Press. “I think I would be willing to try it. If it is straight up beer from back then, everything we know says that it should be drinkable.”
The beer made its way to Professor Andrew MacIntosh of Dalhousie University for additional research. MacIntosh was able to conclude that beer was indeed still in the bottle, was an Indian Pale Ale, and was about 15 International Bitterness Units (IBU).
c/o John Krouse Facebook
“It tasted surprisingly good, and surprisingly like beer,” Reynolds told CTV News. He also told them it was, “acidic and bitter, with hints of cherry and oak.”
MacIntosh, on the other hand, wasn’t as pleased with the 125-year-old brew. He told CTV News that it had an, “‘odd, meaty’ flavour, with lighter tree fruit notes and a distinct bitterness.”
This story is fascinating because while a good amount of rare, vintage alcohols have been uncovered, beers have not had the same luck. In 2010, a 200-year-old collection of bottled beer was found among bottles of champagne in a shipwreck off the Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea. That beer is considered the oldest beer in the world.
If you had a chance to taste century old beer, even if it had been sitting in water, would you do it? Let us know your thoughts.
Steve
Absolutely
Mathew Muncy
If it’s not going to make you sick, you might as well. Even if it tastes disgusting, you at least have a story to tell.