Science & Technology

170-year-old shipwreck beer smells like goat

By T.K. Randall
March 11, 2015

Image: Mug of Beer
Credit: Steven Walling / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Found submerged 50 meters below the surface of the Baltic Sea, the 170-year-old brew went down with a schooner that sunk near Finland's Aland Islands in the 1840s.

A few years ago a team of divers went down to explore the wreck and managed to retrieve two of the beer bottles, one of which broke after they'd got it to their boat. An adventurous crew member dared to take a swig of the seawater-infused beverage and maintained that it did taste vaguely the way it was supposed to.Scientists who later examined the beer claimed that it smelled like "autolyzed yeast, dimethyl sulfide, Bakelite, burnt rubber, over-ripe cheese, and goat, with phenolic and sulfury notes."

Despite the seawater dilution the color was described as "bright golden yellow, with little haze".

The aged drink however is unlikely to be considered a delicacy any time soon.

Source: Popular Science

Tags: Beer, Shipwreck