Scientists are how hard at work trying to figure out the recipe used to make a batch of beer dating back to the 1840s

Mar 5, 2015 12:25 GMT  ·  By

In 2010, a group of divers exploring the waters of the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Finland chanced to find the remains of a ship that underwater archaeologists estimate sank roughly 170 years ago, in the 1840s.

When they got around to exploring the wreckage in further detail, researchers found several centuries-old bottles of champagne and beer. Although it was pretty obvious that the beverages were no longer any good, archaeologists decided to bring the bottles to the surface nonetheless.

Now, specialists with the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland Ltd. and the Technical University of Munich are hard at work analyzing the chemical composition of the beer recovered from the floor of the Baltic Sea in an attempt to figure out the recipe used to make it.

The researchers say that, despite the fact that the beer tastes kind of, sort of like sour milk or vinegar, what with all the seawater and the bacteria that got inside the bottles over the decades, it is well preserved enough for them to be able to zoom in on the initial ingredients.

Writing in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry, the specialists explain that, once they know exactly how this beer was made and what ingredients went into brewing it, they will try to recreate the beverage in laboratory conditions.

This bottle of beer dates back to the 1840s
This bottle of beer dates back to the 1840s

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Scientists hope to recreate centuries-old beer
This bottle of beer dates back to the 1840s
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