170-year-old beer found on sunken boat is recreated in the lab by Belgian scientists
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Scientists have recreated a beer found on a ship that sank in 1842.
The bottles had been 165ft (50 metres) underwater but were recovered in 2010.
Now a Finnish brewery is planning to bring the replicated beer to market so punters can get a taste of the 19th century brew.
Brewer Mats Ekholm from Finnish brewery Stallhagen samples beer during a press conference in Espoo, Finland. A Finnish brewery has reproduced a replica of a beer discovered on a shipwreck from 1842 in the Aland archipelago between Finland and Sweden
The beer was found on a shipwreck in the Aland archipelago between Finland and Sweden.
Divers found 145 bottles of champagne and five beer bottles on the ship four years ago.
University of Leuven's Brewing Technology Research Group were then asked to study and reconstruct the beer.
Led by Professor Guido Aerts and Master Brewer Gert De Rouck, the team worked for a year to reconstruct the centuries-old brew.
'Based on the micro-organisms in the bottles, we were able to figure out which type of yeast and bacteria were used by the beer's nineteenth-century brewers,' said De Rouck.
'This information allowed us to trace the beer back to Belgium.'
The team says the beer is as close to the original as possible.
One difference, though, is that malt was produced differently in the 19th century. This would have meant the beer back then was sweeter.
The more recent version has a low bitterness and an alcohol content of 4.7 per cent.
The beer was found on a shipwreck in the Aland archipelago between Finland and Sweden (shown). University of Leuven's Brewing Technology Research Group were then asked to study and reconstruct the beer. The team worked for a year to reconstruct the centuries-old brew
The modern version is sweeter as malt is now produced differently. However it has the same alcoholic content of 4.7 per cent. 1,700 bottles have been made (shown) and they can be bought for £90 ($145) each. The beer will be mass-produced and sold by Finnish brewery Stallhagen
Led by Professor Guido Aerts and brewmaster Gert De Rouck, the team worked for a year to reconstruct the brew (process shown right, bottle left). 'Based on the micro-organisms in the bottles, we were able to figure out which type of yeast and bacteria were used by the beer's nineteenth-century brewers,' said De Rouck
In total the laboratory produced 1,500 litres of the beer, creating 1,700 bottles made of hand-blown glass, just like the original.
Transporting beer in glass back in the day was unusual as most were transported in barrels, which makes the find somewhat exceptional.
The beer will now be mass-produced and sold by Finnish brewery Stallhagen.
A bottle will cost £90 ($145), with a portion of revenues going towards supporting scientific projects such as archaeological research in Finnish waters.
The beer was found on a shipwreck in the Aland archipelago between Finland and Sweden (shown). Divers found 145 bottles of champagne and five beer bottles on the ship four years ago. The team says the new modern version of the beer is as close to the original as possible
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