Scientists Uncover the Recipes for Beer Preserved in an 1800s Shipwreck

Have you ever wondered what people did for beer in the 1800s? Well now, scientists are uncovering some ancient recipes with the help of a 1840s shipwreck. They've discovered ancient beers preserved at historical sites and are now analyzing the contents to reproduce the beverages.

In 2010, divers discovered an old schooner at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Finland. Evidence points to the fact that this ship sank beneath the waves about 170 years ago with a cargo that included bottles of champagne and beer. While the beer was diluted with salt water, it still contained enough of the original ingredients so that scientists could analyze it and determine what the initial recipe might have been.

Actually drinking the old beers didn't tell the researchers anything. High levels or organic acids, produced by bacteria growing in the bottles for years, gave the samples a vinegary, "goaty," and soured milk flavors. These overpowered the original fruity, malt or hop profiles.

That's why researchers turned to analytical testing. In the end, the scientists determined that samples from two bottles were different beers based on their hop content. They also found that yeast-derived flavor compounds were similar to those of modern beers, though with higher than usual content of rose-like phenylethanol.

Now, you can sip beers that are made from recipes that were used in the 1800s. How good they taste, though, is another matter entirely. The Stallhagen brewery, though, has created beers with the old, replicated recipes, which means that you can try it out for yourself.

The findings are published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

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