Here's What Old, Shipwrecked Beer Tastes Like: Archaeologists Uncover The Flavor

New findings published in the Journal of Agriculture & Food Chemistry took a step in the past at some of the oldest preserved beer samples from an 1840's shipwreck to work on providing insight into just how they were made.

Researchers got the chance to make an amazing discovery of a schooner in 2010 in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Finland. From this, archaeologists discovered evidence that the ship went down close to 170 years ago.

It was loaded with goods of champagne and beer that was diluted with salt water but also original ingredients for researchers to pull the original recipe out of.

When the researchers taste-tested the beer, they weren't initially able to discern its intended flavors. High levels of organic acids that had been produced by bacteria growing in the bottles for years gave a rather vinergary and sour milk flavor that rather overpowered the typical hoppy and fruity mix most are familiar with.

However, analytical testing created a picture of what beer back in the day might have once been composed of and what people then may have been more used to.

In the paper, the authors describe the beer as smelling "of autolyzed yeast, dimethyl sulfide, Bakelite, burnt rubber, over-ripe cheese, and goat, with phenolic and sulfury notes."

The beers back then seemed to be similar to modern beer but more composed of rose-like phenylethanol, as well.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Regional Government of Åland and the Stallhagen Brewery, which developed a replica brew based on the researchers' analysis.

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