A Finnish microbrewery is set to replicate a beer discovered in 2010 in a nearly 200-year-old shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Stolhagen plans to start selling the ale next year, the New York Daily News reported, describing it as “one of the oldest existing beers in the world.”
“There is a growing demand for specialty beers in the international market and we are confident that our product will continue to interest beer enthusiasts around the world,” Stolhagen’s managing director Jan Weinström said in a statement.
Divers discovered the beer in July 2010, as they recovered champagne bottles from the wreck, making both champagne and beer the oldest in the world.
Bottles of beer and champagne were still drinkable, preserved by the slightly salty water, low currents, a constant temperature of 41 degrees Fahrenheit, ocean pressure, and total darkness of the deep sea.
Some 168 bottles of champagne – Veuve Clicquot, Heidsieck and the now-defunct Maison Jugler – were sold at auction.
Beer samples were analyzed by the Finnish laboratory VTT, which determined its composition.
However, the analysis was not able to determine whether the beer was made with only barley malt or whether it also contained other grains such as wheat.
Experts have not yet been able to determine the origin of the vessel, which appears to be a two-masted schooner of Nordic origin built in the early 1800s.
It is believed to have sunk in the Baltic Ocean between 1825 and 1830.