W
hen a group of divers found a previously unknown
shipwreck in the infamously treacherous Åland
archipelago in July 2010, they would never have
predicted that it contained the world’s oldest
bottles of Champagne and beer.
The Champagne they dredged up on their first dive included
an 1841 bottle of Veuve Clicquot that sold at auction a year later
for €30,000 (NOK224,000), making it the world’s oldest and
most expensive bottle of Champagne. It wasn’t until a later dive
organised by the local government that divers brought up a few
smaller bottles from the schooner 50m below the surface.
“
We were on the boat coming back when one of the bottle
tops just few off,” says Åland government spokesperson Björn
Häggblom. “There was the fizz of gas and beer foaming out –
some people had a sip and said it tasted like a sweet ale.” They
took the pale golden liquid back to the VTT Technical Research
Centre of Finland for analysis – and though the centre found
no live yeast cells, they did find lactic acid bacteria and enough
It’s the world’s oldest beer – found in an Åland shipwreck
from the 1840s, and yours to drink next year (sort of)
Would you drink this?
evidence to recreate the beer fairly accurately. For example, they
deduced from its pale colouring that the beer used unroasted
malt and the smoky flavour was from excessive heating at the
mashing stage (perhaps a preference at the time). They also
detected hints of rose, almond and cloves in the light ale.
Now the local Stallhagen brewery is taking the original recipe
and plans to launch the beer in summer 2014. “It’s just such an
intriguing story,” says brewery chief Jan Wennström. “Not just
because it was found in a shipwreck, but because this could be
one of the world’s first lagers. And at that time, you’d only get
the very best quality beers in glass bottles. We’re still trying to
find information, but we’re going to get the beer as close as
possible to the original – it’s impossible to know exactly how
The world’s oldest
beer, found in an
Åland shipwreck,
will be recreated
and sold next year
Find more online
stallhagen.com
visitaland.com
Book your tickets
norwegian.com
the beer tasted 170 years ago, but we’re
trying our best.”
Ferries run to Åland from Grisslehamn,
a 90-minute drive from Norwegian’s
Swedish hub Stockholm
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