Ale and hearty, beer lost at sea 150 years ago
FOR more than a century, it lay forgotten at the bottom of the ocean.
But now a bottle of stout discovered near the site of a 19th century shipwreck off Australia will finally be returned to the Scots brewery where it was produced in 1868.
The bottle was found by diver Jim Anderson close to where ill-fated clipper The Light of the Age foundered near Melbourne 150 years ago on a voyage from Liverpool.
After the discovery in the 1970s, Mr Anderson stored the bottle in his basement, where he recently came across it again and noticed a Wellpark Brewery stamp.
After contacting the brewery, he was given permission by the authorities in Australia to bring the bottle to Glasgow, where it will feature in a new £1million visitor centre telling the story of Tennent’s.
The stout pre-dates Tennent’s Lager but was made in the Wellpark Brewery that went on to create the famous Scots tipple.
Although the years will have rendered the stout undrinkable, the brewery is planning to recreate the 150-year-old brew using old recipes.
At the time, Wellpark was the biggest exporter of bottled beer in the world and the bottle is thought to be one of the oldest in Britain. Mr Anderson, 72, has travelled to Scotland with his wife Jan for the opening of the Tennent’s Story experience at the Visitor Centre on November 22.
He said: ‘I found it on a dive in the 1970s, photographed it, and put it in my basement along with other things I’d salvaged from wrecks from those days. It was there for years.
‘I could see the inscription Wellpark Brewery on it, and I set about finding where that was.
‘I found out it was in Glasgow, and I contacted Tennent’s to see if they were interested in the bottle, which they were. It’s amazing to see it back where it started, 150 years later.’ Tennent’s brand director Alan McGarrie said: ‘The fascinating story of the shipwrecked bottle is just one of the exhibits on show as we explore the past, the present and the future of Tennent’s. ‘The stout is one of the oldest bottles of beer in Britain, returned to Wellpark by the diver who found it. ‘Unlike the drunken captain who ran his ship aground close to Port Phillip Heads, Jim has ensured his historic cargo reached its final destination – by flying round the world to put it in place himself.’