Australians recreate the world’s oldest beer

THE world’s oldest surviving beer – a porter-style ale with “hints of blackcurrant” – has been recreated from yeast found in a 220-year-old shipwreck off the Australian coast.

Scientists and brewers combined to make the ale from yeast recovered from the Sydney Cove, a vessel that sank in 1797 after a storm off the coast of Preservation Island, a tiny island north-east of Tasmania. The ship, travelling from Calcutta to colonial Sydney, was carrying tea, rice, tobacco and more than 31,000 litres of alcohol.

Salvage divers discovered sealed beer bottles resting on the sea floor in the early Nineties and delivered them to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in the Tasmanian city of Launceston. Three years ago, David Thurrowgood, a conservator at the museum and a former chemist, wondered whether they could be used to create a fresh brew and was able to extract the yeast, which had been well preserved because of the icy waters.

Mr Thurrowgood worked with brewers from James Squire, an Australian beer brand, to develop the new beer, called The Wreck – Preservation Ale, due to be launched later this month.