Aged beer drinker
Reynolds, who owns a bar in the city and therefore knows a bit about the bottle, said it was not good enough to make him want to drink a full pint of it. He said given the circumstances “it was one of the best beers I’ve ever had” but not given the actual taste.
“(It tasted) really complex, there was a lot going on,” he said about the flavour “There were acidic notes, a little bit of saltiness, a little oak, a fruit character that existed on the nose and in the beer, itself.
“It was a little like a Belgian Lambic,” he added. “There was definitely some bitterness, although it didn’t finish like your average hoppy beer.”
A home brewer, Reynolds said he’s tasted worse and that even before lab test results came back confirming it was safe he was not concerned about becoming ill from the aged beer.
“Beer is not a good environment for pathogens,” Reynolds said. “The pH is often too low. Also, the alcoholic content tends to keep things away.”
Beer shelf life
It’s difficult to believe the beer he tasted was anything like the beer as it was intended to taste when bottled, which experts at Dalhousie University, where it was tested, said was between 1872 and 1890. It was certainly not bottled with the intent to maintain its flavour for some 130 years.
The bottle was found by scuba diver Jon Crouse last November lying at the bottom of the harbour and was tested at Dalhousie to learn of its make up and make certain it would not harm anyone who drank it. Dalhousie is producing a lengthy paper on the bottle and the Discovery Channel is producing a documentary on it.
There’s no way of knowing how it got there or who lost it. That information, like the original flavour, is lost for good.
