VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has been commissioned by the government of Aland to examine one of five bottles of beer salvaged from the wreck of a ship that sank 170 years ago.
The organisation was chosen to study the composition of the beer and identify the type of yeast used to brew it.
The aim of the project is to study what early 19th-century beer was like and whether its production process could be reverse-engineered and the beer replicated.
The work involved an analysis of the physico-chemical properties of the beer and microbiological and DNA analyses of the beer, bottle and cork.
In particular, the aim was to isolate any living microbes found.
The bottle contained a liquid that was a pale golden colour, identified as beer because of the presence of malt sugars, aromatic compounds and hops typical of the beverage.
The beer in the bottle was contaminated by salt from sea water.
Dead yeast cells were discovered in the beer, indicating fermentation that took place long ago.
In addition, live lactic acid bacteria were found in the beer.
Lactic acid bacteria were often present in beer fermentation alongside brewing yeast, particularly in earlier times.
The examination will continue with the opening of a second bottle retrieved from the wreck.
The goal remains the discovery of living yeast cells.
