162-Year-Old Guinness Found in Shipwreck Inspires Project to Rebrew the Recipe: ‘Liquid Time Travel’

A person holds a pint of Guinness outside a local pub, on May 11, 2024, in Dalkey, Dublin, Ireland. (Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)

A collection of Guinness bottles dating back to 1864 has been discovered inside a shipwreck off the coast of England, prompting a team of divers and scientists to attempt to recreate the beer as it may have tasted more than 160 years ago.

Up to 20 bottles of stout were found last summer by divers exploring the wreck of the Mindora, a sailing barque that sank about 5 kilometers off the coast of Dover in 1864, according to The Irish Times. The divers only recently obtained historical records that appear to connect the wreck to a ship of the same name and period.

The discovery has since led expedition diver Stefan Panis and technical diver and historical researcher Paweł Truszynski to launch what they call “Project Jurassic Beer,” an effort to scientifically “rebrew” the Guinness.

The pair have enlisted Kevin Verstrepen, a professor of microbiology and genetics at Leuven University in Brussels, to help determine how closely the modern recreation can replicate the original stout.

Verstrepen told The Irish Times that recovering living yeast from the 1864 bottles is unlikely, although the team plans to attempt it. If the yeast is no longer viable, researchers hope to analyze its DNA and identify a modern “sibling” strain that could help recreate the beer’s historic characteristics.

“If we succeed in our quest to ‘rebrew’ the old Guinness, we will unlock a form of liquid time travel,” Truszynski said.

The team has also contacted the Guinness Archive at St. James’s Gate in Dublin to help authenticate and contextualize the discovery.

A Diageo Ireland spokesperson confirmed to The Irish Times that the Guinness Archive team has been communicating with the divers.

“Discoveries like this provide a fascinating window into our past and help build a deeper understanding of our heritage,” the spokesperson said.

A beer preserved for more than a century

The bottles were reportedly found in the ship’s cargo hold under conditions that may have helped preserve them for more than 160 years. Temperatures were around 4 degrees Celsius, while the bottles remained under constant pressure and in complete darkness.

The Mindora collided with another vessel off Dover on Nov. 27, 1864, about a week after leaving London on a voyage to Vancouver.

The ship’s identity was initially difficult to establish. Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which oversees historical ship records dating back to 1764, could not officially confirm that the divers had located the Mindora because the discovery was not conducted in partnership with the foundation.

However, the foundation provided the divers with digitized records for a vessel called “Mindoro,” which the team believes may be the same ship.

The records include a survey report dated Sept. 3, 1864, with the ship’s first recorded inspection taking place in November 1863. Zach Schieferstein, an archivist with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, told The Irish Times that discrepancies in ship names were not unusual in 19th-century records.

Panis said the Guinness bottles may have remained hidden for so long because sand likely covered crates containing the stout, pickled vegetables and other cargo.

He said changing currents can continually expose and conceal parts of the wreck, meaning new pieces of its history can appear and disappear over time.

“The story of the shipwreck is never-ending,” Panis said.