In 1895, the cargo steamer Wallachia sank off the coast of Scotland. Today, over 120 years later, amateur diver Steve Hickman retrieved bottles of beer from the shipwreck for the treasure inside.
No, the treasure isn't the beer inside the bottles - that had decayed and gone bad. Instead, it's the long-lost strain of yeast used to brew the beer.
From BBC Future:
The bottles they retrieved were handed to scientists at a research firm called Brewlab, who, along with colleagues from the University of Sunderland, were able to extract live yeast from the liquid inside three of the bottles. They then used that yeast in an attempt to recreate the original beer.
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Genetic testing revealed that the Wallachia stout contained two different types of yeast – Brettanomyces and Debaryomyces. In a paper about the work, Thomas and his colleagues explain that it's unusual to find Debaryomyces in an historic beer, though this type of yeast has turned up in a few Belgian beers made using spontaneous fermentation, which relies on leaving pre-fermented liquid open to the environment, so that yeast strains may settle on it.
Image: Steve Hickman