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COPENHAGEN , Denmark — Three years ago , Carlsberg ’s head brewer , Erik Lund , was take the air through the manse of his research lab when he saw a group of his colleagues huddled in an billet . They were standing around a feeding bottle of beer . That would n’t be so unusual , give the location . But this brown glass bottle was more than 100 year old .
expression had been going on just outside the lab on the website of the historic brewery , and three dustybeerbottles — still corked , full of liquid , and gestate their honest-to-goodness - schooling Carlsberg labels — had been discovered in a forgotten beer basement . Some of the beer expert at the science lab adjudicate to uncork one and taste its contents . They saved a sip for Lund .
Three beer bottles like this one were found during construction at Carlsberg’s historic brewery in Copenhagen. Still sealed, the bottles were full of their original contents, including live yeast.
" I was astonied because I have tasted old beer before and this was surprisingly good , " Lund told Live Science . But after such a long time , the liquidness did n’t exactly taste like laager . [ See icon from Carlsberg ’s Lager Revival ]
" It had a kind of sherry or port wine flavor — very interesting and not unpleasant at all , " said Birgitte Skadeshauge , frailty chairman of Carlsberg Group R&D.
To get a sense of what that lager might have actually tasted like , Carlsberg scientists reconstruct the nineteenth century brew and invited journalists to a tasting ceremonial occasion here on May 18 .
Lager brought back to life
" I ’m relieved , " Bjarke Bundgaard , a beer story expert for Carlsberg , told Live Science after the cask was tapped . " We were very afraid of unwanted micro-organism visiting in the barrel . But basically the beer fulfills what I would expect : plentiful , malty , high levels of residual sugars . I remember it ’s quite authentic , so I ’m satisfied . "
The laager was darker in colour , sweeter and less fizzy than the familiar green - bottle Carlsberg Pilsener of today , and it had 5.7 percentage alcoholic beverage capacity ( just short of their end of 5.8 pct ) . Bundgaard enjoin the historical lager was not as flavorful as the craftsmanship beer of today because " this was an casual - spirit beer — it was something that multitude were salute for dejeuner or even for their breakfast . "
brewer at Carlsberg had no verbal description of how the beer should have try in the late nineteenth century and they lack selective information about the varieties of malt and hops that were used . So instead , they had to trust on old brewing book , former beer recipe and data point about the brininess of the local pee rootage at the clock time to get the lot right . Crucially , the unpasteurized beer in those bottles also had a nice thick level of precipitate toward the bottom , Skadeshauge said . From this , Carlsberg brewers suppose they managed to crop live yeast from the old beer for a new batch .
" I have never get wind , so far , of the power to insulate and grow a yeast that is so old , " said Duccio Cavalieri , a professor of microbiology at the University of Florence . Cavalieri was n’t regard in Carlsberg ’s undertaking , but he has studied thewild line of descent of beer maker ’s yeastand has analyzed non - living barm residual from ancient vessels , such as a5,000 - twelvemonth old Egyptian wine jarrecovered in the tomb of King Scorpion I.
barm is the fungus responsible forfermentation in beer . It ’s rare for scientist and brewers to be able to develop a living barm that ’s decades old because not many unpolluted samples are still around today , according to Jürgen Wendland , Carlsberg ’s former barm life scientist who was not involved in the newfangled projection . [ produce Your Glass : 10 Intoxicating Beer fact ]
" Carlsberg is one of the few places that could have these sampling , " Wendland said , because they have a collection of thousands of bottle that are still sealed and fill with their original contents . Using samples from Carlsberg ’s historic collection , Wendland and his colleagues were able tosequence the genomeof the lager beer yeast ( genus Saccharomyces carlsbergensis)that Carlsberg has been using for ten . This strain of yeast was first educate in 1883 by Emil Christian Hansen , a Danish mycologist famous for grow the first method acting for purifying yeast .
Vintage booze
In the last couple of decades , the study of historic andancient beerhas get hold of off . With fresh chemical analysis techniques , archaeologists and other scientists who canvass the past are now able to notice short-lived trace of ancient life : residues from dyes , adipose tissue and , of course , beer andwine .
" Most of what we are as humans is organic — our food , our beverages , our medicament , our apparel , " said Patrick McGovern , a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum , who worked with Cavalieri on the Egyptian wine study . " Now we have some tools to put some flesh on the bones . "
McGovern sometimes gets call a " beer archeologist . " Not only has he identify some of the oldest tracing of booze on ancient artifacts ( including aNordic grog ) , but he ’s also worked with the Delaware - based brewing company Dogfish Head to rebuild ancient beer . Though they were never able to use a live barm civilisation like the brewers at Carlsberg , McGovern and his collaborators sometimes went to extreme measurement to entrance wild barm jail cell that may approximate ancient variety show . For illustration , to create Dogfish Head ’s Ta Henket Egyptian beer , McGovern said they proceed to a Egyptian particular date farm near the Giza pyramids to catch wild airborne yeast cell in petri dishes .
Reconstructing the booze of our long - lost ancestors pander a curiosity about the yesteryear . But , these projects often have some elevated goal , too .
" It has been really interesting to see how the barm has developed over time from a genetic stop of view , " Skadeshauge said . " Having the sequence and all this information , you also start to sympathise which parts of the genes are really authoritative for the beer - brewing process . "
Indeed , when Wendland and his colleagues analyzed modernSaccharomyces carlsbergensisand compared it with historic samples , they establish some fragile differences . name the function of certain factor in beer maker ’s yeast could lead to more targeted yeast breeding , allowing beer makers to get more interesting varieties of wiliness beers , Wendland say .
Original article onLive Science .
