What can I do with these old (full) beer bottles?
November 29, 2010 12:55 PM   Subscribe

This summer, I went up in the attic & cleaned out most of the detritus there, which included a letter from the Civil War and a sword. However, what's most intriguing to me is the three still-sealed bottles of beer I found.. and what to do with them.

You can see a picture of one of the bottles here -- basically there's a solid dark mass of some sort inside and a dark liquid sloshing around in there around it. The bottles would appear to be something like 100 years old, given that the longest-lasting brewery of the three closed in 1916. They are still sealed and while I realize there is NO WAY that is still drinkable (like I said, it's mostly solid), is there any research value in such a thing? If so, who would I even approach about it? I'm not looking for anything money-wise, just want to see if they have any value to anyone, otherwise I'm tempted to empty them out to display on my bookshelf.
posted by zempf to Food & Drink (9 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
One of the suggestions from an older thread on drinkability of old beer was to document (and share online) a comparison between the old beer and fresh beer. Smell, color, consistency ... all documented for science! history! the idly curious.
posted by forforf at 1:23 PM on November 29, 2010


This is a roundabout answer: I know on the Antiques Roadshow when someone brings in a package with food remains (usually dried remains) they are advised to ditch the remains and keep the container.

You do have the national Civil War museum in PA, could contact them and see what they suggest.

http://www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org/index_1.php

The National Civil War Museum
One Lincoln Circle at Reservoir Park
Harrisburg, PA 17103
(717) 260-1861
(717) 260-9599 fax
posted by edgeways at 1:25 PM on November 29, 2010


The sword is probably from a secret society (Knights of Columbus secret, not Men in Black secret)

These people
might be able to help. Let us know!
posted by IndigoJones at 1:51 PM on November 29, 2010


Best answer: Since you're in Philly, it might be worth a phone call and/or a trip down to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to the good folks at Dogfish Head. They have made a ton of beers that replicate ancient styles of beer, and they always do something interesting with it. They and their staff might even be able to reverse-engineer what you have and make something that can be consumed, which would be cool.
posted by pdb at 2:31 PM on November 29, 2010 [5 favorites]


Best answer: In addition to pdb's suggestion, it may be worthwhile to try and get in touch with Pat McGovern at Penn, who's worked with DFH on their "Ancient Ales".
posted by banwa at 5:09 PM on November 29, 2010 [3 favorites]


Since it is a resealable bottle, it may not be beer in it. I would handle it with caution.
posted by llc at 6:40 PM on November 29, 2010


One more vote for pdb's suggestion. Discovery Channel recently debuted a show called Brew Masters hosted by the founder and head of Dogfish Head. If you can get in touch with them, they might be willing to research (and reproduce as pdb mentioned) the beer for you AND the bottles could be featured nationwide. Speaking as a beer-and-brew-a-phile, that would be really cool to see.
posted by vilandra at 6:48 PM on November 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Awesome, those are great thoughts (not sure why I hadn't thought of Dogfish Head before, I've read a bunch of stuff about their research into recreating old recipes). I've emailed them & Pat McGovern. Thanks!
posted by zempf at 6:46 AM on November 30, 2010


Please let us know if anything comes of the Dogfish Head communication - I'm really curious!
posted by pdb at 8:24 AM on November 30, 2010


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