"They were empty unfortunately, I don't know how good they would've tasted anyways," Burzynski told WDJT-TV. "They would've been cold still, I'm guessing."
The men said the cans contained sand from the bottom of the river and were covered in zebra mussels.
"These things end up on everything," Burzynski said. "They cut your line, they eat all the small plankton in the water."
The fishermen said they sent pictures of their catch to Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch, which estimated the cans to be about 60 years old.
"We're just really surprised," Graves said. "It's not every day you find something like that out on your line. It's just something to tell family and tell friends."
The friends said finding beer in the river is appropriate for Wisconsin, but Budweiser isn't necessary the correct brand.
"Being from Milwaukee, it's usually Miller for us," Graves said. "But I guess whenever you can grab a cold one, you do."
Graves said he is considering giving the cans to Anheuser-Busch to display in a museum or other location.
A group of divers investigating a 200-year-old shipwreck in the Baltic Sea in 2010 discovered several sealed bottles believed to contain the world's oldest drinkable beer. Experts said the cold temperature and lack of sunlight at the bottom of the sea prevented the beer from spoiling, and pressure inside the bottles kept salt water from seeping in through the corks.
