World's oldest 'drinkable' beer salvaged

HELSINKI, Finland, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Divers have discovered what is being called the world's oldest beer in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea east of Stockholm, researchers say.

While salvaging what is believed to be the world's oldest champagne, several bottles of beer were also discovered, Finland's Helsingen Sonomat reported.

The bottles, preserved on the seabed at about 160 feet deep, were brought to the surface from a 200-year-old shipwreck near Foglo in the archipelago south of the Finnish island of Aland.

Until now, the title for the oldest drinkable beer ever to have been found was some Ratcliff Ale brewed in 1869, discovered in the vaults of the Worthington White Shield Brewery in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, in 2006, the Sonomat said.

"This is much likely the world's oldest beer. We can now say that we have both the world's oldest champagne and the world's oldest beer bottles in our possession," Rainer Juslin of Aland's provincial government told the Stockholm News.

The cold temperature and darkness on the sea have optimized the storage, and pressure in the bottles has prevented any salt water getting in through the corks, the News said.