220 year old Shipwreck Yeast

[monkeymagik]

I've read a few articles about beer recovered from a 220 year old shipwreck and they were able to culture yeast from it. There's been a James Squire beer created from it and I think another craft brewery created a porter from it (name escapes me). Does anyone know if this yeast is available to buy for homebrew?

 

[butisitart]

I've read a few articles about beer recovered from a 220 year old shipwreck and they were able to culture yeast from it. There's been a James Squire beer created from it and I think another craft brewery created a porter from it (name escapes me). Does anyone know if this yeast is available to buy for homebrew?

if memory serves me correct, the Launceston museum holds licence on the yeast. could be wrong here, but they might be the people to ask. as far as i'm aware, it hasn't been released for hb. i actually had the idea that the licence was held by a university, but can't find anything on that from the quick look i had.

 

[Roosterboy]

I know it sounds old, the whole thing was a bit of marketing for James Squires, considering many breweries in Europe having been using the same yeasts for longer than 220 yrs .

 

[monkeymagik]

I know it sounds old, the whole thing was a bit of marketing for James Squires, considering many breweries in Europe having been using the same yeasts for longer than 220 yrs .

Good point. The yeast in good old Coopers Sparkling Ale is pretty darn old

 

[sp0rk]

Good point. The yeast in good old Coopers Sparkling Ale is pretty darn old

Sadly not as old as it was
It was a multistrain house yeast back in the day, now it's an isolated strain from that original mix afaik

 

[butisitart]

remembering of course, none of those breweries have probably ever resurrected yeast that had been lying around in a storeroom for 220 years. or found a bottle up the back of the shelf cos nobody thought to do stock rotation for 14 generations.

 

[hoppy2B]

I personally think the whole thing is BS TBH. It's more than likely just a wild yeast that was floating around the lab. I mean, did they even try to do a dna test on the dregs in the bottle to verify proof of concept?

 

[kadmium]

I personally think the whole thing is BS TBH. It's more than likely just a wild yeast that was floating around the lab. I mean, did they even try to do a dna test on the dregs in the bottle to verify proof of concept?

I wonder if they asked for its ID.

 

[butisitart]

I wonder if they asked for its ID.

you can't come into the club if you're under 220, and you need a parrot and a wooden leg

 

[Roosterboy]

The thing that p.ssed me off was the campaign saying it's a 220 yr old beer, typical JS trying to manufacture their credibility. They always have some angle.

 

[butisitart]

The thing that p.ssed me off was the campaign saying it's a 220 yr old beer, typical JS trying to manufacture their credibility. They always have some angle.

that's why we hombrew

 

[Reg Holt]

you can't come into the club if you're under 220, and you need a parrot and a wooden leg

Can I join the club if I am known as "Jim Lad"

 

[butisitart]

Can I join the club if I am known as "Jim Lad"

you get a life membership with a name like that LOL
had to refuse seaman staines and roger the cabin boy - pretty dodgy. and master bates

 

[Blackman]

A mate of mine bought 2 of those JS bottles!.....
I wonder if there is yeast in them that could be harvested.

 

[hoppy2B]

A mate of mine bought 2 of those JS bottles!.....
I wonder if there is yeast in them that could be harvested.

I tried culturing wy1469 from a bottle that had been kept in a cellar for a couple of years and it didn't start up even after several months. I seriously doubt a yeast would come back to life after 220 years.
There are so many good yeasts out there to choose from, why bother farting around with something dubious when you can brew with stuff like wy1318 or the new Verdant dry yeast?

 

[butisitart]

I tried culturing wy1469 from a bottle that had been kept in a cellar for a couple of years and it didn't start up even after several months. I seriously doubt a yeast would come back to life after 220 years.
There are so many good yeasts out there to choose from, why bother farting around with something dubious when you can brew with stuff like wy1318 or the new Verdant dry yeast?

why bother going to antarctica if you can freeze to death in canberra?
cos it's there, i guess.
on the other hand, just reading through the article from Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2002) written by Michael Nash (copyright acknowledgement here) which says that analysis of at least one bottle suggested that it did contain beer or ale. so that predates the attempts on the yeast resurrection by 15 years. really interesting excavation read in its own right.
but i can't find anything on my uni library site about resurrecting the yeast though. i'd have thought there would be at least something from a chemistry/history/food tech journal, maybe i'm looking in the wrong places. report back if i find anything
all the recovered wine bottles showed at least some salt water contamination.
it doesn't actually say how many beer bottles were found, or give a report on what was inside them.

ps: yeah, so i can't find an academic article on the yeast resurrection, just news reports eg tv stations, news press. Normally these things would be verified by a different study or lab. not to say there isn't one, but i can't find one.
hope to stand corrected here

there are articles on an 1840s wreck in the baltic sea with studies on the hops, phenomes, malts, but no mention of the yeasts, done by finnish university

 

[butisitart]

ok, so another study on 3 bottles of different beers found in the back of a czech brewery in 2015, beers 100 years old.
they found the dna of yeast, but no viable yeast. (author copyright acknowledgement again - article by Jana Olšovská, and others, in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, apr 2017). they found dna for Bruxcellensis and Saccharomyces pastorianus. probably a good read for all you chemistry engineers.
can't draw conclusions here either, cos 1 lot was at the bottom of the ocean, the other was in the bottom of a cupboard.

 

[butisitart]

found a letter from 1782 to a british mp by some guy who had a plan to make 'cheap and wholesome beer' to alleviate the suffering of the poor, but nothing about 220 year old yeast. not a whimper. searched under the ship (port jackson 1797 shipwreck - that's a nightmare in itself), wrecks, 220 years, yeast, beer, you name it. zip. nada. not a sausage.
cannot find one academic (science, food, chemistry) journal article on a huge university library database. not a sniff.
having said that, i can't even find an article with the australian institute of wine research or the guy in charge of yeast resurrection, (thurrowgood) linked to a journal on this subject. there's around 160 institute cross references on the database post 2015, and after getting bored on about page 30, didn't spot one on 220 year old yeast. plenty on wine and chemistry. maybe still looking in the wrong place.
again, hope to stand corrected, but i cannot locate one scientific peer reviewed article on this.

 

[butisitart]

nada. an application for yeast patent in european patents office and a report from a tasmanian tourist mag. that's all the evidence i can find after turning the databases upside down.
not a sniff of another laboratory verifying the story.
i give up.
somebody pls tell me i'm wrong LOL

 

[hoppy2B]

nada. an application for yeast patent in european patents office and a report from a tasmanian tourist mag. that's all the evidence i can find after turning the databases upside down.
not a sniff of another laboratory verifying the story.
i give up.
somebody pls tell me i'm wrong LOL

It's pretty doubtful that they succeeded in culturing a 220 year old yeast.