The sinking beer of 1886 could give a new beer

COBLESKILL, N.Y. (AP) – Ahoy, beer lovers: a bottle of a 133-year-old shipwreck could give yeast for a new beer in upstate New York.

Biotechnology students from the State University of New York at Cobleskill on Thursday unearthed a bottle of wrecked SS Oregon. The Serious Brewing Company of Howes Cave plans to develop a new infusion if the students successfully extract the yeast.

Serious Brewing's Bill Felter bought the beer from a customer with an assortment of items found in Oregon.

The ship was en route from Liverpool (England) to New York with 852 passengers aboard on March 14, 1886, when it collided with a schooner near Fire Island (New York) and sank. All but one survived.

Last year, an Australian brewer produced beer from yeast from a 220-year-old shipwreck.

___

This story has been corrected to show that all but one of the 852 people on board survived.