Divers find 1864 bottle of Guinness in shipwreck

By Jack Fifield

A group of divers investigating a ship wrecked off the coast of Dover more than 160 years ago found a bottle of Guinness - and scientists hope they will be able to use it to re-brew the original flavor.

Belgian Stefan Panis, 47, was out diving with Brit Eddie Huzzie, 68, from Dover, in the summer of last year when they came across the bottle.

The Mindoro, which is around 5 km off the shore of Dover, crashed during dense fog on November 27, 1864 – carrying around 24 bottles of Guinness on board – alongside China, candlesticks, wine, and pickled vegetables.

Stefan, who has been diving for 40 years, said: "Last year, when I was diving the site again, a certain bottle caught my eye.

"Nowadays, a bottle of champagne has a seal.

"It had a seal, so [I said], let's take it to the surface and try to see if we can find something on it.

"Once back on the boat, just a quick rinse and it was like 'Jesus', the name appeared – Guinness Extra Stout, London.

"It was like wow, this is crazy. My first thought was 'wow, Guinness already existed at that time?'

"My second thought was it was strange because it says London, not Dublin, Ireland, because Guinness is Irish."

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Things went quiet for a while as the divers went back to their day jobs, and emails to Guinness appeared to get lost.

But after encouragement from friend Pawel Truszynski, 49, they got in touch with microbiologists at KU Leuven University in Belgium.

Stefan said: "The professor was extremely excited about the find, and the unique opportunity – he wanted really badly a sample of a bottle."

Now, alongside Guinness, scientists are attempting to recover the DNA of the yeast in an attempt to make a rebrew of the 1860s beer.

The team now plans to attempt to recover more bottles from the wreck later this month – with the one recovered bottle currently safe at a 'low temperature' in Stefan's garage.

They will send the bottles to the university and the Guinness lab in the hope that a re-brew can take place – dubbed 'Project Jurassic Beer.'

Stefan said: "[Guinness] were super, super excited about the find.

"They are discussing now with the lab team on how to proceed with delivering the bottle.

"They're super excited to even know that there's an intact complete bottle with content from that time."