“It virtually sealed everything in, there was no oxygen getting in and it was completely intact,” Mike Nash, a marine archaeologist who salvaged the wreck, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

David Thurrowgood, a chemist-turned-conservator, came across the beer bottles salvaged from the wreck nearly two years ago in storage at a Tasmanian museum, and wondered if the centuries-old liquid could still contain real yeast.

“At that point I was getting really excited,” Mr Thurrowgood told ABC. “That gave us a chance to possibly have access to the oldest beer in the world. I thought we might be able to culture that yeast and recreate beer that hasn’t been on the planet for 220 years.”

via Scientists brew beer from 220-year-old yeast.