Buy the world’s oldest beer for £100,000
By: JimOldfield
April 26th, 2012
Hand-Pumped WORLD EXCLUSIVE
A SINGLE bottle of the world’s oldest beer is up for sale on eBay – at a cool £96,000.
Its owner is parting with the unopened 1852 bottle of Allsopp’s Arctic Ale, to help fund the movie of its incredible story – which took it from England to the North West Passage, on a ghost ship that eventually came to be made into US President Barack Obama’s Oval Office desk!
The 160-year-old ale, the oldest documented in the world, has a “buy it now” price of $155,000 – or £95.975.23p, while its starting bid at auction is $89,900 – or £55,665.63p.
But with just two days to go, there are so far no bidders…
The ancient ale was bought in 2007, by US champion brewer and brewing historian Chris Bowen – who has since returned to the Arctic on a motorbike to make a film recreating the bottle’s astonishing travels, as part of his ongoing Arctic Alchemy project.
He says on eBay that he now needs to part with the beloved bottle, adding: “After five years, and much money spent on this project, I need to put this behind me and finish funding my film…
“I WILL regret this sale one day, but I have such great memories.”
The story Bowen is telling – of how the ale travelled half-way across the world on a ship that was made into the world’s most powerful desk – goes like this:
In 1851, the Admiralty ordered a fleet of five ships led by Sir Edward Belcher to the Arctic, to search for explorer Sir John Franklyn, who had been lost while trying to locate the North West Passage.
Under the guidance of Queen Victoria, the Admiralty organised a competition for brewers to brew a special beer – one which had to withstand the sub-zero temperatures – to go on the rescue mission.
Burton brewers Samuel Allsopp and Sons won the contest – and in 1852, Arctic Ale was brewed for the trip.
But Belcher’s ships also quickly became iced in, and four had to be abandoned. However, one of the missing-presumed-sunk ships, the HMS Resolute, withstood the ice. When it thawed she set sail again, unmanned… as a ghost ship.
She was found by US whalers and was towed back to Connecticut. When the British heard about this, they demanded the ship back and, amid some tensions, the Americans finally acceded to return her.
The bottle of ale eventually found its way into Allsopp’s vaults and later the brewer’s museum.
Meanwhile, when HMS Resolute was eventually scrapped, Queen Victoria felt inclined to return some of it to the States as a gesture of goodwill… and in 1880 a large, unexpected crate arrived at the White House.
It contained the beautifully carved Resolute Desk, hand-crafted from the timbers of the ship and since used by a string of American Presidents, as the pride of the Oval Office!
Bowen says he has been trying unsuccessfully for the past three years to get the bottle onto Obama’s desk – and thus reunite it with the ship which once carried it.
He adds: “This is the Holy Grail of all ales.”
Bowen may even be willing to fly around the world to take the bottle to its lucky purchaser – or have the buyer visit him at his base in east Pennsylvania.
But – if you can afford to drink it – what will it taste like?
Bowen says: “No beer this old can be assumed or implied it will be great, but it certainly won’t make you sick”.
At nearly a hundred grand, we would hope not!
Hand-pumped links
The eBay auction
Arctic Alchemy: http://www.arcticalchemy.com/index.html
Beer guru Roger Protz tries a younger Allsopp’s ale
