{"id":625152,"date":"2026-08-07T10:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/625152\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T10:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:12:01","slug":"guinness-found-on-162-year-old-shipwreck-inspires-divers-with-project-jurassic-beer-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/625152\/","title":{"rendered":"Guinness found on 162-year-old shipwreck inspires divers with \u2018Project Jurassic Beer\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bottles of Guinness<\/a> dating back to 1864 have been found on a shipwreck about 5km off the coast of Dover \u2013 and now the explorers want to \u201crebrew\u201d the stout.<\/p>\n

Up to 20 bottles of stout were discovered by a team of divers exploring the wreckage of the Mindora sailing barque last summer, but only recently have they acquired a survey report linking the cargo to a recorded ship of that time.<\/p>\n

Since making the discovery, Stefan Panis, an expedition diver who made the discovery, and Pawe\u0142 Truszynski, a technical diver and historical researcher, have begun what they call \u201cProject Jurassic Beer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Truszynski said they have enlisted the help of Kevin Verstrepen, professor of microbiology and genetics at Leuven University in Brussels, in an attempt to rebrew the Guinness to mimic exactly how it would have tasted in 1864.<\/p>\n

Verstrepen said it is not likely they can retrieve living yeast cells from the bottles \u2013 though they will try. In that case, he will take a \u201cmodern sibling\u201d of the original yeast, once the DNA is analysed, to get as close as possible.<\/p>\n

\"StefanStefan Panis holds a 160-year-old bottle of Guinness. <\/p>\n

Truszynski said if they succeed in their quest to \u201crebrew\u201d the old Guinness, \u201cwe will unlock a form of liquid time travel\u201d. <\/p>\n

The group has also contacted the Guinness Archive team at St James\u2019s Gate in Dublin to cross-reference their findings, he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Diageo Ireland said the Guinness Archive team \u201chas been in communication with the divers to gather more information and evaluate the find\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on Diageo\u2019s objections to Dublin\u2019s transport plan: Guinness not travelling wellOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscoveries like this provide a fascinating window into our past and help build a deeper understanding of our heritage.\u201d <\/p>\n

The bottles were discovered resting in the ship\u2019s cargo under temperatures of 4 degrees, constant high pressure and absolute darkness \u2013 perfect conditions for preservation.<\/p>\n

The Mindora, which collided with another vessel off the coast of Dover on November 27th, 1864, had set sail from London to Vancouver a week earlier. <\/p>\n

\"AA bell belonging to the Mindora sailing barque. <\/p>\n

Lloyd\u2019s Register Foundation, which oversees the Lloyd\u2019s Register of Ships from 1764 to 1999, could not officially confirm the site, as the divers did not make the discovery in conjunction with the foundation. <\/p>\n

However, digitised links to the survey report for a ship called \u201cMindoro\u201d, likely to be the Mindora, were sent by the foundation to the divers upon request.<\/p>\n

The report was written up on September 3rd, 1864, with the surveyor having first visited the ship on November 17th, 1863. <\/p>\n

Zach Schieferstein, archivist with Lloyd\u2019s Register Foundation, said discrepancies in the records of ship names were not uncommon in the 19th century. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Today I will discuss House of Beamish. I think I remember the plot from history class, but we were all quite drunkOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Panis said the discovery of the Guinness had not already happened in the last decade or so of searching the wreck because sand likely covered the crates of stout, pickled vegetables and other cargo on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of the shipwreck is never-ending,\u201d Panis said, adding that changing currents allow for pieces of history to \u201cappear one year and disappear the next year\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bottles of Guinness dating back to 1864 have been found on a shipwreck about 5km off the coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,11545,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-625152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-guinness","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117053696450249837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}