150 Years-old Stout Found off the Coast of Australia Returns To Glasgow

A 150-year-old bottle of Tennent’s stout, produced in Glasgow by the Wellpark Brewery, was returned to Scotland after it was found by a diver off the coast of Melbourne with its contents intact.

Here’s the deal…

Believed to be one of the oldest British beers in existence, the still sealed stout was discovered by an Australian diver not far from the ill-fated clipper, The Light of The Age, which ran aground in 1868.

At that time, the Glasgow- based brewery was the biggest exporter of bottled beer in the world. And the stout that went down with ship pre-dates Tennent’s Lager, a popular brand which was first brewed in 1885 and is still in production today.

According to the Drinks Business, the clipper was carrying a crew of 34 and 42 passengers on its final journey. The captain had evidently been drunk for large parts of the doomed voyage, and had taken the ship off-course, running it aground.

And Jim Anderson, who found the historic bottle while scuba-diving off the coast of Melbourne in the 1970s, agreed that the ancient stout deserves to make its way home…

‘To think that this is possibly the oldest bottle of beer in Scotland is something I find difficult to comprehend.”

“It has been on the other side of the world for so long, and now it’s home again 150 years later.”

“It’s lovely to think that something I found is such a significant part of Scottish history. I’m thrilled to bits to see it here”

Now the ancient artefact will become a key attraction in The Tennent’s Story, a new £1m visitor center experience, which opens to the public next week.

To mark the bottle’s homecoming, Tennent’s master brewers have revisited 100-year old recipes to recreate a commemorative-edition run of the infamous stout. And just 1868 bottles of the “highly hopped” limited edition stout, will be produced.

Alan McGarrie, group brand director for Tennent’s, agreed with Jim Anderson that “the stout is one of the oldest bottles of beer in Britain.

And he added that “unlike the drunken captain who ran his ship aground, Jim has ensured his historic cargo reached its final destination – by flying it round the world to put it in place himself.”