120 years old bear recreated

[FfFfFfFF 58,371]

As the diver gently eased himself through a hatch into the sunken hold, he could see the shipwreck's treasure lying in wait for him. It had been down there for more than 100 years. But now some of it was about to be freed from its resting place.

The explorer in question, Steve Hickman, a dive technician and amateur diver, carried a small, netted bag with him. The treasure he was after was beer. Preserved in the hold of this vessel were row upon row of glass beer bottles, partly buried in silt.

As soon as he moved the first bottle from where it lay, sediment billowed in huge clouds. With visibility reduced to nil, Hickman was effectively blinded. But he knew this wreck well and had visited it many times before. 

The wreck was the Wallachia, a cargo ship that sank in 1895 off the Scottish coast following a collision with another vessel in heavy fog. The ship also had thousands of bottles of alcoholic beverages aboard. Many of them have been preserved in the cold water where the ship lay on the silty seabed for more than a century.

Since he began diving to the Wallachia, Hickman has retrieved dozens of bottles containing whisky, gin and beer. But his recent visit, a team effort with several companion divers, led to something unusual. The bottles they retrieved were handed to scientists at a research firm called Brewlab, who, along with colleagues from the University of Sunderland, were able to extract live yeast from the liquid inside three of the bottles. They then used that yeast in an attempt to recreate the original beer.

This kind of search is called bioprospecting and resurrecting historic yeasts could have many applications, from cleaning up pollution to assisting in the production of aromas for the perfume industry.

Genetic testing revealed that the Wallachia stout contained two different types of yeast – Brettanomyces and Debaryomyces. In a paper about the work, Thomas and his colleagues explain that it's unusual to find Debaryomyces in an historic beer, though this type of yeast has turned up in a few Belgian beers made using spontaneous fermentation, which relies on leaving pre-fermented liquid open to the environment, so that yeast strains may settle on it.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210622-how-shipwrecked-yeasts-could-change-the-taste-of-your-beer

[sarahb 17,207]

You might wanna fix that typo, I was expecting a bear 

[FreeBetch 29]

Where’s the bear?

[voltron92 2,575]

18 minutes ago, sarahb said:

You might wanna fix that typo, I was expecting a bear 

 

15 minutes ago, FreeBetch said:

Where’s the bear?

since you two asked nicely

Spoiler

 

[chromatic puzea 10,653]

i thought we found an ancient bear fossil in amber and were able to use it's DNA to genetically craft a species of previously extinct bears

this is very cool though

most of the bottles in the pic look like they have no cap, did the diver have to do digging around to find ones that were still fully intact?

[Dr Fudge 8,674]

I don’t know what I was expecting when I clicked to see a recreated bear, but this wasn’t quite it. 

[Guest]

CLICKBAIT. 

[harispilton 503]

I first read "reincarnated" and I got SHOOK. A bear got reincarnated? WHAT THE HELL?
Then I open this thread and I'm obliterated by a bunch of BEER PHOTOS???

[Psyduck 1,706]

Ahm.. where's the bear?

[Dr Fudge 8,674]

[avalon x 4,197]

[RAMROD 117,277]

It's BEER!! 

[spector 1,919]

i saw him on grindr, he drinks twinks

[Lilmonzter 2,864]

Where can I buy a bottle?

Vintage alcohol. 

Nice!

[Rebel 5,221]

The way I got excited for an actual bear… ban ha