Beer found in Australian shipwreck returns to Glasgow brewery after 150 years
The stout was discovered in the waters near Melbourne, having been on-board an ill-fated voyage from Liverpool in January 1868.
Friday 16 November 2018 10:29, UK
More than 150 years after being condemned to the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Australia, a shipwrecked bottle of beer has been returned to its original brewery in Glasgow.
The stout was discovered in the waters near Melbourne in the 1970s, close to where the clipper The Light Of The Age went down during an ill-fated voyage from Liverpool in January 1868.
Jim Anderson, 72, was the man who found it - and he eventually contacted the Wellpark Brewery after noticing its stamp on the side of the container.
He recalled: "I found it on a dive in the 1970s, photographed it, and put it in my basement along with other things I'd salvaged from wrecks from those days.
"It was there for years, and it wasn't until I found the old photographs when I was looking through an old book earlier this year [that] I could see the inscription Wellpark Brewery on it, and I set about finding where that was.
"I found out it was in Glasgow, and I contacted Tennent's to see if they were interested in the bottle, which they were, and I was delighted.
"It took a bit of clearance to get it to Glasgow because artefacts are protected in Australia and we need special authorisation for things like this to leave the country. I sought all that, and it's amazing to see it back where it started, 150-years-later, metres from where it started its journey."
The bottle will go on display at a new £1m visitor centre built to tell the story of Tennent's Lager, which was also crafted at the Wellpark Brewery.
But Tennent's did not make its debut until 1885, meaning the shipwrecked stout comfortably out-dates it.
At the time, Wellpark was the biggest exporter of bottled beer in the world and the bottle found by Mr Anderson is thought to be one of the oldest in Britain.
"This little bottle is a reminder of the historic connection between Australia and Scotland, too," he added.
"I hope people enjoy seeing it and think about those days and the distance it travelled before I found it. It has come home and brought me with it."
Mr Anderson and wife Jan are both in Scotland for the opening of the visitor centre, The Tennent's Story, which is due on 22 November.
It will tell the history of brewing in the area from the 1500s through to the present day and Tennent's has unearthed some old recipes in order to recreate a commemorative-edition run of the old stout.
Group brand director Alan McGarrie said: "The Tennent's Story tells the incredible story of brewing on the Wellpark site, which dates way back to 1556.
"The fascinating story of the shipwrecked bottle, and the captain who ran his boat aground, is just one of the exhibits on show as we explore the past, the present and the future of Tennent's."