# Deep Ascent beer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-ascent-beer/831200>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** beer\
**Created:** [March 15, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-ascent-beer/831200 "2019-03-15T22:11:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-ascent-beer/831200/1 "2019-03-15T22:11:34Z")

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Last month, [there was a new beer that supposedly tastes like Lucky Charms marshmallows](https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/a26531019/lucky-charms-beer/). Now [there’s a beer made with yeast extracted from beer that’s been submerged since 1886](https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/weird/Yeast-Shipwreck-Deep-Ascent-Ale-507196771.html):

> [@](#):
>
> [Jamie] Adams, a former Wall Street trader who opened Saint James Brewery in Long Island nearly two decades ago, says his beer grew out of his love of scuba diving. It was brewed with yeast extracted from bottles he and fellow divers salvaged from the SS Oregon, a luxury liner from Liverpool to New York that collided with a schooner and sank off Fire Island in 1886.
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> :snip:
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> He enlisted a team of divers in 2015 to search for bottles but didn’t hit pay dirt until 2017, after storms shifted sands and made the first-class dining room accessible. They dug down 15 feet in the sea bed to gain access, and then another six feet inside the ship to find a half-dozen bottles upside-down, corks intact. Later dives found 20 more bottles.
> 
> Adams cultured the yeast in test tubes with the help of a microbiologist friend and then spent the next two years brewing test batches to get just the right taste.
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> :snip:
> 
> Adams believes the yeast from the SS Oregon is descended from the lineage used by Bass Brewers in England to make a brand called King’s Ale, which is no longer produced.

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-ascent-beer/831200/2 "2019-03-16T04:04:13Z")

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Could be just a cheap stunt but a cool concept nonetheless. Avid homebrewer here.

1. the yeast brought up from 1886 could easily have been dead/un-culturable
2. beer yeast mutates even if they got a real culture
3. genome sequencing could be very insightful ([link](http://beer.suregork.com/?p=4030)to sequencing a large chunk of the white labs library)
4. why did it take two years to finally get a decent beer out of the yeast? They weren’t trying very hard if that’s the case.
5. Hi Opal

I would try it if available here in Seattle. Even better if bottle conditioned so I could pirate their pirated yeast. 🙂