SUNY Cobleskill, Brewer

Hope To Make New Beer

From Bottle In Ship’s Hold

Cork Popped Yesterday On 113-Year-Old Artifact

COBLESKILL – A 133-year-old bottle of beer from the shipwrecked SS Oregon was uncorked yesterday afternoon at Serious Brewing Co., Howes Cave, with the intent of duplicating it in a modern beern.

The project is a collaboration of Serious Brewing and SUNY Cobleskill.  If yeast can be extracted from the original beer in the college’s labs, Serious Brewing owner and head brewer Bill Felter intends to develop a new brew using the old yeast.

SUNY Cobleskill President Marion A. Terenzio joined Felter at the uncorking.  Three Biotechnology Program seniors, Sabrina Long, Zachary Taylor, and Nino Gagliardi actually opened the bottle.

The students will now conduct a molecular analysis of the yeast, to see how it approximates modern yeasts, and also hope to grow fresh yeast for Serious to use in a new brew.   The project will ruin through the fall semester.

In an interview a new minutes ago, Felter said he thinks he can approximate the beer from the Oregon’s hold, which he said appears to be somewhat like Bass Ale.   Both Terenzio and Felter sipped a few drops of the brew, which the brewer said approximates Bass Ale.

Felter, whose brewery recently celebrated its first anniversary, acquired the beer from a customer who owns three bottles of beer, as well as an assortment of artifacts recovered from the Oregon.

He determined the beer is from Liverpool, and may be able to get guidance from the U.K.’s National Brewing Centre in nearby Burton-on-Trent.

On what became the ship’s final voyage, 852 persons set sail from Liverpool, England to New York City. A collision with a schooner occurred near Fire Island, on March 14, 1886, killing all on board.