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Utah has always had the strictest alcohol laws and regulations of any state in the United States. But that doesn’t mean that alcohol hasn’t existed in the Beehive State for centuries!
Archaeologists in Utah working on land owned by the Alta Ski Resort recently unearthed a sealed bottle of unknown alcohol which dates back to somewhere between 1870 and 1890. Naturally, they called in an expert from High West Distillery to do some investigating.
What Does 150-Year-Old Mystery Alcohol Taste Like?
High West Distillery is based in Wanship, Utah, a half hour ride outside of Park City. They are one of the best American whiskey makers and their annual ultra-premium release, A Midwinter Night’s Dram, is consistently one of the best rye whiskeys around and year after year it blows me away (when I can find it).
After archaeologists found the 150-year-old bottle, they called in High West’s master distiller Isaac Winter to investigate. He brought some other industry experts and after seeing the bottle they realized a delicate approach to uncorking it was needed.
That’s when they grabbed a Coravin. I have one in my cabinet at home. They are devices which allow you to sample a bottle to see if it is ready, or to pour a single glass without opening a full bottle, by using a needle that slices finely through the cork and injects 100% pure food-grade Argon gas while pulling out the liquid, thus maintaining the integrity of the liquid inside and not disrupting the pressure in any way.
I first came across the Coravin on a trip to Portugal where they are commonly used to pour old vintage ports and immediately bought one when I got back home to the states.
After using the Coravin to pull some of the mystery alcohol out and pour it into a glass, they went around the room smelling it. Everyone agreed there were pleasant floral notes. Then when the glass got to High West’s master distiller Isaac Winter he did the only reasonable thing and took a sip.
After he took the plunge, the rest of the group sipped it as well. They agreed that it was beer, or something like beer, or that it was similar to beer at one point in time.
Eventually, they used a Durand-style wine opener to pinch the edges of the remaining cork and pull it out. If you don’t have a Durand I highly recommend getting one as it has saved me COUNTLESS times when opening bottles with distressed corks.
Once open, they filtered the sediment out while pouring the rest of the alcohol. And here is where it continues to get interesting: there was a lot of sediment and they believe yeast in the sediment.
They now believe they can use that yeast to recreate what was in the bottle and reverse engineer this alcohol in Utah from 150 years ago, and drink it just like the miners were back then.
Here is a report from Fox 13 Utah on the finding:
Would you drink 150-year-old alcohol freshly poured from the bottle without knowing what it really was? Let me know in the Facebook comments!