Craft beers are so hot right now, but a real connoisseur purchased one of the most rare brews on the entire planet. The aged beer was Allsopp’s Arctic Ale, and it was specifically brewed in the U.K. for an expedition to the North Pole led by Sir George Nares.
In 1875, the HMS Alert and HMS Discovery took Nares and his crew all the way north through the channel between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. It is now named Nares Strait in his honor because he was the first to traverse these waters with ships. The expedition was a near-disaster when the weather became so extremely cold and some men caught scurvy. Looks like they could of used some summer brew or a nice citrusy shandy.
Nares was forced to retreat and go south for warmer temperatures. It is believed that this beer went all the way to the Arctic Circle and back to England. The beer was found in a garage in Gobowen, Shropshire, a village about 30 miles south of Liverpool.
This week, the ale was auctioned off at Trevanion & Dean in Whitchurch. The beer was expected to fetch approximately $1,100. The 140-year-old bottle of beer sold for an extraordinary $6,300. The winning offer came from an anonymous, telephone bidder from Scotland.
The auction house believes that the beer would be “sweet tasting with a hint of tobacco.” For $6,300 this shit better taste like nectar from the gods and give me a mighty good buzz.
[CBC]