We appealed for old bottles of Stamford Ale in the Stamford Mercury at the end of January and are pleased to say that we had 3 ancient bottles donated. We received two old Melbourns IPA bottles with lids and contents intact, and one very old almost empty bottle of Lowe, Son and Cobbold “A.K. Stamford Ale”, which could be over 100 years old.
Simon Watson, Stoney Ford’s Brewer and Co-Owner, delivered the 3 bottles to the laboratories of Murphy and Sons in Nottingham, http://laboratory.murphyandson.co.uk who provide ingredients and testing serveices for the brewing industry.
Our picture shows Simon handing over the precious bottles to Adam Divall, Senior Microbiologist at Murphys. Adam will now examine the samples under a microscope and see if any live yeast cells survive and can be grown on in the lab.
If successful, it might be possible to generate enough yeast to try in a new brew at Stoney Ford.
These are the ancient bottles we have so far- if you have any others (with contents intact) we'd love to hear from you. Email us here
