Mystery ale sparkles despite lack of fizz
BY ROSE DALY
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Beer
It's not your average message in a bottle, but its contents got the noses and palates of Blenheim's beer boffins mildly aroused.
Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and some say it's the third most popular drink after water and tea.
But somebody, for whatever reason, discarded a bottle of the amber fluid on the Wairau Hospital grounds presumably decades ago. During excavations for the hospital redevelopment the bottle was found one and a half metres underground by excavator Owen Kennedy of Simcox Construction. He also found a soda (fizzy drink) bottle.
"I was really busy at the time so I just put them both to one side, meaning to go back and have a good look at them later," said Mr Kennedy.
"In a previous job I have dug up the old clear soda pop bottles that were sealed with marbles, and I've heard they are quite valuable, so I was keen to see what kind of bottles these were."
But he forgot about them until Matt Findlay, Hawkins Construction site manager, saw them sitting on an empty pallet. He picked up the old one and threw the more modern one into the recycling skip. When asked if he was sure the other bottle wasn't of the same era, Mr Findlay assured his colleagues, "I know my beer bottles. I've drunk a few."
The beer bottle, dated in the 1930s, was buried on land where the hospital's main construction zone is.
It was tree-filled land before the redevelopment in the north-west corner where Hospital Road and Taylor Pass Rd meet.
Project administrator Susannah Findlay said she has tried to find out if anything was ever built on that part of the hospital land, but current staff don't remember any buildings.
What surprised Mr Kennedy was that the bottle was intact and full. There were even a few bubbles in the fluid, indicating it hadn't quite lost its sparkle.
The Marlborough Express asked our beer expert Geoff Griggs for his opinion on the bottle's age and viability.
"It might taste OK," he said. "After all beer, like wine, should be cellared at a cool, even temperature, away from light." The bottle was embossed with the ABC logo, the Auckland Bottle Company which had bottled beer since the early 1920s. Mr Griggs suggested a tasting might be in order so enlisted the help of the brewers from Renaissance Brewery.
But exposure to the air may have been too much for the old bottle, as the fizz was now gone. Peeling the corroded cap off, Mr Griggs noted the carbonation had already evaporated through a rusty hole. "I've got an idea this isn't going to be pleasant."
First impressions of the brew drew comments from Mr Griggs like, "some sherry quality", "like chewing on cardboard". Brewer Andy Dewchars' verdict? "Not particularly pleasant but not terrible."
So whether there was a patient at Wairau who, long ago, had a secret stash buried on the hospital grounds or there is a more innocent explanation, the region's historians are invited to give their appraisal.
On Trade Me, several empty bottles of a similar era are up for sale for the sober sum of $25.
- The Marlborough Express
