{"id":267329,"date":"2025-11-17T06:39:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T06:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/267329\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T06:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T06:39:22","slug":"sweetness-like-treacle-heres-what-happened-when-a-150-year-old-bottle-of-rare-beer-discovered-in-shropshire-was-opened-and-drank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/267329\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sweetness like treacle\u2019: Here\u2019s what happened when a 150 year-old bottle of rare beer discovered in Shropshire was opened and drank"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brewer has opened one of the world\u2019s rarest beers to create a modern take on the historic ale.<\/p>\n

The original ale, called Allsopp\u2019s Arctic Ale, was brewed in Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire in 1875 for the expedition of Sir George Nares – whose team set out to reach the North Pole – there are just five bottles remaining today.<\/p>\n

It was opened on Thursday (November 13) by Dougal Gunn Sharp, founder and master brewer of Edinburgh-based Innis & Gunn who was joined by Jamie Allsopp, director and descendant of the original Allsopp brewing family who created the ale for the historic beer opening..<\/p>\n

Mr Gunn said he bought the bottle for \u00a33,000 when a friend told him it was coming up for auction, after it was found in a garage in Shropshire more than 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

On tasting the 150 year-old ale Mr Gunn told The Scotsman: \u201cI\u2019ve waited 10 years to try this, and the flavour of the beer was incredible \u2013 it didn\u2019t disappoint and testament to the skill and thoroughness of the Allsopp\u2019s brewers more than 150 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started with a savoury, Bovril like flavour, then sweetness like treacle with the weight of a good sherry, and an undeniable hoppiness despite the incredibly high sugar content. It\u2019s like nothing I\u2019ve ever tasted before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something magical about knowing that every drop of Innis & Gunn 1875 Arctic Ale will now have this direct link to the expedition, and part of the UK\u2019s maritime and brewing history. This new beer will blow people\u2019s socks off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShopShop of Dougal Gunn Sharp, Founder and Head Brewer at Innis & Gunn, and Jamie Allsopp, Director at Allsopp’s and a direct descendent of the brewer’s founders, at Innis & Gunn’s Brewery in Perth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brewer has opened one of the world\u2019s rarest beers to create a modern take on the historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,96,612,59,2652,50,43716,25009,34661,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-267329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-entertainment","tag-food-and-drink","tag-gb","tag-local-hubs","tag-news","tag-north-shropshire","tag-shrewsbury","tag-south-shropshire","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}