Some people prefer their beer to be aged in a dark, damp cellar to bring out its flavors.
Others might prefer their beer to age while sitting on the bottom of the English Channel for 162 years, and if that's you, I have some very good news for you.
Divers were exploring and photographing the wreck of the British sailing ship Mindoro, which sank off the coast of Dover, England back in 1864, when one of them, Belgian underwater photographer Stefan Panis, found an intact bottle of Guinness beer amongst the cargo that was still in the wreckage.
And here's the best part: there's a chance the beer might still be drinkable.
Divers find 162-year-old Guinness in shipwreck - and there's a 'possibility it's still drinkable' https://t.co/oHEdp1Vy9O pic.twitter.com/YMkUE7Y0HG
— New York Post (@nypost) August 10, 2026
When Panis, who made the discovery last year, brought the bottle to the surface, he could clearly make out the words "Guinness Extra Stout London" on the bottle.
“I resurfaced and the top of the bottle was super clear, and I was really amazed to see ‘Guinness Extra Stout London,’ Panis, 47, told Inc. “I was like, ‘Wow this is amazing.’”
Panis and his fellow diver Eddie Huzzie, 68, decided to send samples of the contents in the 19th century bottle to microbiologists at research university KU Leuven in Belgium. “There is always a chance that we can recover the complete DNA, and then we can do a small re-brew of the exact beer that was found in the 1860s,” Panis told the BBC.
The duo are waiting for the beer analysis to be completed before deciding if they'll actually drink the remaining liquid (although Panis admits to not liking stout beers).
And there's a pretty dramatic story behind how the beer ended up 100 feet or so beneath the English Channel in the first place.
The Mindoro was practically a brand new ship when she sank in November of 1864. Historical research into the wreck suggests she was actually on her maiden voyage when disaster struck just three months after being commissioned.
On the night of November 27, the Mindoro was sailing from London to Victoria, Vancouver Island, carrying passengers and other "valuable general cargo." Somewhere near the Varne – a large sandbank in the Strait of Dover – she collided violently with another ship, the Khersonese, which was headed from London to Calcutta.
The Mindora got the worst of it. Water poured into the ship's hold and the decision was made to abandon her. The passengers and crew luckily made it safely ashore, but the Guinness sank into its watery grave.
Panis thinks there could be more bottles of Guinness sitting on the seabed, possibly cases of it. And that has caught the interest of Diageo, which makes the modern-day version Guinness (the American bottled version, I discovered, has a 4.2 percent ABV, which my stout-loving German husband thinks is unacceptably low).
And, although Diageo still brews Guinness Extra Stout, it's interested in seeing if the 18th version created by Arthur Guinness II can be recreated.
The company's archive team is working with the divers to gather information and evaluate the find, calling discoveries like this a fascinating window into the brewery's past.
“Discoveries like this provide a fascinating window into our past and help build a deeper understanding of our heritage," said a spokesperson for Diageo.
Somewhere, my Irish ancestors are begging these men to stop sending the beer to scientists and just crack open the bottle already.
