In January, High West Distillery’s Master Distiller Isaac Winter got a rare taste of Utah’s Wild West when his team opened a 150-year-old bottle discovered at Alta earlier this summer. The bottle, dated to roughly 1870-1890, was among thousands of artifacts found during a snowmaking construc tion project on U.S. Forest Service land used by Alta ski resort, and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office was called in to conduct a quick excavation. Ian Wright, a Utah public archaeologist with the office, said the discovery of the artifacts themselves was incredible — but a full bottle of alcohol? Unheard of.  “One thing that rolled out when the backhoe was digging was a bottle. And bottles were everywhere, but this bottle just kind of rolled down the hill. When they picked it up, it was still full. It still had a cork in it,” Wright said. “We realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a real treasure.’” Why? Because there has never been a full bottle of alcohol ever discovered in an archeological site in the state of Utah, he said. “They sometimes find them in Missouri and in places where the Mississippi has shifted and there’s been a sunken boat or a ship, but never in Utah,” he said. “We rarely find a bottle with a cork at all. Or if we do find one, the corks shriveled up and shrunk it inside of it, or just fragments of it. So that’s pretty rare.” At first, they didn’t know what to do with it. But rather than putting it in wax and displaying it, Wright’s team wanted to know what was in it so the public could learn more about that time period. So they called The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, but the museum said it was a liability and declined to do anything. Then, Wright called some of the Bourbon Trail museums in Kentucky, who encouraged them to keep it in the state. “They’re like, ‘Do you guys have a really cool local distillery, or anybody who has people on staff that would know about this?’” Wright said. “So that’s why we reached out to High West, because we figured they were the experts.” Winter admitted he’s no historian, but the discovery was so on-brand for the company — the first legal operator in the state after the original ones closed down in the 1900s, and a brand built around preserving the spirit of the High West. So of course they stepped in to help. Based on what is known about Utah’s distilling history, the spirit could’ve been made with grains like sorghum, or even potatoes, Winter said. But it could’ve also been a beer or a cider or a wine — Winter had plenty of question marks. Credit: Photo courtesy of Isaac Winter Credit: Photo courtesy of Isaac Winter High West Master Distiller Isaac Winter used an ah-so opener to pull the cork out of the 150-year-old bottle. When they poured the liquid out of the bottle, they saw it was a colored spirit, which further narrowed down what it could be. When they first got a look at it, Winter said it was a colored spirit and there was a slight vinegar smell from the cork, indicating a lower alcohol by volume percentage. First, they tried to take some of the liquid out with the help of Old Town Cellars’ Coravin needle, a hypodermic needle usually used on really expensive wine bottles to press the liquid out with gas. “We tried to extract some of the liquid without damaging the whole bottle, and when we put the needle in and applied a little bit of pressure, some of the liquid sprayed out and went all over the table,” Winter said. “So we got what’s called an ‘ah-so,’ which helps to extract corks that are damaged or really old. We pulled the cork off, and we’re able to decant the bottle into 300 ml flasks.” They poured a bit into High West’s sensory nosing glasses, and then, of course, Winter tasted it. Estimated around 150 years old, Winter admitted as the “guinea pig” there were a few risks to consuming the unknown liquid. For example, it would’ve been bottled before the United States’ Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, which prohibited the addition of adulterants, Winter explained. In those times, people would add things like tobacco spit to make the spirit look darker, and therefore older, or they’d add turpentine for more flavor and to stretch it a little bit.  To figure out what the alcohol was, the High West team poured the liquid into their sensory nosing glasses to smell, and then Isaac Winter tasted it. Credit: Photo courtesy of Isaac Winter But, it passed the smell test, and when else can you try something that’s 150 years old? He took a sip. “It was immediately obvious that it’s low ABV,” Winter said. “It tastes sort of like a Fino Sherry, like there’s some kind of oxidized fruit notes, some raisins, some honey notes, but it’s low ABV.” With the liquid properly stored, and a general idea of what it could be, the next step is to get the scientific community involved, Winter said. Yesterday, the “Alta Spirits Recovery Project” team met, including two PhD chemists who are experts in the alcohol-beverage space to help narrow down their options. For example, they can run a High Performance Liquid Chromatography test to figure out the compounds in the liquid and then fingerprint it to something else. They can also figure out the exact alcohol by volume percentage. And, they likely have enough sample to run an isotopic analysis with a lab in France that’s able to trace back to the exact sugar source that made the alcohol, Winter said. But the most exciting part was the murky end of the bottle, Winter said. “This is where I start to get chills a little bit because, with all this sediment in the bottom of the bottle there, there is some chance that there’s yeast in the bottle,” he said. “You’ll potentially be able to isolate some of this yeast that was in the bottle and then hopefully recreate a product.” He called Kevin Templin, founder of the Templin Family Brewing in Salt Lake City, who was equally giddy about the possibility.  The liquid from the bottle was poured into glass flasks, sealed and stored. The murky end of the bottle may have a yeast able to be cultivated. Credit: Photo courtesy of Isaac Winter “He was married at Alta. He ran a CAT up at Alta for a long time. And I said, ‘Hey, there’s this potential that we can get some yeast from Alta.’ And he was so excited. He was like, gonna pee his pants,” Winter said with a laugh. “Could we make a beer? Could we make a whiskey? What are our next steps? But I’m getting way ahead of ourselves. Now, we really have to culture this murky end of the bottle, to try and pull out some yeast, if we can.” Winter said it’s so exciting because it means the possibility of more people getting to literally taste Utah’s history — which actually includes robust activity in the alcohol space, despite recent history. “The chance to sort of resurrect some of that and showcase that piece of Utah history is really exciting for me,” Winter said. “If we were able to culture a use out of this and have the ‘Utah fermenting yeast,’ and be able to create something that’s distinctly Utah driven, that is that very exciting to me.” It’s a goal that aligns with Wright’s team as well, which is why they were eager to crack the bottle open. “For too many years in archeology and history, heritage professionals almost acted as a little bit of a gatekeeper. And in Utah, we’ve been tasked … with a mission of involving the public, with getting people involved to keeping history relevant, something that we can learn from, something that we can be inspired from,” Wright said. “This particular bottle is neat because it allows people to touch the past. It gives them a tangible connection.” In addition to the bottle, the quick excavation at Alta uncovered roughly 5,000 artifacts including plenty of empty bottles, and lots and lots of bullets.  “The stories of living people in the articles and newspapers, if you’ve ever read them, it’s just what you would think,” Wright said. “There’s shootouts all the time. People burned each other’s houses down, snowshoe races, avalanches that took out the city three times, fires.” The plan in June, Wright said, is to open the site back up and do a more thorough excavation with the help of volunteers. Anyone interested in participating in the project, or just watching the process, can keep up to date on the Utah State Historic Preservation Office website or by listening to the Utah public archeology podcast called “Beyond the 50-Year Rule.” “We think we’re excavating what’s called Water Street in Alta, and we’re just hoping to find out more about just the life of that boom town,” Wright said. “We definitely anticipate coming across other cool things — it’d be great to find some more full bottles, but honestly, I will be shocked if we do. … Why would you waste a good bottle of alcohol, especially in a time where people didn’t really trust the water?” In the meantime, Winter said High West will continue to explore ways to preserve and cultivate the liquid that was found. “If High West is able to find a way to bring this history to life by recreating it, I mean, what a treasure for the people of Utah and the people visiting it,” Wright said. “I can’t think of a business more suited.” The post What does a 150-year-old bottle of alcohol taste like? High West investigates appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less