The lager, titled Re-brew, follows the discovery in Copenhagen of a bottle of Carlsberg brewed in 1883.
The lager was recreated in the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, which cultivated the yeast and used 19th century brewing techniques to create a limited run of the beer.
The beer is now ready for distribution and 600 bottles will be available for purchase at London's St Bart's Brewery – priced at £12.95 per bottle.
Student to benefit
All money raised from the beer sales will be donated to the University of Nottingham's International Centre for Brewing Science. One lucky full-time Master's degree student, who closely meets the values of the Carlsberg Foundation, will have all their course fees paid.
Liam Newton, vice president of marketing for Carlsberg UK, said: “It has taken Carlsberg’s brewers years of craft and dedication to get to a point where we can make Re-brew available to the public. I’m incredibly excited to be able to sample the beer that our forefathers drank, which is recognised globally as the ‘Father of Quality Lager’. This is a fantastic opportunity for UK beer drinkers to purchase the Re-brew beer before anyone else in the world.”
'Beer sickness'
The original 1883 lager was one of the first to be brewed using pure yeast, which eradicated ‘beer sickness’ – a common problem affecting the smell and taste of beer in the 19th century.
The yeast strain – Saccharomyces pastorianus or Saccharomyces carlsbergensis – was attributed to Emil Christian Hansen, who worked at Carlsberg in 1883 and called the yeast “Unterhefe Nr.I” – bottom-fermenting yeast no.1 – and which went into industrial production in 1884 as Carlsberg yeast no.1.
The yeast strain was not patented and instead was given away for other brewers to create similar bottom-fermenting lagers.