Croatian winery and brewer collaborate to age beer underwater

Coral Wine, which specialises in sea-aged wines, has collaborated with Zadar-based brewer Pivovara 8 to submerge bottles of its porter 20-feet underwater for six months, with tastings of the trial bottles conducted last week.

Kraken’s Treasure Porter
A bottle of wine which is part of the Coral Wine sea-ageing programme. 

Thirty 750ml bottles of the 7.8% ABV porter were left for 180 days, 20-feet underwater in a secret location near the island of Pag in the Adriatic Sea. The beer, called Kraken’s Treasure Porter, was brewed by Pivovara 8, a brewery based in the city of Zadar.

The submerged batch has been given the name ‘Kraken’s Treasure Adriatic Sea Edition’. Described as a baltic porter, it is made with five different types of barley malt and two varieties of hop.

A tasting of the trial bottles was conducted last week at Zagreb’s Craft Room bar.

Speaking to Gastro.hr, Marko Dušević, founder of Coral Wine: “We submerged 30 test bottles, and by the end of the year we are planning to submerge around 500 bottles, mostly magnums (1.5 litres).

“Our impression is that [beer] changes a lot in the sea, and for the better. This is just part of the project because we have 100 different types of wine from 30 wineries in the sea.

“The beer, called Kraken’s Treasure Adriatic Sea Edition, is a baltic porter, which is a strong and dark beer with five kinds of barley malt (pils, munich, caramel, brown, chocolate) and two varieties of hop (east kent golding and casade)”.

Dušević also owns a mussel and oyster farm and produces products including smoked mussels, tuna and marinated shrimp.