A Beer Keg Lost in an Alpine Glacier for Nearly 50 Years Has Resurfaced. It Was Still Delicious

The beer survived almost half a century under the ice.

Somewhere high in the Italian Alps, a beer delivery went spectacularly wrong in the 1970s. A keg fell from a helicopter into a deep glacial crevasse, disappearing into the ice. For decades, nobody saw it again.

Until now.

Nearly 50 years later, melting ice caps have released the battered metal barrel from the ice in the Zillertal Alps. And, as it turns out, it’s still drinkable.

The beer that went missing in the 1970s

Our story starts some 50 years ago, in the rugged Zillertal Alps, a mountain range straddling the border between Italy and Austria.

In the 1970s, helicopters were delivering supplies to remote mountain refuges (sometimes also called mountain huts). During one such delivery, a beer keg slipped into a crevasse. Recovering a heavy metal barrel from deep inside a glacier was hardly practical, so it was left behind.

And there it remained, abandoned, though not forgotten, until 2026.

That changed in 2026, when a man identified only as Daniel, an employee of the beverage company Harpf, discovered the keg below the Sasso Nero mountain refuge, also known as Schwarzensteinhütte. The discovery happened at approximately 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) above sea level, in a landscape of steep rock, snow, and ice. Daniel went through substantial efforts to recover the beer.

The keg had taken a beating. It was visibly dented, but remarkably intact. An engraving on the metal showed the year 1978, providing a clear clue about its age.

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For Harpf, a family-run beverage distributor based in Italy, the discovery was especially intriguing. The company believes the barrel probably came from its own warehouses, turning the battered keg into a relic of its commercial history.

But there was one question everyone wanted answered. Was the beer still good?

Cracking open a cold one

The keg was transported to Harpf’s premises, where a small group of beer enthusiasts and curious onlookers gathered for an unusual tasting.

They opened the barrel and tapped its contents.

First, they checked that it was still safe to drink. According to the company, the beer had survived its decades-long stay in the glacier well enough.

As il Dolomiti and other Italian media reported, the beer was actually good. Italian news agency ANSA interviewed Lukas Harpf, the owner of the beverage company and a trained beer expert.

“The beer was impeccable,” said Harpf. “The taste, the amber colour, and even the carbonation were still good.” Harpf suggested the beer had probably never actually frozen inside the glacier. Otherwise, the expansion of the freezing liquid would likely have deformed the keg and affected the beer quality.

But how could beer survive for so long? Turns out, there’s quite a bit of science to this.

Beer is surprisingly good at defending itself against microbial contamination. For starters, it contains alcohol, which inhibits many microorganisms. It’s also acidic, typically with a pH of around 3.8 to 4.7. Hops contribute bitter compounds that can inhibit certain bacteria, while dissolved carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels create additional obstacles for microbial growth.

In fact, a scientific review found that beer’s combination of alcohol, acidity, hops, and limited nutrients gives it considerable natural resistance to microbial contamination.

But beer isn’t sterile. Certain bacteria and yeasts are adapted to this environment and can cause spoilage.

And even when microorganisms aren’t the problem, chemistry is.

Over time, the compounds responsible for beer’s aroma and flavour change. Some degrade, while others react to produce new substances. These reactions can create stale, cardboard-like, caramel, or otherwise unpleasant flavours. Oxygen exposure and warm temperatures generally accelerate deterioration.

So, the glacier offers the explanation for how the contents lasted so long. It was refrigerated at just the right temperature.

The disappearing ice is revealing old secrets

Unfortunately, there’s also a dark side to the discovery: climate change.

Across the Alps, warming temperatures are causing glaciers to retreat, exposing objects that have remained hidden in the ice for decades, centuries, and sometimes millennia.

The scale of the changes is extraordinary.

A study published in The Cryosphere in September 2026 found that Austria’s glaciers lost approximately 31% of their surface area between inventories centred around 2007 and 2022. Researchers also identified 95 glaciers that had disappeared or could no longer be mapped.

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The Zillertal Alps, where the beer keg was recovered, are part of this rapidly changing mountain landscape. It’s not yet clear exactly how the barrel became accessible, or whether recent melting directly exposed it. But its discovery belongs to a growing category of strange objects emerging from Alpine ice.

For archaeologists, such finds can provide glimpses into forgotten journeys and vanished ways of life. For climate scientists, they offer another reminder that the frozen landscapes of Europe are changing.

And occasionally, they reveal something nobody expected.

And, against the odds, a drink that apparently survived long enough for somebody to raise a glass.

Perhaps the most unusual cold beer ever served.