Most Expensive Bottle of Beer Fetches Over $16,000 At Auction

by Deb West (RSS feed)
Nov 14th 2009 at 4:03PM

A bottle of beer rescued from the crash of the Hindenburg recently sold at auction for over $16,000 according to This is Wiltshire in the UK. This is significantly above the estimate placed on the bottle of $4,000 - $8,000. The airship crashed on May 6, 1937 over Lakehurst, New Jersey where the bottle and other memorabilia was found by fire Chief Leroy Smith at the scene of the disaster.

Apparently the fire chief found a total of six scorched bottles and a pitcher at the scene. He buried his treasures and then came back afterward to dig them up and hand them out as souvenirs to his colleagues. No one knows where the other bottles are located except for one, which chief Smith gave to the Lowenbrau brewery in 1977, where it remains today. He kept one bottle and the pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei airline that operated the Hindenburg. Both pieces are scorched and were sold with letters of provenance and an account of how the items were acquired.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge of the British auction house Henry Aldridge and Sons has been quoted as saying "It is the most valuable bottle of beer ever sold." Even though one can still see the contents of the Lowenbrau bottle, the remnants of the beer would be undrinkable. The auction house specializes in relics of disaster and has been the largest auctioneer of memorabilia from the Titanic.

Tags: beer, Henry Aldridge and Sons, HenryAldridgeAndSons, Hindenburg, Hindenburg beer, HindenburgBeer, Lowenbrau, Zeppelin