Philippa Tinsley <[log in to unmask] wrote:
>......."Wolverhampton being a brewing town, our glass collection includes
>a lot of beer bottles.  Going through these in detail, I discovered that
three
>are still full of beer.

>Should I empty them, or keep them full?  All three have regular metal caps
>(not screw caps) which appear to be securely in place.  All are around
>250ml (is that 9 fl oz?)
>All are currently in a non-environmentally controlled room at the historic
>house.  Their journey to the stores will be around a mile, where they
could
>be stored in either a controlled or non-controlled (but stable) storeroom.
>There are no plans to exhibit them in the near future.
>So, what should I do?  If I should empty them, is there a secret way or do
>I just flip off the cap in the usual way (bending it in the process of
>course).  If I don't empty them should I wrap them in any special way?
And
>of course, the question all the wrapping team have been asking - can we
>drink it? (does this count as deaccessioning?).........."
The first thing you need to decide is what reason do you have for removing
the
contents? If the contents aren't doing any harm to the botles then there is
really
no reason to empty them. I'd store them in a cool dark place. If you decide
that
you do need to empty them, then I'd use a normal bottle opener, and
carefully
prize all around the lid, so that the top doesn't get bent & therefore
there will be
less evidence of tampering.

As regards to you drinking the contents, well I doubt it will taste very
good after so
long, but you never really know until you try. I wouldn't regard this as
deaccessioning,
but as basic analysis using traditional testing techniques used by the
brewing industry.
Ideally, you'd need some fresh samples to compare with, and perhaps some
cheese
and biscuits to complete the scenario. I've found that such testing is most
effective on
Friday afternoons.

Cheers (no pun intended)

George Bailey
Objects Conservator
Australian War Memorial
Treloar Centre for Conservation
4 Callan St, Mitchell, A.C.T. 2911
Australia
Phone: +61 6 241 6122
fax:   +61 6 241 7998
email: [log in to unmask]