By George P. Hassett

This week, an eBay shopper from Somerville bought the world’s most expensive bottle of beer for more than $500,000. And now the bottle is on its way to the city, bringing with it a story steeped in history.

An eBay shopper going by the name of “v00d004sc0re” bought the bottle, brewed in 1852, for the hefty price of $503,300 in the online auction. The buyer’s information is private, but he does say he lives in Somerville according to eBay profile. An email was sent to the auction winner through eBay’s Web site, but there was no response by The Somerville News presstime.

Robert Kyle, a writer for Antique Week magazine, said the unsealed, full bottle of Allsop’s Arctic Ale is the world’s oldest, and now, most expensive bottle of brew.

Kyle said the 155-year-old bottle has traveled from England to the Arctic and is now expected to reach Somerville. Sir Edward Belcher originally took it to the Arctic in 1852 in his search for a lost captain and crew who left London to find the Northwest Passage seven years earlier and never returned. Before taking off on the voyage, Belcher asked the London brewer Samuel Allsopp to bottle a special, high-alcohol batch for the long trip. The high-alcohol content would preserve the beer and keep it from freezing, Kyle said.   

Belcher never found the lost seamen but one of the bottles of beer he bought for the trip ended up outliving everybody. One hundred and fifty-five years later, a bottle of Allsop’s Arctic Ale turned up on eBay after being in the family of a Lynn man for generations. The Lynn man had inherited the bottle and, not realizing its worth, sold it online for $304 to an eBay user going by the name of “collectordan,” according to Kyle, who did not spot it until after the auction ended. The bottle then reappeared on Ebay, this time being auctioned off by “collectordan,” who originally priced at $150,000. A bidding war raised the price up to $503,300 when the anonymous Somerville shopper with the user name “v00d004sc0re” finally won the prized bottle of brew.

Kyle said the mystery man may have spent a good chuck of change for a single bottle of beer, but if he is a beer fanatic or a high seas history buff, he got a priceless item.

‚ÄúThere is no way to put a value on something this rare and unique. That’s why many people put their property in auctions. The market decides what something is worth,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúThis bottle has the benefit of being a cross-collectible.  It appeals to the breweriana collector who specializes in anything beer related, and it’s a fascinating artifact for students and scholars of British seafaring history and the quest for the Canadian Northwest Passage.‚Äù

While most old beer bottles contain little atmosphere or historic value, Kyle said this particular one reeks of “romance, legend and lore.”

Kristen Todeschini is the beer manager at Downtown Wine and Spirits in Davis Square. She said even though the bottle is more than a century old, it may still be suitable for sipping if the alcohol content was high enough. She said her store carries four packs of Flag Porter beer for $15. The beer, she said, is made with yeast from an English shipwreck in the 1890s.

Aside from Flag Porter, she said there are few beers that can match Allsop’s Arctic Ale when it comes to history and price. However, she said most older beers do not taste very good and are important because of their history, not their flavor.

“I might take a sip, but I don’t think I could drink a whole bottle of (Allsop’s)” she said.

Still, she said she is curious about a person who would buy a half-a-million-dollar bottle of beer. ‚ÄúI wonder if he shops here,‚Äù she said.