A dusty old beer crate has been returned to a brewery after 47 years.
It was originally bought in 1978 when James Callaghan was PM and Boney M and the Bee Gees ruled the airwaves.
It was discovered by an old lady as she cleared out her barn.
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She took the empties to dozens of supermarkets, but no one would accept the crate.
So the unnamed woman drove straight to the brewery in Upper Palatinate in Bavaria, Germany.
Johannes Ehrnsperger, head of the brewery Neumarkter Lammsbräu, explained: “An elderly lady was standing in our in-house drinks store with the crate in her hands.
“She didn’t want a deposit for it, all she wanted was to get the crate back into circulation.”
The beer crate is even older than the CEO himself.
The 34-year-old said: “It was easy to trace the beer back to 47 years ago.
“The bottles have labels on them for our 350th anniversary, which was in 1978.
“The crate itself is probably a few years older and was already in circulation when the bottles were sold with it.”
He added: “We say thank you for bringing it back!”
The brewery shared the story on their LinkedIn page where it received 2,114 reactions and hundreds of comments, as reported by What’s The Jam.
Ehrnsperger said: “Who would have thought that a dusty beer crate would get so many likes?”
He explained that the brewery no longer refills used bottles and has since moved to other bottling plants, but he plans to put the beer crate on display in their head office.
He said: “It’s obviously too good to throw away.
“The dust and dirt are part of history, we will put the beer crate on display for people to see.”
He added: “A few years ago, someone brought back a full barrel that was 30 years old.
“We tasted the beer and it was like a well-aged wine!”
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