text: This operation was actually conducted by the U.S. Government and was all about testing the affects of nuclear radiation on soft drinks and beer. Reportedly, they placed groups of bottles and cans in two locations, one less than 1/4 mile from the detonation site and another other around 2 miles out.
  A document dated January 24th, 1957 states, "Consideration of the problems of food supply show the needs of humans for water, especially under disaster conditions, could be immediate and urgent. At various times some consideration has been given to special packaging of potable water, but since packaged beverages, both beer and soft drinks, are so ubiquitous and already uniformly available in urban areas, it is obvious that they could serve as important sources of fluids."
  I think we can all agree that beer serves as an important source of fluid. What you'll have a harder time convincing me of is how the hell we decided who drinks the exposed beer! The people who did sample it gave varied opinions ranging from "commercial quality" to "definitely off".
  Then again, I've brewed beer that was "definitely off" so I think that would have excluded me as a test subject. haha
  Check out more details in the [Original Post].