There may be water on Mars, but there’s definitely liquor in orbit. Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of people and businesses working hard to blend the grandeur of space with the simple joy of a well-made drink. There are basically three groups pursuing this effort: people creating drinks – and drinking accessories—meant to be consumed in space; people sending drink ingredients to space; and people aging alcohol in space.
For the Extra-Planetary Palate
Prolonged exposure to zero-gravity environments causes the fluid in the human body to redistribute throughout the entire person, which results in a sensation that is fairly similar to an enduring head cold. One of the primary side effects is that flavors become duller in space. Several companies have worked to overcome this problem and create drinks that can be enjoyed in space as well as on Earth. Two Australian firms, Saber Astronautics Australia and the Four Pines Brewing Company, came together in 2011 to design a craft beer that is specifically designed to be consumed in space. The beer, called Vostok, is high in flavor to counter that head cold issue and low in carbonation, since gases and fluids behave differently in the absence of gravity. Scotch producer Ballantine is doing one better by creating both a flavor enhanced whiskey and a specially designed cup that would allow it to be sipped in space without risk of spilling on any valuable electronics. At present, American astronauts aren’t allowed to drink in space, so the only hope for these beverages is if the space tourism industry starts to take off.
It Came From Outer Space
There have been a number of agricultural experiments which focus on either growing crops in space, or just sending seeds up into orbit and then planting them to see what happens. China, for example, reportedly grew giant vegetables after planting seeds that had spent two weeks in orbit. A similar principle has been applied to the fermentable materials used to make beer. In 2009, Sapporo made beer from barley seed that had spent five months on the International Space Station. Similarly, Ninkasi Brewing Company released a beer made with yeast cultures that had also spent some time in orbit. Both products resulted in limited release products that didn’t really differ from their terrestrial counterparts, but the Sapporo project helped demonstrate that crops grown in space could be consumed safely.
Mellowed in LEO
Ardbeg Distillery has been aging whiskey in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on the International Space Station since 2011, and it recently brought it back down to Earth for a taste test. Unlike the beers, the space-aged whiskey had a noticeably different flavor profile, described as being savory, earthy, rubbery, and antiseptic—all at once. The project also included a terrestrial control sample used for comparison purposes in order to isolate differences in both taste and chemical composition as a result of prolonged exposure to zero-gravity. It is too early to say that this has kicked off a trend, but a Japanese company is doing the same thing with a range of different alcoholic products. It’s unclear what the results will be, but we can’t wait to find out.
Luke Penn-Hall is an analyst at The Cipher Brief.
