FW: [CPB] Re: Japanese Brewery Releases Space Beer

[Aaron Summers Effler]

I’d be more interested in seeing how fermentation would be effected by weightlessness.  If the bubbles don’t bubble up…what happens?

 

From: Chapin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Chapin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kolin Hodgson
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 2:04 PM
To: Chapin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [CPB] Re: Japanese Brewery Releases Space Beer

 

OK, so considering the number of ingredients (and processes) that have a big effect on taste, I don't see how exposing the barley seed to weightlessness matters much. Now if they took the yeast up there....

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Aaron Summers Effler <asummer...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Japanese Brewery Releases Space Beer

12/16/2008 9:37:29 AM

by Rachel Levitt

Tags: Science and technology, discoveries, space, beer, brewing, barley, Japan, research, Sapporo, Boing Boing

Japan seems to have decidedly more fun with their space program than their fellow astronauts. Just two months after heralding their space-launched paper airplanes, Japanese brewer Sapporo has announced the development of beer brewed from "Sapporo Space Barley." The barley seedlings spent five months aboard the Russian Research Modules of the International Space Station before coming back to Earth for planting, harvesting, and fermentation.

The batch produced 100 liters of beer, most of which will be used for studies on the "Impact of Extreme Environmental Stresses on Barley" (an experiment I wouldn't mind being a part of) and the possibility of brewing in space. The brewery is doing a small public tasting in January, but alas, the brew apparently tastes just like regular beer.

(Thanks, Boing Boing)

Image courtesy of ronin691, licensed under Creative Commons.

 

 

 

--
Kolin Hodgson
kol...@gmail.com

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[Kolin Hodgson]

You would need a container that can expand exponentially! The CO2 would just stay in the container and not go anywhere. Brewing in space would require pumping the CO2 out!

[Aaron Summers Effler]

Maybe float some seaweed on top to soak up the CO2.

<br

[Kolin Hodgson]

That's the problem I think. There's no top. The liquid in this hypothetical fermenter would really glob around the expandable fermenter. But jamming some seaweed in there might do the trick. Heck this thing would fill half the space station if you didn't pump it out. And if it popped, a thousand little beer globules would be flying around all over the cabin.

 

You'd have to scoot around and slurp them up!