Beer in spaaaace!

Beer, Featured — By on February 10, 2011 at 9:00 pm

There’s no beer in space, yet, but an Australian non-profit space research corporation called Astronauts4Hire is working to change that. We need refreshments for space tourists after all.

The problem with beer on space stations (besides driving a billion+ dollar space station drunk) is the gas from CO2 makes astronauts very gassy. On Earth gas bubbles rise causing you to belch, but in microgravity the bubbles stagnate making it very uncomfortable for the drinker. To make beer better for space travelers they are making stout beers. The reason they chose stout beers is these beers often have less carbonation than other beers. For the space travelers, they will most likely need as little carbonation as possible.

The other reason cited by Ben Corbin, PR director for Astronauts4Hire, is astronauts can’t taste as well in space. I’m not sure how true this is. Some astronauts have reported sinus swelling which causes a reduction in taste (no smell = no taste), but others have reported no difference in their ability to taste foods. Either way, Astronauts4Hire chose the richer chocolatey beer just in case.

vomit-comet

I'm not sure the Vomit Comet is the best place for a beer party... (image courtesy Wikipedia)

Ironically they began testing the beer on Boeing’s zero gravity plane, aka the Vomit Comet, in November 2010.

(Source: PopSci.com)

I am a avid homebrewer and winemaker. I’ve been making my own beer and wine for many years. I started making beer when I was in college (mostly because the drinking age in the United States is 21). My first few beers were horrible. The beers are much better now, and I often supply my neighborhood with free beer!

Facebook Twitter 

© 2011, fermentarium. All rights reserved.

Please see the fair use guidelines for republication. If you would like to submit articles to fermentarium.com, please review our Guest Post Guidelines.


Link to this post!

Don't forget to "like" fermentarium on facebook

Related Posts

  1. Giant Cosmic Space Clouds of Beer
  2. Beer bottles vs. the sun
  3. Wanna start a brewery?
  4. Avery has an app for that!
  5. Japan’s new invention, Beer Smoothie?
Tags: , ,
  • http://www.modularhomesnetwork.com/ Manufactured Homes

    Thanks, great review to the important points. Some really great thoughts here, very comprehensive. I appriciate that!