Beer in spaaaace!

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.

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