Having created a beer that can be drunk in space, the 4 Pines brewing company have now launched an ambitious but completely legitimate crowdfunding campaign to produce a bottle that will allow it to be drank in zero gravity.
4 Pines Brewing Company and Saber Astronautics have joined forces on a mission of galactic proportions. They are destined to go where humanity has never been before and create the world’s first beer that can be drank in space.
Now every project or mission needs a name, and they have chosen Vostok – the name of the first ever manned space craft piloted by Yuri Gagarin – a celebrated occasion in the whole of history, and an occasion that could have been celebrated by Gagarin himself were it possible to drink liquids in space.
Also with space tourism becoming a real possibility within our lifetime there will actually be a need to drink in space.
However, there were 2 main reasons why a beer hasn’t been drunk in space as of yet…
The first is that alcohol absorption by the human body is different. For example, the tongue swells, and the senses dull altering the way both drink and food taste, and it’s probably best not to get to gassed up and bloated.
Secondly and more importantly liquid is impossible to pour in zero gravity.
Naturally they decided to tackle the easier problem first – the beer. This hasn’t been a rushed through process though – it’s taken them 6 years to produce the ideal ale.
What they have come up with is recipe based off of a dry Irish style Stout, with an aroma profile of coffee, chocolate and caramel malts. These are matched on the palette with a full bodies, smooth finish and balancing bitterness that weighs in with a 5.1% Alc/Vol.
Once they had perfected the beer recipe, the next step was to develop the technology that would allow people to drink the stout, or any other liquid for that matter from a bottle just like their fellow land-dwellers.
This is where the guys teamed up with their partners at Saber Astronautics, and they decided to use the forces that are available to us all. And that means surface tension; that mysterious thing that causes beer to cling to glasses on Earth, and is a force to be reckoned with in space.
Saber made an insert that can wick the beer from the bottom of the bottle neck, essentially turning a normal bottle into a fuel tank for your beer.
Still in prototype form this is where the companies have now turned to crowdfunding. They hope to hone the design of the bottle, develop the beer filling process, and put it into mass production.
It’s no small investment they are seeking - $1 million – but as with most crowdfunding projects there are numerous perks for backing the campaign that range from stickers, t-shirts, and personalized beer bottles, and rise up to being on the first ever zero gravity flight where you will be able to test the world’s first space beer alongside the co-founders.
To back this project or to find out further information please head to their Indiegogo page here.