Japanese alcoholic beverage manufacturer Asahi Sake Brewery intends to brew sake on board the International Space Station. The company announced this on its official website, RBC reports.
Image source: NASA
The experiment will be carried out on the Japanese Kibo module, which is part of the ISS. As part of the first experiments at the station, it is planned to ferment 520 grams of moromi, a starter for sake, which will then be mixed with rice-based wort and rice malt. The resulting product will be delivered back to Earth frozen. After this, the raw materials will be pressed and poured into 100 ml bottles. The final product will be called Dassai MOON – Space Brewing. It will be possible to get a traditional Japanese drink from it already on Earth. The Kibo module was chosen because it has the ability to simulate conditions similar to the gravity of the Moon (1/6 of the force of Earth’s gravity), the report says.
This is not the first time that alcohol, or more precisely its components, has been created in space. In 2022, the Japanese company Ninki Ichi Brewery, specializing in brewing beer, prepared sake from yeast that had spent a month on the ISS. Funds from the sale of “space sake” were used to restore Fukushima Prefecture, where the brewery is located – it suffered from the devastating earthquake of 2011.
According to the findings of an earlier study conducted by scientists at the University of Florida, microgravity conditions in outer space accelerate the fermentation process of brewer’s yeast. As part of the experiment, barley wort was placed in a special apparatus that simulated microgravity conditions. In 2021, Space Craft IPA beer appeared on sale. It was made from hops that were in orbit for three days with the crew of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.