One Small Step for Man – One Giant Leap for BEER!

I’m ready to participate in the testing; where do I sign up?

Wherever man has ventured, beer has followed. Now, two Australian entrepreneurs hope that will include space. The pair have developed a full-bodied brew they believe can stand up to the trials of being drunk in zero gravity.

Problems faced by astronauts include swelling of the tongue with a loss of taste sensation, but it is hoped that space engineers have developed the perfect beer to counter this.

What could go wrong? Passengers drink on airplanes.

Once the prototype was developed it was tested on a zero gravity flight over Florida by a microgravity expert from the non-profit organisation Astronauts4Hire as a test subject.

Throughout the test flight the expert drank almost a litre of the beer despite the challenges of keeping the bottle to his mouth and getting the beer to pour out.

There is also the problem of carbonation and burping. On Earth, due to gravity acting on the stomach, the gas and liquid in the beer separate. However, in space, they come up together in what is called a wet burp. That, explained Mr Held, can be very uncomfortable.

Ain’t science wonderful?