
Beer In Space 149
Saint Aardvark writes: "Check it out...NASA recently sent up an experiment to see how well beer could be brewed in space. The result? One millilitre of space brew. Can orbital microbrew be far behind?" They've been making great strides since our first Beer in Space article.
Beer (Score:1)
Space as in... (Score:1)
Just don't let it go to their head. (Score:1)
Re:Just don't let it go to their head. (Score:3, Funny)
When you get drunk on a space station, does the room stop spinning?
Drinking and driving (Score:1)
Re:Drinking and driving (Score:2)
Imagine pictures of Spock as the designated driver while Kirk and McCoy are out on the ship hull sucking in as much alchohol as possible.
Heck, it might even be in the Slashdot archives someplace
Um... (Score:1, Funny)
They need to start thinking about macrobrewing, if you ask me.
Microbrew... (Score:1)
Now it's just a matter of time before they have the first *moonshine* still in space. Better watch out for revenooers!
Re:Microbrew... (Score:2)
Choke (Score:1)
Re:Choke (Score:1)
In Space, since there is no gravity, the vomit will continue in the direction that you puked at the velocity of which it exited your body (ignoring friction with the air).
So, you couldn't choke because it will glide in midair until it hits something.
Re:Choke (Score:2)
At last man can fianlly realize true projectile vomiting!
Re:Choke (Score:1)
Watch out for that Curb!!!! (Score:1)
M - others
A - gainst
D - runk
D - Driveing -and-
A - sternaut
S - afety
S - tandards
It's just math... (Score:1)
Sounds like they've got 1000 microbrews already.
As James Hetfield would say (Score:2, Funny)
Re:HEY! (Score:3, Informative)
Your tax dollars may be subsidizing it, but the experiment was apparently paid for by a grant from Coors. It went up in one of NASA's commercial experiment packs.
But can they only brew light beer? (Score:1)
pherris
BISS (Score:1)
You may be too young to remember this beer commercial
It don't get no better than BISS!
Brewski of International Space Station.When you need to piss,
Think BISS!!
5:15pm (Score:1)
Oh great (Score:2)
Re:Rotating Cola (Score:2)
Say, they could test it by giving beer to their mice [slashdot.org]. After all, they're used to the room spinning when they wake up.
Its a start (Score:2)
Re:Its a start (Score:1)
Today I was the first subject to ever get stoned in space. It took an abnomally short amount of time for the cotton mouth to kick in. Note that I bumped my helmet on the floor of the station, and just laughed for hours. during the 4 hour experiment, my recordings show that I sat laughing, farting, and pissing myself for 3.98 hours. Tomarrow, I will lend my body to the betterment of man kind by being the first person to inject tar in space...
god I love this job...
Hi MOM!!!!
Re:Its a start (Score:2)
I might suggest a vaporizer. These things heat up the weed to the point of vaporization, and are often sourced by an electric heating element. That should work in space.
Re:Its a start (Score:2)
Image how much those would go for.
Uh yeah... (Score:1)
Dancin Santa
Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted
RMS will be pissed... (Score:2)
Wow. (Score:2)
Ah, how I love the human race ; )
Re:Wow. (Score:1)
Re:Wow. (Score:2)
At the same time, if Coors and Coca-Cola want to subsidize our space program, then I'm all for it. They paid their way, and that got dozens of other experiments into orbit.
And, quite frankly, if not now, then when? If the final objective is to live and work in space, then these questions *do* have to be asked. Your ancestors were explorers - they traveled from one place to another. It's part of human expansion, and a damn sight better than killing each other for finite resources here on earth.
--
Evan
Party Pig (Score:1)
Answer: Party Pig [homebrewery.com]
The Party Pig uses a self-expanding pouch to maintain pressure in a 2.25 gallon beer keg. Because it doesn't rely on adding carbon dioxide to maintain pressure, it is well suited for use in space.
BTW, I currently own 4 Party Pigs and a 20 gallon oak barrel, currently filled with a Belgian Lambic Ale.
A word of advice to all the /.ers under the drinking age. Don't take up home brewing Freshman year in college like me just because you can buy the supplies to make beer. Oops, did I just give you information? Please ignore the power of that information.
Re:Party Pig (Score:1)
Well, I can do one better -- 20 years ago, when I was a freshman, my roommate and I built a still with equipment we bought from the chem department. It made something rather like Everclear, albeit with a slight rubber taste from the surgical tubing we used to join all the glass bits. What we didn't drink, we'd pour under the doors of neighboring dorm rooms & light on fire -- we got to meet lots of people that way.
Song. (Score:1)
In heaven there is no beer,
that's why we drink it here...
It's preparation for a trip to mars (Score:1)
Boy is that cool (Score:1)
It's like the ants and tiny screws, that had applications for everything from watchmaking to watch repair!
Remember kids, Simpsons references == karma!
German Astronauts say: (Score:1)
Woohoo! (Score:1)
Now if they could only somehow smuggle potato chips on board. As long as they're not ruffled, and they don't clog the instruments.
Let's see... IIRC 1000 ml = 1 liter and 1 liter of water = 1 kg. There's 2.2 lb per kg and it costs $10,000 to lift 1 lb into orbit. It costs $22,000 to lift 1 kg or 1 liter into orbit or $22.00 per ml. Add to that the cost of hauling up the homebrew equipment that is one expensive brew.
"This beer better be the best tastin' beer in the world." - Barny Gumble
And to think we had an astronaut named Buzz! (Score:2)
As a home brewer, though, I expect they'd have to go straight DME, as doing an all grain job would be quite a mess, sparging and all. Now there's something for NASA engineers to work out!
Re:And to think we had an astronaut named Buzz! (Score:1)
Re:And to think we had an astronaut named Buzz! (Score:2)
my favorite:
When the Mir crew ran out of alcohol reserves, they would often go on "treasure-seeking" expeditions for more, tearing down interior panels to find bottles hidden by previous crews, said Alexander Poleshchuk, who spent six months on board Mir in 1993.
Re:And to think we had an astronaut named Buzz! (Score:2)
Eventually you get a suitable wort somehow. Then you add some yeast. These yeasties start fermenting away and giving off CO2. Where does this CO2 go? Nowhere! Your big globule of wort will soon end up looking like a floating sponge. Then if you manage that problem, you might wind up with a naturally carbonated bottle of ESB. Then you crack open that bottle and you wind up with nothing but foam everywhere but in the bottle.
oh boy.. (Score:1)
..government funding hard at work!
Next step ... (Score:1)
Drunk pilot crashes Shulte in Atlantic, 5000L beer spilled in ocean!! Nasa will install breathezizers on shutle
I hope.... (Score:1)
Well, I guess it's beer so who cares who good it tastes as long as it's cheap and potent, right?
Re:I hope.... (Score:1)
Only one mililiter? (Score:1)
"Alright, who drank the sample?!"
Hmmm... (Score:1)
Actual Uses (Score:1)
Re:Actual Uses (Score:1)
microbrew (Score:1)
Brew on fine gents! (Score:1)
How about a... mascot? (Score:1)
Ale vs. Lager (Score:2)
Re:Ale vs. Lager (Score:1)
Re:Ale vs. Lager (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ale vs. Lager (Score:2)
We'll have to completely reinvent the fermenting process by using a totally new type of yeast, for starters. Who knows how will we try to make a hard liquor like Scotch, vodka, sake or Japanese shochu in space.
A chemical process to behold (Score:1)
The debate is settled (Score:1)
With proper respects to John Madden, I guess it's settled.
Less filling!
Clouds (Score:1)
There is already plenty [osu.edu] of alcohol [hawaii.edu] in space [space.com].
Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Really... (Score:1)
Priorities.... (Score:2)
Forget trying to build the IIS, I want to focus on getting beer up there. The really important stuff.
And I laughed when Jerry Sienfeld joked about bring a car to the moon; how it was the ultimate male idea. Brining a car to the moon so we coule drive around.
Now we have beer...guess they'll have to make it illegal to drive drunk on the moon aswell, before we have an accident.
what about VODKA! (Score:1)
Coors? (Score:1)
Considering she worked for Coors, maybe she should first become interested in how beer is brewed on Earth.
If you're interested in beer on Earth, check out the Fremont Oktoberfest [fremontoktoberfest.org] this weekend in Seattle!
Next it'll be rock'n'roll... (Score:1)
Space rocks, man!
As long as... (Score:2)
you can't get beers in space, I will refuse to leave earth! :p
Space drinker's song (Score:2)
When we're winning
We'll be singing
I get knocked down
But I dont give a shit
Cos in space there ain't no up or down
Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times:
"We could walk for ever
walking on
walking on the moon..."
I get knocked down
But I don't give a shit
Cos in space there ain't no up or down
Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away
He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him
Of the better times:
"This is ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pill and put your helmet on..."
I get knocked down
But I don't give a shit
Cos in space there ain't no up or down
We'll be singing
When we're winning
We'll be singing
only 1 ml? What about the taste tests? (Score:2)
Hell, I'd pay about $100 for a drink of space brew if it had orbited the earth a few thousand times. NASA could send up the raw materials on cheap(er) rockets, and sell the brew for a good profit. A few thousand litres could pay for a shuttle flight.
the AC
New Funding! (Score:1)
-sig
Brewing will be tough in microgravity (Score:2)
I think it's going to be one heck of a challenge to make alcoholic beverages in the microgravity environment of space.
The reason is simple: just about every alcoholic beverage requires the use of gravity to control the fermenting process. There will be no such thing as top-fermented (British-style) beer or bottom-fermented (Central European-style) beer, for starters.
I wouldn't be surprised that a major Germany brewery or a British brewery will sponsor a major test of how beer brews in space that will be run on the Columbus module on the International Space Station.
Black & Tans (Score:1)
Mutating Yeast (Score:1)
It seems to me that brewing in space without complete shielding would leave the process defenceless against producing a truly vile beer.
I'd be more impressed if they did some distilling. Moon moonshine would be an accomplishment and the process is dangerous/more daring.:)
IMHO, as per
J:)
bubbles (Score:1)
Does it bubble at all? In if so... what will they do? Will the bubbles just float around at random, increasing in size by collision?
NASA data: "Fat Slobs in Space" (Score:1)
"Fat Slobs in Space."
I've worked with the Space program many years...
"... First of all, being seriously overweight might just be the best way to avoid the motion sickness that plagues a third of astronauts in orbit.... if you are grossly obese, we cannot get you sick."
URL for "Fat Slobs in Space" (Score:1)
"Fat Slobs in Space."
URL is:
http://magicdragon.com/ComputerFutures/
SpacePublications/Food.html
I've worked with the Space program many years...
"... First of all, being seriously overweight might just be the best way to avoid the motion sickness that plagues a third of astronauts in orbit.... if you are grossly obese, we cannot get you sick."