11-Year-Old Coloradan Will Brew Beer In Space, By Proxy 129
minty3 writes "An 11-year-old Colorado boy may have found a way to literally make a beer that's out of this world. Michal Bodzianowski, a sixth grader at Douglas County's STEM School and Academy in Highlands Ranch, Colo., recently won a national competition where his beer-making experiment will be flown to the International Space Station." Noting that beer is safer than contaminated water, Bodzianowski pointed out that beer could be useful “in future civilization as an emergency backup hydration and medical source."
Very safe indeed (Score:4, Funny)
Noting that beer is safer than contaminated water, Bodzianowski note that beer could be useful “in future civilization as an emergency backup hydration and medical source."
Yeah, nothing is safer in a confined zero-G environment full of electronics, than a liquid electrolyte pressurized with toxic gas. Don't believe me? Here, have a beer and we can go ever the details.
Re: (Score:2)
You're dealing with assumptions that aren't stated here. Nowhere did Bodz specify only in a spacecraft. Colonization could find extensive use for beer.
Re: (Score:2)
Not all beer is carbonated with CO2. In fact most of the beer I drink isn't carbonated at all... i.e. true Bitter :-)
The "healthier than water" part comes from hundreds of years ago when Beer was cleaner than water.
Re:Very safe indeed (Score:5, Informative)
The "healthier than water" part comes from hundreds of years ago when Beer was cleaner than water.
Or, the 10 seconds ago where beer is still cleaner than water in much of the world. I grew up in India, under "water discipline" -- drink only water that has been boiled (possibly in e.g. the form of tea) or drink coca-cola (nothing lives in coke!) or drink beer. When we went on long road trips and ran low on water, I drank Golden Eagle way back when I was seven or eight years old. Over seven years, I never got amoebic dysentery, cholera, or more than the usual (mild) viral enterics because I never, ever, drank unboiled water.
If I returned to India tomorrow, I would probably follow exactly the same discipline, possibly with more beer and less tea or coke. Wouldn't you?
rgb
Re: (Score:2)
Hell, I do this when I'm in Mexico! I'll be there later this month, and I pledge to drink nothing but whisky, vodka, beer, and soda. Seriously, the water and ice will give you Montezuma's Revenge!
Re: (Score:2)
No, you are going to have an issue - I wonder would the solution will be.
You can get good quality carbonation just using yeast - go you your local liquor store and search for bottled condition beer - normally it will be in the Belgian section. But that is not the concern because that is done during secondary formation.
Primary formation is my question. Yeast produces C02 but that is not a concern because you don't want carbonation at this point so you vent the excess C02, but you can't exactly do that in spa
Re: (Score:2)
Spin the container and let the angular momentum do the work of gravity. Yeast migrates to the outer walls, gas to the middle. Interesting engineering challenge, that is probably part of why they are doing it.
Re: (Score:2)
That would work better for the solids then for the gases. At this point the gases would be dissolved into the beer. Think about how long it takes for soda to go flat in an open cup. In this particular case I would think that air pressure would be higher and the exposed surface area would be lower. Both of these would work against the extracting the CO2 from the liquid. I suspect there are better options out there.
If it is only to test if yeast will do their magic in space I would guess that the entire exper
Re: (Score:3)
I wonder how it would work if it were in a soft walled bag. As the yeast produces CO2 faster than it enters solution (which I can easily verify happens at STP by taking a trip to the carboy in my kitchen), then wouldn't surface tension and finite volume allow the bag to inflate leaving a definite liquid vs gas areas? Just because the "head space" isn't at the top doesn't mean there isn't any.
I have seen the water ball demonstrations that crazy astronaut had up on youtube. Water in absence of gravity seems t
Re: (Score:2)
Of course you are dealing with microbes so volume of liquid and solids required can be very limited, allowing for lots of scope of 'spare' space (sic) contained within the experiment. Agitation would still be required with centrifugal action to prevent excess concentrations of particular products at each density boundary layer. Of course just mixing at the start and then doing nothing and watching how it develops would also be interesting.
Re:dehydrates (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
All my english it 100% content
Re: (Score:1)
Threads like this make me quite content.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought that the fact you boiled the water in preparing the beer was responsible for most of the sanitizing, as opposed to the alcohol. The alcohol probably helps in the storage, not letting any new bacteria get in and all that. Beer may have had a lot of uses in the past, but I can't really see why we'd still need it in space. Surely there's something a little more advanced to keep the water clean without getting people drunk, and converting your oxygen into carbon dioxide.
Re: (Score:2)
The boiling sanitizes it, but the yeast and fermentation products keep it sanitized. If you get drunk off of small beer there is something very wrong.
Re: (Score:3)
Not any normal beer.
Drinking beer only on vacation is a great way to avoid traveler's diarrhea.
Um no (Score:1)
Except it dehydrates humans when they drink it and it's not nearly strong enough of an alcohol content to be an antiseptic. The sugars would actually cause an infection. All this article tells me is that the judges were idiots and Colorado alcoholic rednecks start pretty young.
Re: (Score:1)
Week liquor does hydrate, and has been used for such at various points of history, and it is most definitely safer than water without fermentation, of course much of the risks of contamination in water don't really exist in space, so that's kind of moot.
Re: (Score:1)
More than just beer, all fermented products are a staple of civilisation - for both food preserving and flavour. You mention bread and cheese, but there is also yoghurt, salami, soy sauce, tofu & black tea just to mention a few.
Whilst I dont see our space farers making salami any time soon, fermented plant and fungus proteins would certainly be an option.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Um no (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. And I'm sure that NASA didn't consider any of these things before they decided it would be sent up on a payload, and the The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education haven't considered any of these issues. Nosiree. Just a bunch of idiots who lack your brilliant insight.
Or, alternatively, it's an experiment which has merit, which is why it was selected.
My money is on the latter option.
Re: (Score:3)
I've noticed before, you really don't know much history. Medieval Europeans were possibly the filthiest people in the history of humanity. Rivers were so contaminated that a modern Westerner would likely die after a glass full of water, and wells were actually worse. Everyone who could afford to drank beer or watered wine, the poorest of the poor drank water and frequently died of it. Boiling water to make beer kills pretty much everything in the water, the yeast reproduction crowds out most of its compe
Re: (Score:1)
Beer is resistant to bacterial growth for a number of reasons:
1. Lack of oxygen, as yeast consumes it all
2. Low pH; things like botulinum can not live in beer because of this
3. Hops provide some antimicrobial properties
4. Alcohol provides some protection
Who Judges These Things? (Score:5, Funny)
>> recently won a national competition...
Surprisingly, the kid with the poo to food recycling experiment lost again this year.
Re: (Score:1)
Technically, beer is food, and alcohol is a waste product of yeast.
So you could say the poo to food kid did win. ;)
"Budweiser, the astronaut ice cream of beers." (Score:1)
We have plenty of crappy beer that belongs in orbit already...
Re: (Score:2)
New definition (Score:5, Funny)
If it turns up liken the stuff the US exports.. (Score:2)
Centrifuge (Score:3, Insightful)
The concept is still pretty interesting though. I wonder how the yeast-sugar interaction would be in zero g.
Re: (Score:2)
As a homebrewer, I was actually thinking about this, myself. I'd have to believe that they'll filter the beer after fermentation to remove the yeast cells and prevent autolysis. As for the bubbler, my thoughts are that they'd put the fermenting wort into a vacuum bag with two chambers and some way to concentrate the fluids at one end and the gasses at another, then vent the gas periodically.
One of the thoughts I had was wort boiling in a vacuum, without using heat. I'd pay to see that!
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
One of the thoughts I had was wort boiling in a vacuum, without using heat. I'd pay to see that!
Wouldn't help. It's the heat that isomerizes the alpha acids in the hops, not the fact that the water is boiling.
Now, you could use vacuum to do low-temperature distillation fairly easily.
better article from denver newspaper (Score:4, Informative)
That STEM school is about a mile from where I am typing this. But I dont know much about it.
Biology in space (Score:1)
There's no guarantee that yeast will behave in microgravity the same way they do at 1g. Microgravity has an interesting way of affecting protein expression. My guess is that brewing in space won't be very effective. Some people have enough trouble doing it on terra firma.
Also, backup hydration? And "medical source?" Glad we don't let 11-yr olds do important things...!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Or, they could include a fairly simple pump and filter system to remove the yeast, hops, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Easy solution, use a hydrocyclone. This uses cenfrifugal forces to seperate particles from water.
Sounds Illigal (Score:2)
I doubt that America allows 11-year olds to produce alcohol.
Re: (Score:2)
They can produce it. They just can't drink it.
Then how does he know whether it's good or not. Oops, he better be careful.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No idea what draft beer is.
But I agree, I think if we are talking less than 5% (or maybe 2-3%) or thereabouts, it should be fine.
But I think it is a culture thing, in America alcohol is for one purpose only, getting drunk. And there are supposed to be medical reasons why that would be bad for the under-developed.
Re: (Score:2)
18 year olds can star in porn movies, they aren't usually "under developed". so they can sell their body for sex on camera but can't drink a glass of wine?
Re: (Score:2)
Draft beer == giant kegs of beer connected via hoses to the taps at the bar, poured into pint glasses when ordered.
As opposed to bottled or canned beer.
In space, it's never "Miller Time" (Score:2)
LOL ... Worked for Europe ... (Score:2)
Wasn't this pretty much the key to Europe's success for several hundred years, and why the monks were always boozing it up?
Contaminated water wasn't safe to drink, but turn it into alcoholic beverages and it's safer.
Brilliant; beer, making civilization better for thousands of years. That's awesome.
Of course, I'm also forced to ask,
BEER!!!! (Score:1)
http://youtu.be/ATBl4qH9I54
In space, no one can hear you belch. (Score:2)
Disinfect the wound with beer! Wait, isn't "yeast infection" a thing? Besides, we could just design astronauts that produce their own intoxication.
> 2013
> Not brewing beer in belly. [wikipedia.org]
Silly humans...
Brew your own beer. (Score:2)
Remember that article about the guy who brewed his own beer? He had a hardy version of Saccaromyces Cerevisiae (sp?) resident in his stomach. Everytime he ate anything starchy he got drunk.
Hope they saved a sample of that yeasty.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Anyway, this should be a good test of science. Beer in space, sounds like a good combination (probably better than meth in space to be honest). It should be better than the "vodka" those Russians make out of old tang.
Re: (Score:3)
What exactly is wrong with that?
Methamphetamines have all kinds of medical uses and battlefield preparation can be very useful.
Oh yeah you're just a shitty troll.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh yeah you're just a shitty troll.
You know, people do make these things called `jokes' some times. I thought it was kinda funny. But it's okay if you want to karma whore too I guess.
Re: (Score:2)
And with the exception of child soldiers, I've yet to see a regular military that has it's soldiers use crank in battle.
You don't seem to know what you're talking about. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Methamphetamine and amphetamine were given to Allied bomber pilots during World War II to sustain them by fighting off fatigue and enhancing focus during long flights. The experiment failed because soldiers became agitated, could not channel their aggression and showed impaired judgment.[18] Rather, dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine) became the drug of choice for American bomber pilots, being used on a voluntary basis by roughly half of the U.S. Air Force pilots during the Persian Gulf War, a practice which came under some media scrutiny in 2003 after a mistaken attack on Canadian troops.[31]
Not meth (admittedly, on a technicality).
Re: (Score:2)
They used dextro [wikipedia.org] (which, as you mentioned, differs technically from meth) very recently. I believe it is still in use currently, though probably not for much longer if so.
I suspect there are numerous not-so-above-board governments and extra-governmental groups that still distribute meth to certain personnel even today, since it's easy to make in a pinch and meets their short-term goals. Admittedly I ha
Re: (Score:2)
You must not know about go pills [google.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Uh ever hear of "Go Pills" go ask your local fighter pilot. The military still uses them. They are some sort of amphetamine.
The Nazi's actually prepared methamphetamine in the field and used it.
I am not speaking of using tweakers as soldiers, just keeping your current soldiers up and running with no sleep or food for days at a time.
Re: (Score:3)
Look up "I noticed after I hit submit and slashdot has no edit button".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The drugs do not rot out your teeth or cause those skin conditions. Those are side effects of not taking care of yourself and poor lifestyle in general. Most of those folks would have similar hygiene issues without the drugs. Go visit very poor folks sometime.
That is why they also have "no-go pills".
Re: (Score:2)
I've yet to see a regular military that has it's soldiers use crank in battle.
How about the United States Air Force? [nbcnews.com]
BTW, "it's" is a contraction of "it is."
Re: (Score:2)
You know, people do make these things called `jokes' some times.
Bad joke, offtopic, and insulting to beer drinkers. What's worse, so many people bit the troll that by now, actual discussion of the topic is done. Read the /. FAQ -- it's a troll.
This is so last quarter... (Score:2, Informative)
What next, the five year old girl gets flown to the capitol to cook a batch of meth in the bathtub?
You obviously haven't taken the tour of the white house.
Re: (Score:3)
What next, the five year old girl gets flown to the capitol to cook a batch of meth in the bathtub?
You obviously haven't taken the tour of the white house.
Well, *that* explains why White House tours were cancelled last year.
Re: (Score:3)
Didn't you learn anything in basic chemistry, you need a boiling flask to make meth.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It works for dwarves. [dwarffortresswiki.org]
Clearly, what's being prototyped here is a hybrid of Dwarf Fortress and Kerbal Space Program.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Yeah sure (Score:5, Informative)
For centuries before potable drinking water became widespread, beer was the beverage of choice. It wasn't strong beer, but what would be called "small beer," which was maybe 1-2% ABV. It's safer than untreated water, beer must be boiled in the brewing process. No known harmful microorganisms will grow in beer, though some which give it an off taste will. When given the choice between a possibly unsafe water source and beer, beer is the best choice.
Re:Yeah sure (Score:5, Informative)
This is what people in ancient Egypt did, because water in/around the Nile wasn't exactly mountain stream pure.
With enough alcohol to kill the bad bugs, a beer can do a good job at getting rid of thirst but without getting people too drunk or dehydrated.
There are brewing recipes for homebrewers from those times (how authentic, I have no clue). It might be interesting to brew a "small beer", and see how it works versus say, Gatorade.
Re: (Score:1)
It's not really the alcohol that kills the bugs (you need a very high concentration for that, and you can only get that through distilling), it's the yeast outcompeting the other microorganisms.
Re: (Score:1)
As a brewer, I can tell you that this is not the case. When making alcohol, any kind, sanitation is taken very carefully because you want to make sure that only your yeast makes it into your must. Wild yeast is "fine" but will give off-flavors and won't ferment to a higher ABV. Anything else that gets in there is going to ruin your batch and make it undrinkable.
Even after fermentation, you typically add potassium metabisulfate and potassium sorbate to kill off anything that's living in there and prevent it
Re: (Score:2)
Sanitation is important in brewing for taste moreso than safety.
A little something extra might make your brew a bit funky... but it's still significantly safer than the water, pre-beerification.
Re: (Score:1)
With enough alcohol to kill the bad bugs, a beer can do a good job at getting rid of thirst but without getting people too drunk or dehydrated.
Pretty sure it's not the alcohol production that staves off bacteria. Rather it's the boiling of the water in conjunction with the antiseptic properties of hops.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Boiling and the change in PH are more important than the alcohol content when it comes to keeping the bacterial load low, although that certainly helps.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not have a "Small Beer"?
Re:11-year-old? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why?
If it was suitably low alcohol it would be fine. Think 1% or so. Why not for grownups?
Stupid troll is stupid.
Re: (Score:1)
Same for wine. IIRC, ancient wines had lower alcohol and were ndeed used for drinking, not just for the alcohol effect. You might carry a wine skin for drinking, not drunking.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
But this is American beer, The crew can just piss in a cup and save the time and effort
Re: (Score:2)
Re:11-year-old? (Score:4, Interesting)
The pathological aversion to any combination of children and alcohol is a Puritan thing that seems unique to the USA.
I live in wine country Australia, and the local high school not only has winemaking as part of the curriculum but the school has a cellar door. Wine sales 9am-3pm Mon-Fri.
My 8-year-old son can pick the difference between Syrah and Grenache.
I'll never forget my first family holiday to the USA, I would have been 15 years old. Sitting at a restaurant in Anaheim recovering from a day pounding the paths of Disneyland, waiter comes up to the table to take our drinks orders; when I got to me I asked "what beers do you have on tap here?" The waiter sputtered a bit in confusion then explained to me that he could not serve alcohol to a 15-year-old no matter what my preference of beer was. My parents just shrugged like "meh, when in Rome," and I had a soda.
Weird.
Re: (Score:2)
I grew up in northern Michigan, and made my first wine when I was about 10. Picked a bucket full of mulberries, squeezed the juice, my mom supervised so that I didn't burn myself with the sugar syrup, and my dad helped me make a bubbler. I'd been drinking a small glass of wine at family dinners since probably five years old, so I knew enough to recognize that I had a really good touch making wine when I tapped that first gallon a couple of months later. Been making homemade wine ever since, taught my nep
Re: (Score:2)
Haha, nice work!
Yep, America's weird. You can give a kid a loaded gun no worries, but a sip of wine? YER GOIN' TA HELL!
Re: (Score:2)