A Japanese brewing and distilling company named Suntory is sending some of its world-renowned whiskies to the International Space Station to test the effect of microgravity on the ageing process.
Suntory is Japan’s oldest whisky distillery, and is responsible for producing the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, which last year was named the best whisky in the world. These samples are set to be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on August 16th, destined for the Japanese Experiment Module aboard the ISS.
The main aim of the endeavour is to study the “development of mellowness in alcoholic beverage through the use of a microgravity environment”. Suntory states that it hopes the experiments will help discover a scientific explanation for the “mechanism that makes alcohol mellow” (meaning it will taste smoother).
Research that the company has already conducted with professors from various Japanese universities has led them to believe that mellowness most likely develops “by promoted formation of the high-dimensional molecular structure in the alcoholic beverage in environments where liquid convection is suppressed”. The hope is that by taking the whiskies into a microgravity environment, the researchers will be able to verify the effect a convection-free state has on the mellowing of the liquids.
According to reports, the samples will include both a 21 year old single malt whiskey and a beverage that has just been distilled. Each sample will be carried into space and back in glass flasks. Some will stay for just a year, some for longer. Upon their return they will be studied in labs, where whisky blenders will taste them and compare them to whiskies that have been aged on Earth.
