Suntory explores space-aged whisky
Leading Japanese distillery Suntory is to send a batch of its whiskies to the International Space Station. The drinks giant wants to study the effect of zero gravity on the drink's maturing process.
Leading Japanese distillery Suntory is to send a batch of its whiskies to the International Space Station. The drinks giant wants to study the effect of zero gravity on the drink's maturing process.
Six samples will be launched into space on August 16 from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center aboard the vehicle known as "Kounotori5" or HTV5.
The samples include whisky that has already been aged for 10, 18 and 21 years, together with a control sample of 40% ethanol.
Some samples will be aged in space for one year and then returned to earth. A second batch will be aged for two or more years.
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They will be stored in glass flasks in a convection-free environment in the Japanese experiment module "Kibo" on the International Space Station. A second set of identical samples will be stored in Japan for the same periods of time.
The Suntory Global Innovation Center is conducting the research in association with the Institute of Fluid Science at Tohoku ; the Institute for Solid State Physics at the University of Tokyo; the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute; and the Suntory Foundation for Life Sciences.
Researchers do not fully understand the maturing process experienced by most alcoholic drinks as they age. Suntory hopes that studying the way its spirits age in space will shed some light on the "mechanism that makes alcohol mellow".
The group has no plans to make space-aged whiskies available commercially.
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