Beer In Space

Matthew Moyle-Croft wrote to us regarding a very important development concerning the consumption of beer in space. I'm going to sleep easier knowing this *grin*. Update: 12/22 06:07 AM by T : Thanks to alert reader toad (who was not drinking within sight) for the updated URL.

Comments

Here's the updated link

[VValdo]

Yes, yes... the link went bad apparently, but I found it here

Also, the story refers to an original article in New Scientist magazine, which can be found here, although for some reason the link is down for me right now.

W
-------------------

Re:Three years??

[Ptolemarch]

BTW, the article mentions that there would be no foamy head because that requires gravity. But since it is microgravity, not true 0-g, there would be a slight amount of foam, yes? And couldn't you apply a spin to the barrel to force any bubbles to the surface of the beer?

First: it really is microgravity. Like, really small.

Second: Spinning a thing encourages the heavier stuff to move to the outside. So, surprisingly enough (even to me, as I think of this), spinning beer in microgravity would actually make the bubbles go to the middle of the beer.

What a ride

[Shotgun]

The more detailed article that someone else posted talked about the problem of not being able to belch in space. The bubble don't rise in the beer and so get transferred directly to the stomach. The bubbles don't seperate in the stomach either, so the body can't expel the gas while retaining the liquid.

I could see this providing for a completely new artform and justifying the whole space program. Musicians would travel to space where they would go on a 2week binge. Then they would travel back to earth where they would be put in a decompression chamber. The gas would swell, and now being under gravitational influence, seperate, allowing the musicians sufficient time to compose musical lyrics from the escaping gas.

Heh, it couldn't be much worse than what they broadcast on the radio.

What about hang overs?

[antdude]

I wonder what hang overs would be like in space. And pukes. Ew! Has any astronauts puked in space in the past? If so, then was the yucky stuff floating around? :)

More detail

[Scrymarch]

Here.

Three years??

[donglekey]

It took them three years to develop that? Maybe they tested it too much.

Re:Three years??

[Ace905]

Now, if they were trying to find a way to brew beer in space, that would be different. I'm not sure how, if at all, fermentation would be affected by microgravity.

When you ferment something, Yeast grows exponentially and slowely dies off as the Alcohol content rises. Once a sufficient amount dies, you have to 'rack' the beer/wine/moonshine. This means removing the liquid from the top of the barrel and leaving the dead yeast at the bottom. Otherwise, you end up with a yeasty/moldy smelling drink.

Without gravity the yeast would not drop, and the dead yeast ("lees") would make it a colloid mixture of pretty gross proportions.

On another note, someone mentioned centrifical force would force carbonation to the centre of a barrel, which would be useless. This is only true if the barrel were spun so both ends were cut symmetrically in two: meaning the spinning of the barrel on its own, would force the liquid to both ends, and carbonation to the middle.

If the barrel were placed inside a large circle which spun, then carbonation would rise. During fermentation - yeast would drop. This is due to the fact that the bottom of barrel would be moving fastest, and subject to the largest amount of centrifical force. As you move away from the bottom, each slice of the barrel is moving in a smaller and smaller circle, and is therefore under less centrifical force. This produces force in a downwards-direction, the same as gravity.

I'm speaking of the large circular rooms we all love from 2001.

I have too much time on my hands, I know.

Ping Pong Beer Balls

[Emugamer]

I can see that drinking games in space will be oh so much more fun. Can we say Pac Man?

Why did this trivial crap get posted while.....

[deglr6328]

an important space story like THIS gets ignored?

IMHO this is pretty serious, if Cassini is forced to use the Reaction Control Subsystem instead of it's gyros for the rest of the mission, I dont see how it could possibly have enough fuel to complete the original length Saturnian tour. And would therefore put the entire 3.4 Billion mission in jeopardy.

Re:carbonation...

[BurpingWeezer]

I doubt it. The bubbles are the result of pressure differences between the CO2 gas in the drink and the air. If the pressure was higher in spacecraft/spacestation then the bubble would come out slower. If it was lower, which it ususally is in spacecraft, then it would come out faster.

THe only reason you can't get foam is because the bubble have to connect together and usually they wont without gravity pushing down on them to squish them together.

You'd also need a container to hold htem close to each other. Ever spill a drink on the floor? The foam comes and goes very fast but can't stay together since there is no container.

Coke In Space?

[Scooby71]

Not sure I understand why this is such a big deal - is it just because they managed to do it with a keg of beer?

In the Science museum in London there is a Coke can with a special adaptor that IIRC was used on one of the moon shots, so late 60s or early 70s (Coke thought it would be good publicity) - if the adaptor worked with a can of Coke it would surely work with a can of beer. BTW the astronauts said that Coke was strangely unsatisfying in zero-G - tasted odd.

but...but....

[mtvsucks]

wow, beer and cartoon porn stories posted in the same day. good work guys. glad to see you are keeping on top of the importent stuff.

---
pack

mmm, beer

[c_g12]

For their next study, scientists will be researching the zero-gravity pretzel.