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Is space sake worth the ¥100 million price tag?
A brewer in Japan has announced plans to produce a single bottle of sake fermented in space, but for an eye-watering sum.
Japanese sake brewer Asahi Shuzo, which produces popular brand Dassai, has announced plans to develop a sake fermented on the International Space Station (ISS).
Souya Uetsuki, the brewer in charge of the project at Asahi Shuzo, said the change in gravity could impact the effectiveness of fermentation depending on how heat transfers in fluid.
“There is no guarantee of 100% success for the fermentation tests,” Uetsuki said.
If the fermentation is successful, just one 100ml bottle of sake will be up for grabs. Asahi Shuzo has priced the yet-to-be-made bottle of sake at ¥100 million (£513,000).
The Japanese sake brewer has paid the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for access to the Kibo experiment module, part of the ISS developed by Japan, according to CNN.
Tests can be conducted in a “special microgravity environment” in the Kibo module.
Asahi Shuzo is not the first sake brewer to take its drinks skyward. In 2022 Ninki-Ichi, a brewery in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, created a sake made using “space yeast“.
The yeast spent a month on the ISS, where it remained in continuous orbit. Sales of the Ninki-Ichi went towards the ongoing recovery of the prefecture where it is made, which suffered devastating effects from the magnitude-nine earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the region in 2011.
“If you can drink this space sake and support the recovery, it will be a great encouragement for us, the people of Tohuku,” a spokesperson for Ninki-Ichi said at the time. “Since Fukushima has many companies that produce sake, we decided to send the yeast to space for making sake.”
Asahi Shuzo has taken space sake to the next level, as it hopes to produce the final product on the space station. Uetsuki said the company hoped its project would offer insights into space fermentation
“In a future where humans can freely travel between the moon and Earth, some will visit the moon as tourists. This project aims to create sake that can be enjoyed on the moon, allowing visitors to have delightful moments there,” he said.
Fermentation is an important part of food production in Japan, from natto beans to miso. Uetsuki said that the technology used for the sake could therefore be expanded into other foods.
Asahi Shuzo is currently developing brewing equipment to be used in space. It plans to launch the sake in 2025.
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