SpaceX’s Inspiration4 rocket took flight on Wednesday, carrying civilian passengers and 66 pounds of hops that’ll be given to Samuel Adams Boston Brewery. Their plans are to create a limited-edition “space beer” and will donate $100,000 to St. Jude, a goal set forth by Jared Isaacman, the billionaire owner of Fast4Company funding the Inspiration4 mission.
Sam Adams’ head brewer David Grinell is involved in the concept alongside Matt Withington, director of marketing at Sam Adams. Withington told The Business Insider that “[they] actually always talked about sending beer to space…[and] the immediate response from our drinkers signaled the right moment for [them] to jump on and fulfill this dream.”
Insider crunched the numbers, and to transport a pound of cargo on the Crew Dragon spaceship comes out to be around $5,500, making the cost of sending 66 pounds of hops on board to be around $361,000. Needless to say, this limited-edition beer will not be as cheap as some of the other options the company provides.
Here’s a fun fact: Coors sponsored an experiment in 1994 to test fermentation in space. Japanese brewer Sapporo produced a $110 six-pack using barley seeds that were sent up into space. Here’s another one: Anheuser-Busch has sent several samples of barley to the ISS (International Space Station) as recently as 2019 to determine the effects of microgravity on barley seeds.
It would appear that the science behind space’s effect on beer is in full swing, and you might be sipping on some galactic grog before you know it. While it remains without a name, the Sam Adams-produced beer will go on sale later this fall, and is expected to be a traditional West Coast IPA.