Friday, July 31, 2015

SUNTORY ANNOUNCES THAT IT'S SENDING WHISKY INTO SPACE

Suntory has announced that it will be launching a selection of its whiskies and other alcoholic beverages into space, as part of an experiment and study into the effect that zero gravity has on ageing.

The research will take place in the International Space Station’s Japanese Experiment Module, where tests on the whisky samples aged 10, 18 and 21 Years Old will be conducted for periods of between 1 – 2 years.

Suntory announces that its sending whisky into space

Once the samples return to Earth, Suntory’s team of blenders will assess their flavours whilst researchers will subject the samples to scientific analysis.

Commenting on the news, a Suntory spokesman, said: “Our company has hypothesized that the formation of high-dimensional molecular structure consisting of water, ethanol, and other ingredients in alcoholic beverages contributes to the development of mellowness. We have been conducting collaborative researches on this topic with research groups of Professor Shigenao Maruyama of the Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University and Professor Mitsuhiro Shibayama of the Institute for Solid State Physics, the University of Tokyo, the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute and Suntory Foundation for Life Sciences.”

He went on to say: “The results of these collaborative researches have suggested the probability that mellowness develops by promoted formation of the high-dimensional molecular structure in the alcoholic beverage in environments where liquid convection is suppressed. On the basis of these results, the space experiments will be conducted to verify the effect of the convection-free state created by a microgravity environment to the mellowing of alcoholic beverage.”

Suntory’s samples will make their way to the International Space Station on the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s transfer vehicle, Kounotori on August 16th.

Source: Suntory