Things are better in Asia than they are in the United States. Not only is it host to the best inventions mankind has yet to devise, it’s also home to this amazing techno-toilet and the gothic Lolita look. More importantly, though, it also helped to grow, ferment and bottle the first beer from space. Back in 2006, Sapporo Brewery teamed up with some Japanese scientists as well as the Russian space program and sent some Barleycorn seedlings up to the International Space Station to grow for five months.
Although nothing’s going to impress your friends quite like telling them that the beer you’re drinking is from frickin’ space, the beer doesn’t taste any different than the standard issue Sapporo. That’s kind of the point, though, says Sapporo in a press release. The beer proves that, eventually, Astronauts will be able to brew their own beer in space. Sapporo also says that this experiment bodes well for future space agriculture as it’s exactly the same as terrestrial agriculture, albeit about fifty times more expensive.
The brewery is selling 256 six-packs of their brew, and although the fact that it came from space might impress women and help get you laid, a bottle will set you back about $19 (which, if you drank a bunch of Sapporo before reading this, is about $114 per six-pack). And while getting your sweety to drink beer instead of her usual flowery, umbrella-laden cocktails, it’s only available via a special lottery on their website. And you can only get it if you’re Japanese. Bummer, huh? Guess now you’ll have to rely on your charm and good looks to get women.
But there is an up side to the story. The brewery plans on using the marketing campaign to get Japanese school children involved in the sciences, particularly those involving space study and exploration. They plan to achieve that by inviting children to their brewery to drink barley tea and indoctrinate their young, malleable minds to drink delicious, smooth, crisp Sapporo. As I said, things are better in Asia than they are in the United States.
