On September 14, billionaire Jared Isaacman will embark on a three-day privatized space flight. Flying on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the ship is set to carry an unlikely cargo load.
The tech entrepreneur and pilot plans to bring 70 pounds of hops on the mission known as Inspiration4. Upon return, Isaac hopes to partner with a brewery that will lend his “space beer” towards a charitable cause.
This is not the first effort made to bring beer hops into space, though. Hops — a plant which gives beer its bitter flavor and aroma — are some of the key ingredients that go into making beer alongside water, yeast, and malted barley. Each of these pieces components can travel into space on their own, but distillation outside of Earth’s atmosphere has proven difficult due to zero-gravity conditions.
Help spread news! @inspiration4x will be flying up to 70lbs of hops to orbit in a month. We are going to auction hops to a brewery w/ all funds to @StJude. Who wouldn't order a 🍺 brewed w/ space hops? If interested..inquire on https://t.co/fwVi3YLfod
(Ty Dan McDonough for idea)— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 12, 2021
A raffle held for one of four seats upon the flight raised over $13 million for childhood cancer research at St. Judes. This is in addition to the $100 million Isaacman pledged to donate, along with the eventual auction of the hops.
Despite the charitable efforts, there don’t seem to be any breweries jumping to the opportunity just yet. Isaacmen took to Twitter on Thursday writing, “c’mon breweries make history and get in contact with us.”
From Budweiser’s launch of barley seeds into space in 2017, to bottles of wine being aged in space, the drinks business’ involvement with space flight in recent years shows no signs of slowing down.
