Japanese brewing and distilling company Suntory is sending its world-class whiskey to age where few liquors have gone before: outer space. (Yes, astronauts have thrown back a few in their day, and alcohol could be a big factor in space tourism).
The Osaka-based company announced earlier this week that it will launch six samples of its whiskies and other alcoholic beverages to study the effect zero gravity will have on aging in the course of a year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A company spokesman announced that the samples will be sent to the International Space Station in glass flasks, testing research that has found whisky becomes "mellower" when aged in an environment with minimal temperature change, convection of fluids and shaking.
The samples, which will depart August 16 aboard Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's transfer vehicle Kounotori, include a 21-year-old single malt and a recently distilled beverage that was not specified.
While the company hopes to learn about the effect zero gravity has on its products, it does not plan to make any of the samples available for purchase. The experiment marks another high point in Suntory's rising international profile, after the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 was recently hailed by British whiskey writer Jim Murray as the best whisky in the world.
Once the samples have returned to Earth, they will be studied in labs and tested by whiskey blenders to compare their taste to beverages aged on the ground.