In 2011, the Ardbeg Distillery did what no drunk man has ever done before. Shot some booze into space. The idea was to see how zero gravity would affect the aging process of whisky. From the BBC:
A vial of unmatured malt from the Ardbeg Distillery on Islay was blasted up to the International Space Station in a cargo spacecraft in October 2011, along with particles of charred oak.
An identical vial, full of identical whiskey and charred oak particles, was left on Earth as a control sample. Now, the space whisky is set to land in Kazakhstan on September 12th.
After picking up the sample and resisting the urge to chug it to become ALCOHOL MAN, scotch scientists will study (nerds!) the liquor to see if it can teach us anything about the distillation process.
Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg’s director of distilling and whisky creation, said:
“The team hope to uncover how flavours develop in different gravitational conditions – findings which could revolutionise the whisky-making process.
“We hope to shine new light on the effect of gravity on the maturation process but who knows where it will lead us? It could be to infinity and beyond.”
Based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the scotch should be less mature than the one which stayed on Earth. But that’s just one blogger’s speculation.
The future, man. Cray. Interestingly enough, this vial will not be allowed to refer to itself as ‘scotch,’ because it did not undergo its aging in Scotland. It truly is Space Whisky.
[H/T Laughing Squid; Image via Shutterstock]