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Booze Sent to Space to Explore 'Mellow' Mechanism
yahoo.com ^ | Elizabeth Howell

Posted on 08/22/2015 12:05:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Tokyo-based Suntory Global Innovation Center, which has a division called Suntory Whiskey, launched a set of alcoholic beverages toward the International Space Station on Wednesday (Aug. 19) aboard Japan's fifth H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5). The booze includes five different types of distilled spirits, Suntory representatives said.

The robotic HTV-5 is scheduled to reach the orbiting lab on Monday (Aug. 24). But astronauts will not crack open a bottle to celebrate the freighter's arrival; the liquor is flying for purely scientific purposes. Suntory plans to conduct future experiments to see how the "mellowness" of sprits is affected by microgravity and a lack of convection (the flow of heat through a liquid or gas). (In addition, the International Space Station is officially a "dry" facility, so drinking alcohol is not allowed.) [The Evolution of Space Food in Photos]

"With the exception of some items like beer, alcoholic beverages are widely known to develop a mellow flavor when aged for a long time. Although researchers have taken a variety of scientific approaches to elucidating the underlying mechanism, we still do not have a full picture of how this occurs," Suntory representatives wrote in a statement.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: booze; etoh; oenology; zymurgy
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1 posted on 08/22/2015 12:05:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

they call it “mellow yellow” so to speak.


2 posted on 08/22/2015 12:10:21 PM PDT by brivette
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To: brivette

Quite, right slick


3 posted on 08/22/2015 12:11:48 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Do Not Vote for List: See my profile)
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To: BenLurkin

Finally we’re getting somewhere.


4 posted on 08/22/2015 12:12:05 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: BenLurkin

Boehner’s all for this project.


5 posted on 08/22/2015 12:12:11 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'll vote for Jeb when Terri Schiavo endorses him.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

I was hoping someone would say that..!


6 posted on 08/22/2015 12:13:07 PM PDT by brivette
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To: BenLurkin

what could possibly go wrong?


7 posted on 08/22/2015 12:15:17 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: BenLurkin

Personally I believe that the astronauts up in the space station find a way to drink alcohol now and then. Just consider: you have a group of extremely bright people with mad technical skills, stuck in a small space for months on end. I’m sure they cooked up some shitty, pasty, tube food and put it in a still to make alcohol.


8 posted on 08/22/2015 12:16:50 PM PDT by WMarshal (“A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge" - F. Douglas)
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To: BenLurkin

Wow, talk about getting high ...


9 posted on 08/22/2015 12:17:27 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: catnipman

lol!


10 posted on 08/22/2015 12:18:51 PM PDT by brivette
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To: WMarshal

Marines on the USS Frederick “found a way” back in the day. Just saying....


11 posted on 08/22/2015 12:21:46 PM PDT by blackd77
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To: WMarshal
Just consider...most of them are Russian now, beyond the NASA...

That, and yeast can always be smuggled on board, one way or another.

12 posted on 08/22/2015 12:33:37 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: COBOL2Java

...there’s no crying space...


13 posted on 08/22/2015 12:35:57 PM PDT by This_far
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To: BenLurkin

Can’t wait to see the price tag on whisky with “zero-g finish maturation”.


14 posted on 08/22/2015 12:42:17 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: BenLurkin

15 posted on 08/22/2015 1:06:58 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Cruz is still my #1, but Trump is impressing the hell out of me.)
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To: Charles Martel

It will be astronomical.


16 posted on 08/22/2015 1:20:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin
to see how the "mellowness" of sprits is affected by microgravity

How utterly stupid.
17 posted on 08/22/2015 1:21:29 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: SpaceBar

It’s a stunt.

I think.


18 posted on 08/22/2015 1:22:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

the liquor is flying for purely scientific purposes.


I thought the term was “only for medicinal purposes”


19 posted on 08/22/2015 1:28:57 PM PDT by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: BenLurkin

In space nobody can hear you -— drink Jap whiskey?


20 posted on 08/22/2015 1:38:39 PM PDT by BlueDragon (Cosmophobia. I gots it)
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