Whiskey aged in space tastes like throat lozenges and rubbery smoke

theverge.com ^ | September 10, 2015 09:34 am | Loren Grush

[kingu]

I’m thinking that the issue is microgravity and surface tension, and they likely didn’t consider the idea of spinning the barrels so that the whiskey would actually be in constant contact with the charred oak.

So, no, it isn’t ‘space’ whiskey, it is ‘microgravity whiskey’.

[smokingfrog]

Never mind. I see it was only aged in space.

[smokingfrog]

That makes sense.

[hoagy62]

I think what they did was distill it on Earth, put it in the “casks”, then send it up to age on the ISS. I don’t think they’d want to try actually distilling it in space.

I’d also like to know WHERE on the ISS it was kept. Was it in a storage module? In the crew compartment? Was there exposure to radiation?

[ozzymandus]

Sounds like typical scotch.

[mountainlion]

It takes pollution and global warming to make proper whiskey.

[kingu]

I think this video shows very much what the issue is for a cask of liquid where the intention is that the liquid with absorb the essential oils in the container:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEdApyi9Vw

Unless they spun the barrels, very little whiskey would come in contact with the oak - probably most of the ‘aging’ was done on the trip up and the trip back when there was something to force the whiskey into contact with the charred oak of the barrel.

[Rodamala]

To the FReeper that added the keyword spacewhiskey...

...I hereby award the Brass Figlagee with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm:

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

If the alternative is no whisky, it doesn’t sound so bad.

[Noumenon]

Laphroaig.

[laplata]

I knew a man that drank that Scotch. As I remember he paid about $95.00 per bottle but that was about 20 years ago.

[Dr. Sivana]

And this is how it all began . . .

[Professional Engineer]

So they ended up witn Romulan Ale instead.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I think the alternative is Everclear and Tang.

[Smokin' Joe]

"Comrade, that is good whiskey, but it is part of an experiment!"

"Da! Now what do we fill the bottle back up with?"

[Travis T. OJustice]

Sounds like fraternity stupidity (fun).

[enraged]

Yes. Yes it does.

[Tijeras_Slim]

We had a koolaid and grain party the week after Jonestown. Got in trouble for that.

[Travis T. OJustice]

That’s bad, in an awesome way.

Colleges are always dicks about stifling such great creativity. We just hid our stuff in the squad bay, hoped the first or cheif never found it, because they’d drink it all on us. They ddn’t ever want to report anything, they’d get crap too.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d guess these barrels were not production size and were also hermetically sealed. That’s different from the earthly process where alcohol may escape the barrels by evaporation.