Suntory will send some of its alcoholic drinks to space this month as part of an experiment in what makes alcohol mellow.
It will analyse whether a microgravity environment impacts the “development of mellowness in alcoholic beverages”.
The research will be conducted in the International Space Station’s Japanese Experiment Module (nicknamed Kibo), with the cooperation of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
H-II Transfer Vehicle No 5, commonly known as Kounotori5, or HTV5, will launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Centre on 16 August, carrying alcohol beverages produced by Suntory, where experiments on the “development of mellowness” will be conducted for a period of about one year in Group 1, and for two or more years in Group 2.
Apart from beer, alcoholic beverages are known to develop a mellow flavour when aged for a long time. Although researchers have taken a variety of scientific approaches to elucidating the underlying mechanism, how it happens is still unclear.
Suntory's research team has hypothesized that the formation of a high-dimensional molecular structure consisting of water, ethanol, and other ingredients in alcoholic beverages contributes to the development of mellowness, and has been conducting collaborative research on the topic.
The team believes mellowness probably develops by “promoted formation of the high-dimensional molecular structure in alcoholic beverages, in environments where liquid convection is suppressed”.
On the basis of these results, the space experiments will be conducted to verify the effect of the convection-free state created by a microgravity environment to the mellowing of alcoholic beverages.
The Suntory Group aims to use these experiments to help find a scientific explanation for the mechanism that makes alcohol mellow.
