Booze in Space: the orbital dram

Cynics are often asking what the point of space science is. Why go to the cost and trouble of lifting material and people into orbit? One experiment on the International Space Station might provide an interesting example of the potential of space: improving whisky.

When whisky is freshly distilled, it’s a clear, colourless liquid with a rather harsh taste. It only acquires its characteristic colour and much of its flavour by being left to sit for several years in barrels made from charred oak. These are never new, but have always been previously used to store or mature other alcoholic drinks, often sherry or American bourbon whiskey. The spirit extracts flavour and colour compounds from the barrels, some from the wood itself, some from the remnants of its previous contents that have soaked into the barrel staves. But this process is poorly understood and, like many things in the whisky industry, surrounded in superstition (the alcohol that evaporates during maturation is known as ‘the angel’s share’).