As they say in Ancient Rome: Per Cervisiam Ad Astra! For those of us not familiar with Latin - beer is going to the stars.
The headline ‘billionaire going into space’ probably doesn’t shock you anymore, but ‘billionaire going into space with 70lbs of hops to later auction off to a brewery for charity’ might. Actually, that probably doesn’t shock you either. Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire, is commanding a three day Space X flight on which he will take 70 pounds of hops with him to turn into ‘space beer’. He is currently on the lookout for a partner brewery to create the space beer with him, tweeting:
“Help spread news! @inspiration4x will be flying up to 70lbs of hops to orbit in a month. We are going to auction hops to a brewery w/ all funds to @StJude. Who wouldn’t order a [beer] brewed w/ space hops? If interested..inquire on http://inspiration4.com (Ty Dan McDonough for idea)”
The Inspiration4 mission, the first space crew made up entirely of civilians, is not just a casual trip into space - it’s a 200 million dollar fundraising mission for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital, based in Tennessee, provides extensive medical services to children with some of the most severe illnesses. Whilst the hospital costs $2.8million a day to run, the services are provided at no cost to the recipients - a shockingly rare occurrence in the United States.
The money raised from auctioning the hops will also go to St Jude’s, and judging by how much other space alcohols have been valued, that will hopefully equate to some seriously big bucks! A bottle of Pétrus 2000, made from merlot grapes in the Bordeaux region and aged for 14 months in space, has been given an estimated sale price of $1,000,000 by auction house Christie’s.
It doesn’t look as if any brewery has taken a sniff of Isaacman’s astronaut hops just yet, but the good cause and extraordinary circumstances make it look as if he still has a good chance of finding a partner. We can’t wait to see what comes of both this historical space mission and this historical beer!
Are you a beer lover? If so, check out these Marvellously Modern Beers or if it is something more wacky you are looking for then how about Goose Poop Beer?!