Sapporo is selling 250 6-packs of their ultra limited edition Space Beer through a lottery system for 10,000 yen each – but only to people who live in Japan. The proceeds will go to Okayama University for science education. The malting barley used in this beer is of the Haruna Nijo variety, developed by Sapporo. This barley is the 4th generation produced from barley that spent 5 months aboard the International Space Station in the Zvezda Service Module. The hops from Furano, Hokkaido were also from seeds that spent time in space, although I wasn’t able to find out how long they spent up there. This all sounds pretty cool, a simple feel good pro-space research event.

Sure, it’s cool, and I wouldn’t mind having a taste, but my first thought after reading Barley + Space = Space Beer! on Wired was: were there any mutations in the barley or hops that were caused by the exposure to gamma rays, etc while in space? Should the lucky few who get to try it be worried about unintended changes in the barley and hops from gamma rays and other mutagens in space?

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