Japanese Beer Made From Space Barley

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Japanese brewer Sapporo is launching the world’s first beer produced using malt made from 100% space barley.

The barley in question is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nija malting barley that was developed by the company and kept in space for five months during 2006 as part of collaborative research with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Okayama University.

Originally, the barley was kept in space aboard the Zvezda Service Module component of the International Space Station for the purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in food in the space environment and is part of Sapporo’s breeding and research into barley and hops.

Sapporo says it hosted a range of promotional events that capitalized on space barley since 2008 in an effort to foster children’s interest in space and science.

All proceeds from the sale of the space barley beer will be donated to Okayama University to further promote science education for children and the development of space science research in Japan and Russia.

Anyone wanting to get their hands on the space-age beer will need to apply through a dedicated page set up on the company’s Web site with 250 successful customers selected among the applicants by a lottery.

Winning applicants will be able to purchase one of 250 limited edition boxes containing six bottles at a price of 10,000 yen ($113). Applications are being accepted until January 7, 2010 and the beer will be delivered around January 28.