Beer in Space: UF Researchers Study Microgravity’s Effect on Fermentation

A recently published study by University of Florida researchers provides insight into how beer yeast might behave when fermented in outer space.

While the concept may initially sound trivial, it has far-reaching applications, according to the study, a collaboration between researchers from the UF/IFAS food science and human nutrition department and the horticultural sciences department.

Fermentation is an essential process in the creation of food products including bread, yogurt and kombucha. Biofuels and many pharmaceuticals are also generated through fermentation. But the researchers chose to analyze beer yeast fermentation because humans have brewed beer for thousands of years, and there is an established foundation of knowledge about it.

“We are absolutely going to be conducting fermentations under microgravity in the future, as we continue space exploration, and there are going to be outcomes that will be very difficult for us to predict,” said study author Andrew MacIntosh, a UF/IFAS associate professor of food science. “It’s essential that we look at what some of those outcomes may be, now, so we can decide which processes are going to be the first ones we perform under microgravity, how we adapt them and how we can take advantage of the changes we see.”

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