By TAKURO YAMANO/ Staff Writer
December 13, 2024 at 16:44 JST
The ultimate goal of Asahi Shuzo Co. is to build a sake brewery on the moon. (Provided by the company)
IWAKUNI, Yamaguchi Prefecture—Sake brewery Asahi Shuzo Co. has announced out-of-this-world plans to brew rice wine on the International Space Station next year.
However, space is not the final frontier for this company. This project marks the first step toward its ultimate goal of establishing a brewery on the moon as part of future lunar colonization.
To bring this vision closer to reality, Asahi Shuzo will be launching rice, koji mold and yeast, to the ISS in late 2025.
The Iwakuni-based company, known for its popular “Dassai” brand, announced the plans on Dec. 11.
“Our ultimate goal is to brew Dassai on the moon using water found there,” said a company spokesperson.
The initiative is a collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and the Aichi Center for Industry and Science Technology.
The sake company will pay the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to use the Japanese experiment module Kibo on the ISS for the project.
In the Kibo, astronauts will mix the materials with water to initiate the fermentation process.
The mixture will then undergo automated stirring and alcohol level monitoring as it turns into “moromi,” unrefined sake. It will then be frozen and returned to Earth.
Asahi Shuzo plans to use that moromi to produce a single 100-milliliter bottle of “Dassai MOON–Space Brew.”
This special bottle will be sold for a suggested retail price of 100 million yen ($653,000), with all proceeds going to domestic space development projects.
The company believes that sake brewing is more suitable for space experiments than winemaking, since rice is lighter and contains less water than grapes.
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