Sam Adams Launches Into Orbit With ‘Space Craft’ Beer

There’s a lot going into orbit lately. Space craft with multiple billionaires, Captain Kirk, and million dollar bottles of wine have all taken a spin around the Earth. But what does this mean for you, a beer drinker? Until today, not much. That’s changing because Samuel Adams is making a beer brewed with hops that’ve been to space. It’s a gimmick, sure, but it’s a gimmick that got our attention. Who doesn’t want to drink space beer?

Last month, Inspiration4 was the first all-civilian spaceflight mission. Aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, four people spent three days orbiting Earth. Along for the ride with the crew—a billionaire, a community college professor, a physician’s assistant, and a data engineer—were 66 pounds of Mosaic and Citra hops.

Brewing space beer

Back on Earth, Samuel Adams took those hops and brewed a special-release West Coast-style IPA with a firm bitterness and notes of grapefruit, guava, and passionfruit. You can also expect piney, resiny hop aromas. For the name, the brewing company turned to social media. After receiving more than 5,000 entries, Samuel Adams and Inspiration4 crew picked, quite appropriately, Space Craft.

Space Craft will be available starting November 16 at Sam Adams Boston Brewery and taprooms and givethembeer.com. The release was timed to coincide with the Leonid meteor showers. So, if you’re out in the middle of the night, staring at the skies, you now have the perfect beer to drink. The cost of a Space Craft is $22.33, a tribute to Inspiration4’s 2-day, 23-hour, and 3-minute mission. You can pre-order this beer starting today.

In addition to inaugurating a new era of civilian space flight, the Inspiration4 mission is also raising awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Samuel Adams donated $100,000 towards Inspiration4’s fundraising goal of $200 million for pediatric-cancer research. Thanks to donations that include $125 million from Inspiration4 mission commander (and billionaire) Jared Isaacman and $50 million from SpaceX’s Elon Musk, the mission has already raised more than $239 million. If you’d like to help St. Jude’s, you can donate here. It’s the least you can do for the people who gave us space beer.

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