Ninkasi Announces Ninkasi Space Program To Send Yeast Into Space

“NSP is a very serendipitous project,” explains Nikos Ridge, CEO and co-founder of Ninkasi. “I don’t think you could have planned a more perfect pairing of beer and space geekery.”

Introduced through a mutual friend, Ridge met with Bruce Lee, of CSXT, at an amateur rocket launch competition in 2013 where the idea first came about.

“As a result of meeting Nikos, CSXT is pleased to include Ninkasi as a team member for the launch,” says Bruce Lee, principle and range safety officer for CSXT. “Launching brewer’s yeast into space will be an interesting experiment – something we’ve never done before.”

With almost a year of planning, NSP will finally get off the ground this month. Ninkasi’s lab technician, Dana Garves, and RapidMade, a Portland, Ore. company specializing in 3D printing, worked hand-in-hand to design and create a payload container built specifically to safely carry the 16 yeast strains into space and back to Earth for brewing—the first to do so.

“I couldn’t contain my excitement when I first heard of NSP,” says Garves. “We spent hours researching, developing and testing what we think will ensure that the yeast travels safely and returns to us healthy enough to brew with.”

After the launch, CSXT will retrieve the payload and immediately hand off the yeast samples to Garves who will analyze the yeast on-site with a microscope used in conjunction with her smartphone.

“Since we’ll be off-the-grid for the launch, I had to figure out a way to examine the samples remotely,” explains Garves. On-site, Garves will be testing for the viability of the yeast, analyzing the number of dead and live yeast cells.

If successful, the NSP team will return to the brewery with healthy yeast, ready to make its way into a very special beer for craft beer and space aficionados alike.

“Obviously, the fact that we’ve never launched yeast into space presents many challenges in itself even with months of planning,” says Ridge. “While we have confidence in our partners and the process, this is uncharted territory on several fronts and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds on launch day.”

Ninkasi has released a microsite to help followers keep up-to-date with all NSP happenings including the July launch. To learn more, visit: http://nsp.ninkasibrewing.com.

Yeast is the ingredient most vulnerable to the harsh realities of space brewing. That’s our guess, anyway. A sterile environment with a controlled temperature is necessary, otherwise yeast can become contaminated or die. Our lab tech, and Ninkasi Space Program’s resident scientist, Dana, prepared yeast for a journey into space last month. Take a look at the process.

1. While preparing yeast slants for our on-site library, Dana prepares the YPD media for space as well. YPD media is a combination of yeast extract, peptone, and dextrose. Gelatine will aid in solidifying the media.

2. During media sterilization, the striped tape indicates sterile media once it turns to blue and brown stripes. The color and clarity have also markedly changed.

3. As the media is now sterile, the rest of the process takes place under a chemical hood. The blue-capped test tubes will be traveling to space. Next to them is the media, transfer pipets, caps and plugs for the earth library, and sterile alcohol.

4. Once all the tubes are filled with 8mL of YPD media, they rest at a slant and are given time to solidify (remember the gelatin from step 1?).

5. Sterilized loops are used to steal a sample of yeast from a previously made library slant, then spread onto the new slants in a zigzag pattern known as “streaking.”

6. After allowing the yeast to grow at about room temperature on these slants, the tubes are filled completely with mineral oil and sealed airtight. Plastic test tubes are used because the chances of expanding air breaking the glass in space are too great.

7. Final Product: You can see the Yeast Streaks – the little white squigglies. Those squigglies will soon be in space.
.