When you've paid $200,000 for a seat on a galactic flight, the last thing you want is to be served a dud beer.
But space tourists of the future fear not: Queensland researchers are on the job to make sure your coldie tastes as good in space as is does on earth.
Queensland University of Technology researchers have teamed up with Sydney's 4-Pines brewery to develop a beer suitable for consumption in space.
They're using QUT's microgravity "drop tower" to test the effects of zero gravity on Australia's national drink.
The tests involve putting beer samples inside a 400kg metal capsule that is then winched 27m to the top of the tower and dropped.
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During the freefall, the beer experiences about two seconds of weightlessness.
The tower's technical director Martin Castillo says zero gravity affects the taste of the beer and the bubbles, and the tests are about looking for the right carbonation levels, among other things.
"We look at the properties and carbonation ... and we feed that back to the boys in Sydney who are developing the drinkability of the beer," Dr Castillo says.
In February, the space beer was taste-tested for the first time aboard a parabolic trajectory microgravity flight in Florida.
An astronaut who sampled it gave it the thumbs up but more tests are being done to make sure the drinking experience is just right.
Dr Castillo says the beer is definitely for space tourists, and not the flight crew.
"People who will pay their way into space will be able to enjoy a beer. As far as flight crews and safety personnel, I highly doubt they'll be drinking the beer," he says.
