Story highlights Japanese liquor company sends 5 spirits to the International Space Station for yearlong experiment

Researchers want to see if microgravity affects alcohol's aging process

(CNN) A Japanese liquor company is boldly going where no distiller has gone before: outer space.

A case of the hard stuff was part of Japan's 10,000 pound cargo shipment that arrived Monday to the International Space Station.

But it's not for any party.

Suntory, the Japanese spirits conglomerate that owns such familiar whiskey brands as Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, wants to find out if the aging process occurs faster in space.

"Alcoholic beverages are widely known to develop a mellow flavor when aged for a long time," the company said in a news release, "(Suntory's research) suggest(s) the probability that mellowness develops by promoted formation of the high-dimensional molecular structure in the alcoholic beverage in environments where liquid convection is suppressed."

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