Photo: Budweiser

Will we be able to drink beer brewed in space before NASA actually gets astronauts on the Red Planet? If Budweiser has their way, we sure will.


After announcing plans to be the “first beer on Mars” at South by Southwest, the beverage behemoth says it’s sending Budweiser barley seeds to the International Space Station to figure out how beer ingredients “react in microgravity environments,” the company said in a statement.

The barley will be sent into space on December 4 as part of the next SpaceX cargo mission and will stay up there for a month before being returned to earth to be analyzed.


The super chill crew aboard the space station is already eating lettuce harvested in space, so maybe they’ll open a craft brewery up there like everyone else in the galaxy.

“Budweiser is always pushing the boundaries of innovation and we are inspired by the collective American Dream to get to Mars,” Ricardo Marques, vice president of Budweiser, said in a statement. “We are excited to begin our research to brew beer for the red planet.”

Aside from checking out how barley seeds react in space, there will also be tests on barley germination.

“Not only will the research offer insights on steps to creating beer on the Red Planet, but it could also provide valuable information on the production of barley and the larger agricultural community here on earth,” the company said.


No word on when the company will start brewing in space, but considering there will probably not be humans on Mars until the 2030s (or 2024 if Elon Musk has his way), we’re definitely on pace to have space beer before we have space colonies.