Budweiser Advances Pursuit to Be the First Beer on Mars

ST. LOUIS — Budweiser is upholding its commitment to being the first beer on Mars.

The brewer has confirmed its upcoming experiments on the International Space Station with plans to send and study barley — one of its key ingredients — into space in early December.

Budweiser announced its goal to be the first beer on Mars earlier this year at the South by Southwest conference. With socializing on Mars in the near-distant future, the brewer is taking steps now to better understand how its ingredients react in microgravity environments so that when humans get to Mars, Budweiser will be there, the company stated.

To kick-start its research on microgravity beer, Budweiser is partnering with experts in the field, including the Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, and Space Tango, a payload development company that operates two commercial research facilities within the National Lab.

Collectively with Budweiser’s innovation team, the group will initiate two barley experiments via SpaceX’s upcoming cargo supply mission, scheduled to launch on Dec. 4 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once on the International Space Station, Budweiser’s barley will stay in orbit for approximately one month before coming down to be analyzed.

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

The innovation team at Budweiser selected one of its core ingredients, barley, to be the focus of the first two experiments in space. Malting barley is a process that results in the high-quality malt used in Budweiser. The research on the International Space Station is intended to unveil how barley seeds react in a unique microgravity environment.

One of the experiments will focus on barley seed exposure with the second testing 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, according to Budweiser.

Scheduled to launch on Monday, Dec. 4, 20 Budweiser barley seeds will be sent to the International Space Station, packaged in two Space Tango CubeLabs on SpaceX’s CRS-13 mission. The seedlings will be in orbit for approximately 30 days, before being brought back down to earth for Budweiser’s innovation team to analyze — setting the foundation and blueprint for Budweiser’s next move in brewing the beer of the future, the company stated.

Budweiser is a flagship brand of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch.