MICROBREW-1
Jaguar Space
ISS microgravity fermentation study investigating how top-fermenting yeast behaves during the brewing process in weightlessness.
Technical specifications
- Mission
- NASA Crew-11 / ISS Expedition 73
- Launch date
- 31 July 2025
- Return vehicle
- NASA Crew-10
- Research organism
- Top-fermenting yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
- Growth medium
- Brewing wort
- Environment
- Microgravity (ISS)
- Key measurement
- Carbon substrate utilization efficiency vs. Earth controls
- Principal investigator
- Dr. Luis Zea (Jaguar Space / University of Colorado Boulder)
- Research partner
- Starbase Brewing Company
About
MICROBREW-1 is a spaceflight experiment designed by Jaguar Space LLC in partnership with Starbase Brewing Company to investigate the effect of microgravity on yeast-driven fermentation — specifically how the absence of gravity-driven sedimentation and buoyancy alters the efficiency of top-fermenting yeast during the brewing process.
On Earth, top-fermenting yeast moves vertically through the growth medium (wort) due to gravity and buoyancy. In microgravity, this directional motion is eliminated, fundamentally altering the fermentation dynamics. MICROBREW-1 tests the hypothesis that the lack of sedimentation in microgravity reduces carbon substrate utilization efficiency, producing measurable changes in fermentation yield, yeast cellular structure, and byproduct composition.
Results from this investigation inform the design of biomanufacturing hardware for long-duration space missions and advance terrestrial understanding of fermentation biochemistry under extreme conditions. The experiment launched to the ISS aboard NASA’s Crew-11 mission on July 31, 2025, was assigned to Expedition 73, and returned to Earth aboard NASA’s Crew-10.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.