Beer and Space: The Coolest Projects in Craft Brewing Right Now
Right now, four astronauts are circling the Moon. NASA launched Artemis II on April 1st. As of today, the crew has completed a historic lunar flyby. They also broke the record for the farthest distance any human has traveled from Earth and are now heading home for splashdown on April 10th.
Back on Earth, the beer world has quietly built its own connection to space. Some of it is genuinely remarkable. With our Space Cadet Brewing tasting event this Friday from 2 to 4 PM, now feels like the right time to look at where beer and space actually intersect.
Space Cadet Brewing: A Philadelphia Brewery Built Around the Stars
Before going cosmic, start close to home. Space Cadet Brewing Company is a Philadelphia-area brewery founded by Richie Tevlin, a former head brewer at Victory Brewing Company. He built his experience over years of recipe development before launching his own project.
The concept began during a friend’s bachelor party. Tevlin sketched out a brewery built around the image of
a lone astronaut reaching toward the stars. Space Cadet operates as a single release by design. Tevlin aims to make each beer feel like its own event and the quality of his beers show that.
The result is a tight lineup of hoppy, low-ABV beers that consistently earn praise in the Philadelphia beer scene.
This Friday from 2 to 4 PM, we are hosting a tasting event featuring Clean Shot, their hazy IPA. Stop in, try it, and see what a single-batch brewery with serious credentials brings to the glass.
Starbase Brewing: The Brewery That Actually Went to Space
Starbase Brewing has a mission unlike anything else in the industry. They aim to become the first brewery on the Moon and Mars.
Engineers who love space and beer founded the company. It originally launched as Boca Chica Brewing, named after the South Texas beach that became home to SpaceX’s Starship facility. When that area became the city of Starbase, the brewery changed its name to match. They are not officially affiliated with SpaceX, but they are clearly fans.
Their beers use rocketry themes and help educate drinkers about space exploration. They currently distribute in Texas and near Cape Canaveral. Still, the beer is not even the most interesting part of what they do.
MicroBrew-1: The First Beer Ever Fermented in Space
In August 2025, Starbase Brewing launched the MicroBrew-1 experiment aboard NASA Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station. This marked the first time beer fermented in space.
The process was simple in concept. Starbase prepared eight containers with two chambers. One held wort, the sugary base of beer. The other held freeze-dried yeast. Astronauts kept them separate until activation.
Once aboard the ISS, astronaut Jonny Kim inserted a crank and mixed the contents. This triggered fermentation in zero gravity for the first time. After fermentation, the payload returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
As of early 2026, universities across three continents are analyzing the results.
CEO Nate Argroves explained the goal clearly: “We want to do more than make beer. We want to explore how to make interplanetary life possible.”
Fermentation goes far beyond brewing. It plays a role in food production, life support, biofuels, and waste management. Understanding it in microgravity has real implications for the future.
OASIS: Growing Crops in Martian Soil
Alongside MicroBrew-1, Starbase launched a second experiment called OASIS. The name stands for Optimizing Agriculture in Simulated Interplanetary Soils. In partnership with Texas A&M AgriLife, the team successfully grew barley aboard the ISS.
They used simulated Martian soil and added spent brewing grain as fertilizer. This marked the first time crops grew in soil in space rather than hydroponic or clay systems.
These experiments connect directly. Starbase wants to understand a full agricultural loop in space: grow grain, ferment it, and reuse the waste. Beer works as a model because it combines biology, chemistry, and agriculture in one system.
What Their Beer Is Actually Like
Starbase currently produces five beers available in Texas and Florida. They have also teased a sixth release planned for 2026.
Their Belgian Witbier, R.U.D. (Refreshing Unfiltered Decoction), references the SpaceX term “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.” The beer won a silver medal at a major competition. Their naming style consistently pulls from rocketry and launch culture.
They also donate one percent of profits to science education.
The brewery runs on solar power and recycles water throughout production. They are also developing CO2 capture from fermentation. Every decision comes back to one question: could this process work on Mars?
Other Space-Beer Moments Worth Knowing About
Starbase leads the space-beer conversation, but it is not alone.
In 2013, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery brewed Celest-jewel-ale. They used crushed lunar meteorites during fermentation. The beer was a one-time pub release and will not return due to limited material. It still stands as the first beer made with material from the Moon.
In 2021, Samuel Adams released Space Craft. The brewery used hops that traveled over 300 miles above Earth aboard the Inspiration4 mission. The beer came in a four-pack priced at $22.33, referencing the mission’s duration.
Space-themed hop names appear across the industry. Examples include Apollo, Comet, Orbit, Orion, and Polaris. In most cases, the connection is aesthetic. For Starbase, it is the entire point.
Why This All Matters This Week
Space is having a real moment. Artemis II is the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17. Four astronauts are circling the Moon and setting records that stood for decades.
At the same time, a Texas brewery is running fermentation experiments on the ISS. A Philadelphia brewer is releasing single-batch hazy IPAs inspired by astronaut imagery.
The thread connecting all of it — Artemis, Starbase, and Space Cadet — is the same one that drives craft beer: curiosity, craftsmanship, and innovation.
Stop in Friday from 2 to 4 PM and try Clean Shot from Space Cadet Brewing. It will be poured and ready.
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