Craft brews hop to join ale-high club
As Garage Project co-founder Jos Ruffell says, it’s all about the science.
And he was prepared to aim high as host of what is believed to be the most comprehensive beer tasting experiment at close to 12km above the Earth’s surface to see how his brew travels at altitude.
The Wellington brewery has supplied a craft brew to Singapore Airlines for nearly a year. It wants to build on the partnership by testing a range of other brews to find a new beer for the air.
So where else but at 37,000ft in a
luxury double First Class suite aboard an A380 superjumbo from Auckland to Singapore on a Friday afternoon.
“We’ll be ticking through 30 plus beers — you do need to swallow for the receptors at the back of your throat, unlike wine tasting,” Ruffell explains as he and Laura Bell, a craft brew colleague from Kalamazoo, Michigan prepare for the serious business of tasting them all.
“We’re more than willing to put our bodies on the line in the interests of science,” he said.
Cabin pressure, reduced oxygen and low humidity can dramatically reduce ability to taste and smell by between 15 and 30 per cent, one study found. While some new aircraft can create less arid cabin environments, most are drier than deserts.
The constant noise of a plane can also arouse a physiological response that suppresses the ability to taste.
“There are certain flavours that are dampened and certain flavours that are heightened — we’ve got a range of beers that cover that and hopefully from that we’ll find an interesting combination and go away and brew a special kind of beer . . . designed to be drunk at altitude,” Ruffell says.
What was the verdict?
The pair found that the rustic styles and big hoppy IPAs worked best at high altitude in the airliner.
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