Brewing beer on the Moon would have an Indian connection

All countries are keen to get a pie of the Moon and while NASA wanting to colonize the moon by 2022 for a total cost of just $10 billion, Russia planning to land its first cosmonauts on the moon in 2031. However, one important question that is looking for an answer is whether or not beer can be brewed in space.
For that, a group of students have drawn up plans for brewing a batch of beer on the moon - and it has an Indian connection! A team of University of California, San Diego students are competing to send an experiment to the moon - it will go aboard a spacecraft built by Indian startup TeamIndus. The spacecraft has been funded under Google's Lunar XPRIZE competition.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 23 January 2017.

The students are one of just 25 teams that has been selected from a pool of 3,000 to compete for a spot aboard TeamIndus spacecraft - it is expected to launch on 28 December this year. The experiment that would go up on India's moonlander would be a combination of hobby coupled with the viability of yeast in outer space.
Trying to know how yeast behaves on the Moon is important for development of pharmaceuticals and yeast-containing foods, like bread. In this case, the unfermented beer, or wort, will be prepared on Earth and then sent into space.
Incidentally, proposed experiments for the Lab2Moon competition have come from all over the world and range from photosynthesis to electricity. These will be evaluated by an international jury in March when teams fly to Bangalore, India, to showcase their final prototype.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Total prohibition in Bihar forces liquor giants to rethink their business strategies

Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, has announced total prohibition in his state - but, there is no ban on manufacturing of the products. The manufacturers can arrange to sell them outside the state. The implementation of total prohibition has compelled a number of liquor giants, who had set up breweries in the state, to rethink their business strategies which could end in wrapping up their business in the state.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 10 April 2016.

Understandably, some have openly expressed their disappointment on the method of implementation of prohibition and, others, while accepting it, have had to cut down on manufacturing and have begun to explore markets outside Bihar because, as per the new liquor policy, there are no restrictions in the manufacture of liquor in the state.
In the opinion of Danish beer giant Carlsberg, which has an operational brewery in Bihar since 2013, since it has made substantial in the state, such a decision would have an impact on the business. A systematic approach with focus on educating the consumers would have been a better option. The decision of the Bihar government has come as a disappointment especially for industries that are trying to set up their businesses here.
Carlsberg brewery had been set up at an initial investment of Rs 140 crore.
Similarly, the brewery of the UB Group, which started at Naubatpur (30-Km south of Patna) since May last year were apprehensive. The decision of total prohibition would translate into extra effort and more cost for a brewery to search for markets outside the state which will entail extra cost for the company in terms of transportation and permits. And - the prohibition could lead to unemployment and layoffs.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Contaminated Pombe beer kills 69 in Mozambique funeral

#Mozambique #crocodilebile #beer #Pombe It is a known fact that crocodiles can be dangerous when alive but, it can be equally dangerous when dead. Reports indicate that beer contaminated with crocodile bile resulted in dearth of 69 persons in Mozambique and another 196 people have been admitted to a hospital in the Chitima district.
The victims of the suspected poisoning had gone to attend the funeral of a newborn baby in the Chitima district near the Cahora Bassa Lake.
It seems African traditions demand that when a crocodile is killed, its bile must be immediately removed and buried in front of witnesses to prove that it has not fallen into the wrong hands, to be used as poison.
Bile is a deadly greenish-brown liquid that is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder and it is suspected that it was put into traditional beer that killed the people who drank it at a funeral on in Mozambique's northeast Tete province. Such deaths of poisoning by crocodile bile was not new in the area.
The traditional Mozambican beer is called Pombe and it is made from millet or corn flour and brewed for about two days. It is a popular drink and enjoyed during ceremonies, and is often sold in rural areas of the southern African country.