Over the years I have been lucky to make friends who have started amazing companies that are excited about space. Bringing them along on our Mission Possible journey makes the adventure that much more exciting! For one of them, space is all new and their enthusiasm makes us smile as big as the moon!
Catching up for those who may be wondering what we are talking about…
Check out the first 4 blogs about Higher Orbits as part of the Mission Possible Mission with The Exploration Company
blog 1 - https://higherorbits.org/a-new-cosmic-collaboration-with-the-exploration-company/
blog 2 – https://higherorbits.org/whats-onboard-mission-possible-from-higher-orbits-students-supporters/
While living in Houston, I visited my first brewery way back in 2000, this brewery was a fledgling brewery at the time but has grown in galactically great ways! Yes, of course this brewery is none other than Saint Arnold Brewing Company!
Over the years I became friends with the founder of Saint Arnold Brewing Company and many of the out of this world awesome folks who work there. Some friends and I also rode the MS150 as a member of their team for several years. (Their jerseys are the best! They are labels from some of their beers and each year we had a new one!)
I was always a big fan of their beer and especially their people. They are kind and supportive of their community and committed to their craft. They’ve even created space themed beers so naturally I HAD to ask them to join us on this mission and I was thrilled they said yes.
Brock Wagner, Founder of Saint Arnold, shares, “Having both some of my earliest memories being watching Apollo missions on television and our brewery being located in Houston, I have been captivated by space travel my entire life. The prospect of brewing a beer with yeast that has traveled through space is a unique opportunity we feel fortunate to have been offered.
While brewing is half art, it is also half science. Our brewing team is made up of many members with science and engineering college degrees. STEM/STEAM studies open up almost limitless career opportunities. There is not a better way to develop a young mind than through these studies.”
Houston, we have some yeast on board Mission Possible that will head back to Saint Arnold for cosmically cool brew of a special beer! Can’t wait to check it out!
NEXT UP – WE HEAD TO WINE COUNTRY IN CALIFORNIA!
Many moons ago on one of the first Girls Trips to Wine Country that I organized I was introduced to a boutique winery with out of this world creations - Thumbprint Cellars! Created from passion by an individual who loved art and wine, every bottle has a thumbprint on it which is of the winemaker and each different wine has a different color print. Such a great concept and truly some exceptional wine. I joined their club and over the years I have told everyone I know to check them out and whenever friends are in town visiting me, we almost always open up a bottle of Thumbprint Wine to share and catch up.
While I didn’t know the owners at all, I was hopeful that when I reached out to offer this opportunity that they would at least hear me out. I called Taylor, one of the family co-owners who is also in charge of the wine club, and I was over the moon when she was excited about this idea. She discussed it with the other owners, all family, and everyone was onboard to be part of this mission. YAY!
It just so happened to work out that a group of us made our Girls Trip to Sonoma last fall and a lot of us are in the space industry so everyone was elated to get to visit Thumbprint Cellars in their Healdsburg Tasting Room. (FYI, that tasting room is now closed as they’ve moved to expand their abilities to share their amazing wines with more people.)
I picked up their yeast in person and got to share their exceptional creations with my friends! We had a blast hanging out with the team there and I am so excited to have them as part of this Mission Possible journey with us!
Scott Lindstrom-Dake, Founder & Winemaker for Thumbprint Cellars shares, “Thumbprint Cellars is honored to be a part of Higher Orbits mission, proving our dedication to providing opportunities for youth education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM).
STEAM education provides an approach for students to develop many key skills including creativity, problem solving and critical thinking abilities. Thumbprint Cellars is proud to support the diversity of a well-rounded education to promote learning for all students of today’s challenges.”
Cheers to perhaps a sparkly blue thumbprint on the bottles of wine that are created with the yeast that is being flown on this mission specially for Thumbprint Cellars!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST – A SPACE CONNECTION CHANGES CAREERS BUT KEEPS THINGS SPACEY WITH US ….
Our final partner on this astronomical adventure, is someone who we came to know during his tenure at Space Tango (our amazing partners who make it possible to launch student experiments to the International Space Station who has shifted gears in his career and is now the COO of Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. – Mr. Jeffrey Markowitz
Jeff did a space inspired event at their Distillery that was a huge hit and Higher Orbits was a benefactor of this for which we are galactically grateful! I knew Jeff and Whiskey Thief would embrace the space idea of being part of the Mission Possible flight and indeed indeed they are excited and embracing this flight wholeheartedly! We will be flying some yeast specific to Whiskey Thief that they will then distill with upon return. In November when I was giving a talk in Louisville I had the opportunity to visit their new location there and I literally squealed with delight when I saw they even have space artwork on their wall!
“Uncut and unfiltered whiskey that started in outer space. How cool is that? Whiskey Thief, whose distillery is on a 127-acre farm in Frankfort, KY, is always on the cutting-edge of distilling, which makes this partnership with Higher Orbits such a fit. It will be incredible to watch our distilling team create history with an out-of-this-world spirit using a yeast strain that will launch to the International Space Station on-board the SpaceX Transporter-14 Flight,” shared Jeffrey Markowitz. “There is a lot of Science, Technology, Engineering & Math involved in making whiskey. STEM focused education and thinking is critical to the evolution of the spirits industry.”
All of these creations from our cosmic collaborators will have a portion of all sales donated to support Space Inspired STEM with Higher Orbits. We promise to let you know when things become available but have patience, it will take some time. And… good things come to those who wait!
Check out more about these cosmic conviviality collaborators in the About Section Below…
This rounds out our partners on the Mission Possible flight. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Well, more blogs at least! I look forward to sharing more with you about our journey with The Exploration Company, including our delivery of the payload, in the next blogs… so stay tuned!
About Saint Arnold Brewery
Saint Arnold Brewing Company, located in Houston, is Texas’ Oldest Craft Brewery. Our goal is to brew world class beers and deliver them to our customers as fresh as possible making them the best beers in Texas and Louisiana. Our customers are beer lovers – people that appreciate great, full-flavored beers.
Our small crew does everything at the brewery: brew the beer, filter the beer, keg the beer, bottle the beer, sell the beer and drink the beer. For us, this is a passion, not a job. We believe that this comes through in the beers we make. Our beers have soul.
About Thumbprint Cellars
Scott Lindstrom-Dake, winemaker and founder of thumbprint cellars decided to start making wine after studying abroad in 1995. This first ‘home-brew’ was mostly consumed and eventually shared with friends - Scott was given a gold ink pen and advised to sign some bottles to give as gifts. Instead of an elegant signature however, the gold ink blobbed out of the pen onto a bottle. To avoid a messy countertop, Scott quickly mopped up the dripping gold ink with his thumb. Next, he inadvertently stuck his thumb laden with gold ink on one of the other bottles leaving a perfect gold thumbprint. A few more bottles were mopped and marked and soon they were all adorned with one of Scott’s gold thumbprints.
Grapes for thumbprint cellars first commercial production were crushed in 2000. Scott has crafted hundreds of award-winning wines since, leaving his thumbprint on each bottle as his mark of excellence.
About Whiskey Thief Distilling Co.
Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. is the first Kentucky distillery to offer every visitor a unique, straight-from-the-barrel Bourbon tasting and thieving experience, uncut and unfiltered. Distilling for over a decade on their 127-acre working farm in Franklin County, Kentucky.
Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. celebrates single-barrel bourbons and whiskeys distilled from grain grown on-site. Guests at the farm and the new tasting room in Louisville are invited to fill their own bottle of Kentucky Bourbon and rye whiskey straight from the barrel, at barrel strength.
