SNOLAB, Canada's deep underground research lab located in Sudbury, Ont., is celebrating its 10th anniversary in a big way – with a special edition local beer.
In honour of its decade milestone, SNOLAB has teamed up with local brewery 46 North to create 'Cosmic Rays Lager' for charity. A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to the Northern Cancer Foundation.
A research team from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) helped create the new beer. The brew's name comes from one of the sources of radiation that researchers are looking into, cosmic radiation.
"One of the things that we are looking at is the effects of cosmic radiation. So, by going down to SNOLAB, we can essentially remove all cosmic radiation," Chris Thome, a SNOLAB researcher and an assistant professor at NOSM, told CTV News.
"But we’re also looking at the effects of cosmic radiation in other projects that we are doing with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency looking at the effects of deep-space radiation."
The strain of yeast used in Cosmic Rays Lager was cultured two kilometres underground for a week and then brought back to be brewed at 46 North on Kelly Lake Road.
Graham Orser, the brewery's owner, said he’s happy with the way it all turned out.
"This beer was designed to be enjoyed by everybody. So, it’s a very clean, crisp and dry lager. It’s very low in alcohol and bitterness. It really turned out delicious. There’s a nice fruitiness behind the beer that we got from the hops. It’s a very unique flavour for a lager," Orser said.
Samantha Kuula, SNOLAB's chief business officer, said they picked the Northern Cancer Foundation to be the beneficiary of the initiative because "it works really well with what the REPAIR project is doing."
"It’s cancer research and we know that cancer touches so many people in northern Ontario," she said.
"Our project is investigating the biological effects of natural background radiation, including cosmic rays, and one of the model systems that we are using in our experiments is yeast. As cancer researchers, we are also thrilled that a portion of proceeds will go to support a great local charity," Thome said.
Cosmic Rays Lager was released last week and is already 60 per cent sold.
