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Science is creeping into the production of distilled spirits to vastly shorten the aging time and to make new flavors. Shortening the aging time will reduce costs.
NY Times story here.
A starter spirit (alcohol) can be repeatedly heated and pressurized in a vessel containing small chunks of wood to force the alcohol in and out of the wood pores to imitate the natural aging process (much of which is thought to involve extracting molecules from the wood.
Methods of molecular analysis are also being used to identify and directly add particular molecules to the spirit.
I have a friend who, about ten years ago, was making whiskey in his home. He didn't have big barrows, but used small chunks of wood in much smaller vats to age it for several months (not years).
It did not taste bad to this non-expert of whiskeys.
NY Times story here.
A starter spirit (alcohol) can be repeatedly heated and pressurized in a vessel containing small chunks of wood to force the alcohol in and out of the wood pores to imitate the natural aging process (much of which is thought to involve extracting molecules from the wood.
Methods of molecular analysis are also being used to identify and directly add particular molecules to the spirit.
The process offers another advantage, beyond speed. While a barrel is usually made entirely of the same sort of wood, there are hundreds of types of microstaves, varying across tree species and treatments, which allow Bespoken to create a near-limitless array of styles and flavors: The company claims to have 17 billion possible combinations to work with.
“I liken a lot of the work we do to the digitization of music,” said Alec Lee, a co-founder of Endless West, echoing a sentiment common among these companies. “The digitization of music has largely expanded the availability of great art to people. We want to see a world where quality and availability are not in conflict.”
“From my analysis, while someone can create a good product, I don’t get the same kind of complexity as you get from, say, an old bourbon,” said Nancy Fraley, a veteran freelance blender who consults with dozens of spirits companies in the United States and Europe.
It may be that, like computer chess programs in the 1970s, the technology is both impressive and still in its infancy, and that it’s only a matter of time before we see a whiskey from Endless West beat out a bottle of the Macallan in a taste test, the same way the Deep Blue computer bested Garry Kasparov in chess in 1997.
I have a friend who, about ten years ago, was making whiskey in his home. He didn't have big barrows, but used small chunks of wood in much smaller vats to age it for several months (not years).
It did not taste bad to this non-expert of whiskeys.