{"id":2020,"date":"2015-04-11T12:32:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T18:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2015-04-11T12:37:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-11T18:37:24","slug":"they-blinded-me-with-science-booze-now-aged-in-days-not-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/they-blinded-me-with-science-booze-now-aged-in-days-not-years\/","title":{"rendered":"They Blinded Me with Science: Booze Now Aged in Days Not Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mad genius Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery<\/a> claims to have invented a chemical reactor that ages\u00a0spirits to the chemical signature of 20-year-old booze — in just six days.\u00a0\u00a0Copies of the reactor will be deployed to five distilleries for beta-testing this summer.\u00a0 Patents are pending.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested, Aliza Kellerman of VinePair thoroughly explains<\/a> the science behind this\u00a0apparent masterstroke:<\/p>\n

Unaged spirits have short-chain molecules called carboxylic esters and short-chain fatty acids. When these chemicals interact with oak, extraction and esterification occur. Extraction strains new chemicals \u2013 aldehydes and phenols \u2013 from the barrels. One of these chemicals includes vanillin, which gives whiskey its (you guessed it) characteristic vanilla flavor. However, extraction also gives way to aromas that aren\u2019t entirely pleasant, like lumberyard. Extraction is less difficult than the next process aged spirits deal with, esterification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But of course.<\/p>\n

His Model 1 reactor goes through three steps in order to boost esterification. Raw spirit and oak chunks are put into the reactor. The reactor first forces esterification of short-chained fatty acids in the raw spirit, turning these acids into short-chained esters. Next, polymer molecules in the oak are split, yielding the compounds needed to finish the esterification. What are these compounds? Aldehydes needed to complete the process, but also undesirable medium-chained acids. However, the reactor\u2019s final step forces those medium-chained acids, along with phenolic compounds, to esterify. The simple esters are turned into long-chained esters normally found in an aged spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, it’s so obvious when you think about it.<\/p>\n

Whatever this geekery may\u00a0mean in practice, it has major implications for the booze industry.\u00a0 For one, Davis hopes his\u00a0invention will help resurrect “lost spirits<\/a>,” defunct brands that would otherwise require years of expensive maturation to reproduce.<\/p>\n

More importantly, it raises the bar for bottom-shelf booze.\u00a0 Could\u00a0vile\u00a0hooch like Ten High be made\u00a0to taste like it’s been barrel-aged for 20 years?\u00a0 If Davis’ process is legit, I don’t see why not.\u00a0\u00a0It would also be a boon to small, up-and-coming distillers\u00a0who can’t afford to let their products mature as long as they might wish.\u00a0 Finally, it would encourage experimentation and creativity.\u00a0\u00a0 A master distiller\u00a0musing over\u00a0a new expression would only have to wait a week to learn if the idea’s worth pursuing.<\/p>\n

Lost Spirits Distillery has already come up with one\u00a0product on its own, released last December:\u00a0 Lost Spirits Colonial American Inspired Rum,\u00a0a 124-proof rum designed to mimic what\u00a0pre-Revolutionary Americans\u00a0would have made.\u00a0 Despite the ponderous title, by all accounts the rum was a hit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Davis’\u00a0invention is all that he says it is, the\u00a0booze\u00a0world may be on the verge of its own revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mad genius Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery claims to have invented a chemical reactor that ages\u00a0spirits to the chemical signature of 20-year-old booze — in just six days.\u00a0\u00a0Copies of the reactor will be deployed to five distilleries for beta-testing this summer.\u00a0 Patents are pending. If you’re interested, Aliza Kellerman of VinePair thoroughly explains the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":2021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[146,644,65,645,193,67,79],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}