In Defence Of Artificial Aging Pt.3

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We've covered the various factors in aging spirits that affect the final taste of a product as it comes off cask. But know we know how the flavors in an aged spirit are made, can we manipulate these factors to speed up this process without losing the final quality of an aged product?

Before we get started I want to address the obvious taboo im sure that we are about to breach, the one that has been preached to us for many years, that age in spirits automatically equates to a superior product. 

If you look at the history of advertising for spirits,  the aged spirit as a luxury item has onoy really been advertised since the late 1960s. In fact the best source of advertising for spirits, to see the rise of aged spirits and vodka in popularity in the American market (at the time the biggest global spirits consumers), is the most popular mens magazine of the time- Playboy. If you can get your hands on a wealth of vintage magazines it is interesting to track the development of advertising over a generational timeline (honest honey, I omly read them for tbe vintage rum advertisements!).

Aging for extended periods of time was never a viable economic option for small producers, and it still isn't today - it takes an incredible amount of capital to be able to put a large amount of distilled spirit down for 18-odd years, especially when even in the hands of the best cellar masters and blenders there is no guarantee it will taste good.  

Sure, the ability of wood to strip out negative flavor compounds in a spirit was recognized, as it had been by winemakers for generations, but the marketing of age as defining a premium product is only a relatively new development, as we have come to realize that extended barrel interaction means more extraction of these tasty flavors consumers love so much.

A lot of purists will be quick to claim that messing with the aging process is verboten, lest we mess with the delicate craft of the cellar master. However large suppliers have already begun experimentation into how controlling and manipulating conditions can speed up the aging process.

At the end of the day the spirits business is a business at heart, and long aging times do not make for a happy accountant. Any method by which to increase aging without compromising quality can and will be explored.

One of the most traditional examples of manipulating the aging process is found in the Norwegian Aquavitt Linie. As the story goes, casks of the spirit were shipped to either Batavia (Indonesia today) or Australia from Norway in ex-sherry casks, with some merchant or another hoping to sell the spirit there. 

No-one seemed to care for the spirit though, so the casks were shipped back to Norway, where the proprietor found the spirit had taken on a sweet, woody character from the casks, and thus Linie was born. Today the spirit still crosses the equator twice, going into barrel at 60% abv in 500 litre ex-oloroso casks strapped to the deck of a container ship. 

The 19-week passage takes the aquavitt through fluctuating temperature, humidity and pressure zones, while the constant movement of the boat means the spirit is constantly washed against the oak of the barrels, increasing the percentage of spirit to wood surface area contact. This is a great example of manipulating variables to increase aging; 5 and a half months aging in Norway would not yield the results that the constant agitation and changing atmospheric conditions that Linie goes through on it's voyage.

Speaking of ships, Jefferson Bourbon recently released an extremely small batch (200 litres!) expression of Ocean-Aged Bourbon. Interested to see what effect the constant agitation, salt air and atmospheric pressure would have on barrel aging, he aged three 200-litre barrels on the deck of a...shark chasing research vessel?

Insert 'Jaws' reference here

So after four years of following sharks around the pacific, we can see the effect the agitation had on the spirit below - bear in mind the standard Jefferson's to the left and right of the bottle have been aged for eight years, not four.

Wow

So manipulating these factors can have an effect. But both of these methods still provide too many uncontrolled variables. How much agitation is applied? What if one batch goes through a particularly stormy month and the other suffers the doldrums of flat seas? What is the temperature fluctuation, the salt content of the air, how much do these change as the ship travels?

A better way to impart woody flavors to a spirit quickly and with much more control over variables would be to use gas pressure to force a 'flash' infusion. This requires an isi canister, or cream whipper, your white spirit, a gas canister, and wood chips. Wood chips have the added benefit of having a much higher surface area, so it is much easier to extract flavor from the wood. 

While I went into further detail regarding the exact mechanics of how this process works in an earlier post, the basic science is that when released into the chamber, the gas forces its way into whatever porous material it can find as pressure increases. As the pressure is released so is the gas, and flavor compounds are quickly forced out of the material and into the spirit, instantly giving a cold infusion of sorts. 

A plus side to this is you can infuse spirits with many types of wood that would otherwise be too porous for use for barrel aging. I've listed below a few different types of wood and their properties for aging. 


Acacia - Robinia Pseodoacacia

Hard wood, low pore count on the oak; would require extended aging to extract any flavors. High in aromatic aldehydes: Vanillin, syringaldehyde (spicy, smoky, hot and smoldering wood aromas), dihydroxybenzaldehyde (cork must, organic matter). 
No presence of eugenol (That spicy clove & menthol note)

Mulberry - Morus Alba 

Tender, elastic wood. Too soft to construct barrels from, low organic compounds, low eugenol content. High in fatty acids (creates unpleasant esters)

Chestnut - Castanea Sativa

Too porous for barrel aging, but excellent for flash infusing. Contains very similar volatile compounds to Quercus Robur, namely vanillin, syringaldehyde, eugenol, and alpha terpineol (floral, similar to lilac; present in Lapsang Souchong teas). Notably lacks any of the whiskey lactones (cis- or trans-).



Cherry - Prunus Avium

Again too porous for barrel aging, but excellent for flash infusing. Low aromatic compounds, low eugenol, low fatty acids. No real draw to this wood, except for something called trimethoxyphenyl, which I can only find described as 'bland'. 

One downside of flash infusing is that it does not have the effect as extended barrel-aging, that of the evaporation of either water or ethanol, the "angel's share" we discussed last time, does not occur when the effects of the wood are meted instantaneously. By equal parts, you also avoid the potential development of unpleasant esters and acetone odors that can be present in spirit aged for longer periods.

One Last Thing...

A few months ago the story of Miami Club Rum, a rum that aged it's rums by playing Cuban Salsa at the barrels during the aging process, made the rounds to differing reactions of bemusement and derisiveness. At first I gave little thought to this very unique method, as it sounds at best like a marketing gimmick, and at worst like the sort of psuedo-scientific claptrap that drives me to drink.

It wasn't until later (in the pub, of course) that I started to give the idea some more thought, specifically the science behind the idea. You see, sound travels in waves by creating pressure in the medium through which it travels, decreasing in pressure and intensity as it propagates.

However, when a sound wave intersects with another sound wave, there is no affect on the propagation of the wave, but if pressure is measured at the point of wave intersection, there is a change of pressure. If two low points in the wavelength intersect, they end up with a higher pressure reading, and if a high and low point collide they cancel each other out and no change in pressure is recorded.

The first time I came across this particular occurence was when I was introduced to something called "Tibetan Bowl Therapy", a particular theory wherein several copper bowls are placed on various parts of a patient and rung at certain tones to illicit a muscular response. 

I originally approached this method with a healthy dose of skepticism, partly because it was being administered to me by an old man in the attic of a church in eastern Switzerland who didn't seem even slightly Tibetan. It was a...strange time.

Anyway, it did do wonders for relieving muscle strain, and I later contemplated the science beyond the mysticism that these treatments are often presented with. By creating low-frequency vibrations in a circular arrangement, the bowls created an intersecting point of increased pressure within muscle tissue, effectively 'massaging' with sound.

Propagation of Sound Waves Intersecting on Barrel

As you can see in the diagram above, if you were to arrange speakers around a barrel as above and constantly play music at it, the sound waves would intersect at multiple points on and inside the barrel, creating pressure around the staves and inside the barrel content, agitating the liquid contents in a similar method as leaving it on a sea-bound boat, and forcing liquid into the wood faster than it would if left alone. 

Moreover, if you were to play music that had high shift between low-frequency high pressure notes and higher, less decibel heavy notes (like for example, Cuban Salsa music) the effect would be similar to the capillary effect in the wood caused by day-to-night atmosphere transitions experienced by traditionally aged barrels.



So is the method employed by the Miami Rum Company a legitimate attempt at artificial aging based on sound science, or just a marketing gimmick? Well, I'd tend toward the latter myself, but this is all conjecture.   

What we have now however, is the potential for two experiments to test the theories and science we have discussed in this series.

Experiment 1:
Does playing sound at barrel-aged spirits affect their maturation speed?

By setting up a control and a few test cases, we can see if there is any reality behind these claims, and more importantly, which type of music makes liquor mature faster and by extension taste better?

And the big one:


Experiment 2:
By manipulating atmospheric conditions, can we reduce the maturation time of a spirit?

We've talked a lot about the different atmospheric conditions that affect the aging of a spirit in wood. But by taking a barrel and filling it with new make spirit, can we recreate an equivalent quality of an aged spirit in a fraction of the time? 

So here is the challenge we set ourselves:

Can we mature and recreate the quality of a 3-year aged spirit in only one week?

We will keep the blog updated with progress on each of the experiments as they happen, but follow us on twitter @Zero_G_Drunk to keep up to date with this and our other news.

Thanks for reading this series as it's progressed, it's been fun. 

See you next time Space Cowboys.

BG

Can we make a beer in space? For that matter, can we drink a beer in space?

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Or, “you can’t play beer pong in zero-G”

So we’ve established getting alcohol into space can be a costly endeavor. Now we need to look at the difficulties of making our alcohol up there and being of an antipodean nature I thought we would begin, as you always should, with beer.

The first issue that sprang to mind was carbonation – the fizz that makes it all worth while. Unfortunately, in a zero gravity environment, carbon dioxide bubbles do not rise to the surface and burst as there is no surface; there is no up or down. They remain randomly distributed throughout a solution – even after swallowing. This can have adverse effects on you insides, the least of which is the dreaded ‘wet burp’, where you will be belching as much liquid as you will gas since there is no buoyancy to the gas and therefore no separation of gas and liquid.

On the more serious side of health concerns you have the buildup of gasses in your stomach and intestine that can’t escape. I once vaguely remember having to settle an argument in a bar over whether or not you should feed horses beer, as their digestive systems mean they can not burp to release the built up gas and this can rupture their stomach linings and cause serious injury. I can’t remember how this argument started, or why one aggrieved party so badly wanted to get a horse drunk, before you ask. A quick google search later revealed this to be true, however, so we can only assume such a similar buildup in the human body over a long drinking session could cause similar gastrointestinal distress if you were unable to expel excess carbon dioxide in the traditional fashion (the loud belch followed by a high-five).

The victor of this particular argument then asked me what the best cheese to use to hide a horse. The answer was ‘marscapone’

So perhaps no lagers or pilsners in space. Well what about low carbonation or hand-pulled beers, ales and stouts and porters? An Australian brewer and a private astronautics firm have joined forces to create a low-carbonation stout called Vostok Space Beer that they say is perfect for drinking in space. They have tested it by drinking it on a microgravity flight in the upper atmosphere – a high-atmosphere aircraft that flies in parabolic arcs to achieve short periods of weightlessness due to fluctuating g-forces (a style of flight affectionately named the ‘vomit-comet’ by astronautic enthusiasts), replicating a zero gravity environment. In the below video you can see the test in action:

 

There has also been a collaboration between the Russian academy of sciences, Okoyama University and Japanese brewing behemoth Sapporo, creating a beer brewed with barley grown on the International Space Station, imaginatively called ISS Space Barley Beer. Unfortunately they only made 100 liters of it, and limited it to a single tasting event for thirty lucky couples in Japan.

So they have been making beer for space, and beer with ingredients from space, but can you make beer in space? The first thing to note is that yeast is incredibly easy to cultivate; all it requires is some form of sugar or starch, natural or synthetic, plus a little heat, to create ethanol – the good stuff. Since it reproduces via anaerobic respiration, it doesn’t even need oxygen to create alcohol, so in theory you could even create alcohol in an absolute vacuum.

Indeed NASA has done research on the humble yeast bacteria Candida albicans, albeit not for the purpose of beer. The yeast spores were included on a recent space flight in special incubators, in order to measure how spaceflight affects potentially infectious organisms. The results were somewhat surprising though – yeast appears to ferment more efficiently in a zero gravity environment then on earth – there was a lower live cell count in the samples that had been through the zero gravity spaceflight than those that had been brewed on earth as control samples.

While there has been given no official explanation for this, one theory is that in an environment without gravity, much in the same way that carbon dioxide is evenly distributed in a carbonated solution, yeast cells would be evenly distributed throughout a solution with the ‘wort’ (a brewers terms for the pre-fermentation mix), as opposed to on earth where settling would occur and all ingredients would end up on the bottom of a vat.

So not only could we make beer on space, we would witness a much more efficient fermentation process. And with low-carbonation stouts and porters, space travelers could receive much needed iron and calcium, minerals that are present in large amounts in certain stouts, as well as a higher caloric content. Anyone traveling in zero-g for long periods of time experience loss of bone density and body mass and need intense amounts of vitamin therapy to counteract this effect - and would you prefer a handful of pills or a couple of pints a day to keep you healthy and happy? (I'm aware some of you would have said both, but we will leave the effects of barbiturates in space until a later date)

So we could make beer in space – but is it economically viable to bring the ingredients for the job into space? I’ve taken a recipe for a fairly generic stout, as this requires no carbonation, and extrapolated out the measures for a 100 liter batch – call it a micro gravity micro brew.

Generic Stout -

Recipe for 100 liters:

• 9.2 pounds klages / 4.8 kg
• 0.7 pound chocolate malt / .31 kg
• 0.7 pound roast barley / .31 kg
• 1.1 pound 80L crystal  / .5 kg
• 3/4 stick brewers licorice  / .25 kg
• 2.2 ozs. fuggles / .05 kg
• 1.2 pound brown sugar /0.54 kg
• Wyeast London ale yeast (let’s call it 2 grams)

To calculate how much water is needed for the mash I found this awesome online calculator that takes into account all the variables when it comes to brewing – very handy for the home brewer here on earth, too.

Water needed for fermentation and brewing:

          32.77 Gallons/ 124 liters / 124 kg  

(assuming the water is of standard concentration and mineral content so the liter-to-kg ratio is 1:1)

So 100 liters of beer would weigh about 126 kgs in raw materials to take into space – if we take the cost to weight-by-kg ratio we established previously, we see that one kg of material costs some $103 USD. The weight of 100 liters of beer, in transporting raw materials alone, would be $12978 USD – or, if you break it down into per 568ml imperial (read: proper) pint, $737 USD per pint.

Of course if you’ve ever worked behind a bar pulling pints, you know there can be up to 20% loss from a single keg from wastage and spoiling (and the inevitable cheeky Martian bartender mumping a free pint after the bar is closed.) Taking this into account, you are looking at a purchase cost of $921 USD per pint.

To make an industry standard 30% purchase cost on tap beer (overheads on a space station can’t be cheap), you are looking at paying more than $3000 a pint to your deep space publican, maybe $2500 at happy hour prices.

And can you even drink beer in space? In the posted video above we can see that the Vostok beer test subject is having some difficulty in drinking in zero g – there is no up or down, so naturally the liquid in the glass is not affected by gravity. So how can we drink in space?

In association with a company called Bio Serve, the Coca-Cola company helped to develop a drink delivery system to pour a serve of a carbonated drink that can be consumed in zero gravity. According to the press release, “They (the Coca-Cola Company) have a lot of technology that they develop for future ways of providing their drinks anywhere and everywhere."

So I’m not the only one thinking ahead, apparently…

                            Image courtesy Bio Serve

In the picture above you can see the collapsible bladder inside the traditional PET coke bottle, creating a sealed and constant controlled pressure around the fluid and preventing the carbonation from separating from the cola. You can see the carbonation in the actual bag is more a foamy mess than a traditional coke as we know it – the carbon dioxide has nowhere to rise to, and therefore remains distributed throughout.

It is described merely as ‘palatable’, so perhaps not the most shining endorsement. It also does not tackle the issue of the ‘wet burp’, either. (In regards to other drinking methods for space, there will be a later blog post detailing the how and how-nots of the whole business)

Another interesting factoid I’ve come across is the fact that anyone who spends an extended amount of time in space loses some of their sense of taste – strong flavors are preferred by astronauts according to NASA, so big, spicy and bold flavors are the way to go. Another mark against lagers, and definitely something to think on as we continue looking into the science of drinking in space.

So in summary, beer in space is over priced, mostly stout and you won’t be able to taste it as your tongue has stopped working. Much like back in university, then.

Next up, Can you distill spirits in space?