Pending patent for speeding up spirit aging

[callmeox]

http://www.cleveland.com/business/in...dier_proc.html


Interesting read, but he will need more than a patent to get this off the ground.


Thoughts?

[CorvallisCracker]

Thoughts?

I don't know if it will work for Bourbon, but "heating, cooling and pressure" have certainly accelerated my aging process...

[callmeox]

I can see adding surface area and heat to speed up the color and flavor transfer from barrel to hooch, but how does one speed up the oxidation that takes place over time?

[CorvallisCracker]

Blow air (or oxygen) into it. Same sort of thing they do for carbonated water/soft drinks, but O2 rather than CO2.

[DeanSheen]

Great just what this town needs, to be known for the invention of "fake whiskey".

[cowdery]

Great just what this town needs, to be known for the invention of "fake whiskey".

In the first iteration of Bulleit, Tommy called it "engineered whiskey."

[DeanSheen]

In the first iteration of Bulleit, Tommy called it "engineered whiskey."

Well thanks for that Chuck, I guess it takes a little heat off.

[tmckenzie]

A guy from austria or some where called me the other day and he had a machine to speed it up based on nano technology. He said 4 years in 4 days. I fell off my chair laughing, I told him I would be scared to drink it. I doubt he will call me back.

[gothbat]

My friend and I were talking one day and we were both wondering what would happen if moved a barrel you were aging from a cold room to a hot room every week or so (figure it's been attempted but I've never read anything about this...) and it sounds like we may get to find out since that's what I assume he's doing... I'll try it if/when it hits shelves but I think the price I'd be willing to pay would be far less than what I'd be willing to pay for whiskey that's actually aged for a couple of years. Oh, and this certainly sounds more realistic than that device I saw an ad for a few years back that claims to age a shot of whiskey with magnetic fields... :]

[cowdery]

You never know with anything like this who is well-meaning if deluded and who is a scammer. Some of them don't know themselves.

My first question would be about due diligence. Have you found and reviewed all of the research that has already been done in this area? Some of it may be proprietary but there should be a lot in the public domain. This is hardly a new idea.

Most of these techniques accomplish something but they never get quite the same results as conventional aging. Also, faster isn't necessarily less expensive.

Heat cycling of warehouses is an acceleration technique that is widely accepted but not universally used.

I remain unmoved.