(Newer)
– Most people want to reset time. Among whiskey producers, a quest has developed to speed it up. Last fall, the Silicon Valley-based Bespoken Spirits venture made headlines by raising $ 2.6 million in seed funding to set up a rapid aging process to age barrels of whiskey, which typically take at least three years. duration. It’s an evolution that, according to Phys.org, could fetch $ 20 billion a year for the whiskey industry. “It’s accelerated ripening 2.0,” said then-co-founder Stuart Aaron. Now, the New York Times take a closer look at Bespoken and other businesses, the history of aging whiskey and the technology they now use to bring about a virtually overnight process. Whiskey usually sits in oak barrels between a few years and a few decades, and as the seasons change and the temperature rises and falls, the whiskey is pushed into and out of the wood of the barrel, which enhances the taste and color of the liquid. . .
Whiskey producers are now bypassing the longer process. For example, Bespoken throws tiny pieces of wood, called ‘microsticks’, made from different types of wood (ie not just oak) into a steel tank, together with the unaged whiskey. Workers then increase and decrease the heat and pressure inside the tank and achieve the same “aging effect” within a fraction of the time. Other manufacturers blow light into the wood to influence its molecular structure, or “reverse engineer” the process using natural sources such as yeast and plants. One company, Endless West, says it could create a copy of the 30-year-old Balvenie single malt shot, which sells for $ 1,300 or so, and sells for about $ 40. Gourmets say the fast aged whiskeys are not quite the same as those that are old, but it may not matter. “A whiskey like that of Bespoken does not have to taste the best bourbon to succeed,” said the Times notes. “It just has to be better than the worst, at a competitive price.” (Read more whiskey stories.)