DEVELOPING YOUR RECIPE A
s a distiller, you’re often asked, “How did you come up with your recipes?” There are a lot of answers to these questions, and all of those answers can be correct:
1. Trial and error 2. Experimentation on small batches 3. Outside consultant 4. Reference documents and literature 5. Brains, brawn, a hope and a prayer 6. Reverse engineer your spirit from the testing results via Gas Chromatography (GC) and Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) of spirits that you like…wait, what? As a consummate nerd in Lego, river floating, distillation system design and all things hooch, you can probably guess that I went with Option 6 for one of our product lines. At the American Distilling Institute national convention in 2011, I watched the now defunct Artisan Distilling Program from Michigan State University give the presentation, “A systematic approach to whiskey development” with the results of flavor compounds tracked every minute during a pot still run. Those results were given as GC
»» Determine contributions as a result of mashing, fermentation, and distillation. In other words, what types of grains were used, what yeasts and fermentation regimes yielded the various alcohols present, and how was the still run with respect to low and high volatile alcohols and esters?
»» Determine the contributions as a result of aging. What type
of cooperage, how are esters formed, what flavor compounds expressed by the wood, and how could we influence the maturation phenomena during aging?
Benzoic acid
Vanillin
2-Furancarboxaldehyde, 5-(bydroxymethyl)-
4H-Pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-
n-Decanoic acid
Octanoic acid ethyl ester, or octanoic acid 2,6-Dimethoxy-phenol Toluene
Trans-3-methyl-4-octanolide Hexadecanoic acid ethyl ester
2-Methyl-phenol Butanedioic acid, hydroxy-, diethyl ester
1.4E+09 1.2E+09 1E+09 800000000 600000000 400000000 200000000 0
Benzene, 1,1’-[methylenebis(oxymethylene)]bis-,
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There were two ways we approached the project:
2-Phenyl-2-propenol
whiskeys, both Irish whiskeys (one aged for 12 years and the other for 11 years), which closely matched the flavor profile I wished to see after 1-2 years of aging. The results are shown to the right. Whiskey isn’t just “ethanol, some fusels, and oak,” it’s a lot more. However, to really get to the crux of its makeup, we needed to have something to assist with understanding the chemical footprint the GCMS had shown us. Note compounds like Phenylethyl alcohol—where did it come from, production or storage (or both)? Time to hit the books.
charts, showing the evolution and consumption of flavor compounds and the points at which those compounds were fully expressed and no longer contributed to the final flavor of the spirit. I had found my nerds. I approached them with the following concept: “Let’s use a GCMS to analyze the constituent compounds in a finished bottle of whiskey and reverse engineer the contributory agents of the parts we like, which would then allow us make a similar whiskey.” Johnny Jeffery, then a member of that group, immediately hoisted his nerd flag and we were off.
Benzaldehyde Decanoic acid ethyl ester Acetic acid Dimethyl sulfoxide Isopropoxycarbamic acid ethyl ester Dodecanoic acid ethyl ester Acetic acid, 2-phenylethyl ester Isoamyl laurate Benzyl alcohol Phenylethyl alcohol Cis-3-methyl-4-octanolide Tetradecanoic acid ethyl ester Cinnamaldehyde
STEP 1: GET SOME WHISKEY AND TEST IT. We analyzed two
WRITTEN BY JOHN MCKEE
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