Distilleries in
the US are using reggae, hip-hop and blues to soothe their spirits and enhance
the natural barrel-ageing process to create “musically matured” whiskies,
Bourbons and rums. Different musical
genres are believed to influence the maturation process differently, creating
varying degrees of interaction between the liquid and wood. Credit: Dark Island.
Among
the distilleries to have taken up the practice is Copper Kings in Louisville,
Kentucky, which produces American craft brandy. It plays music through a set of
subwoofers into its barrel room, which the team believes alters the evolution
of a spirits in barrel
.
While it might
seem fanciful, the science behind it does hold some weight, and it makes sense
that increased vibrations within a barrel could alter the ageing process. Explaining the concept of “sonic ageing”, the
team states: “We have five major sub-woofers in our basement maturation cellar.
The principle of Sonic Aging (maturation) is not vibration but
pulsation. We pulse (a bass note in particular) music through the cellar.
“The alcohol
molecule being less dense than a water molecule starts to move away from the
pulse and collide with other alcohol molecules inside the barrels which
eventually collide with the barrel wall, they slide up the wall, which starts
to create a ‘distillate wave’ inside the barrel resulting in increased
frequency of contact over time between the distillate with the barrel
walls and in our opinion enhances maturation. And at the very
least, happy brandy makes for happy drinking.”
Similarly, Dark
Island in New York also musically mature their spirits, believing that the
vibrations encourage greater interaction between the liquid and the barrel. Explaining their reasoning, the team points
toward the whiskies and rums of the 1700s, which it says historians agree to be
among the best ever produced. The common
factor it says was that such expressions were transported by wagon train
or in the hull of a ship over a period of three to five months, with the liquid
constantly moving throughout that time.
Some years ago in
Miami, I visited the Miami Club Distillery, they were placing their rum in large
stainless steel vats with pieces of American oak with slits cut all the way
around and playing reggae music loudly outside of the vats causing the sound
waves to move the rum through the wooden slats.
“Consumers found that these transported spirits had much
more depth of flavor and smoothness compared to the products that were
statically aged,” states Dark Island. “With this knowledge, we set forth to
develop a technology to move our spirits.”
You
can read more about this at https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8460802/distilleries-using-music-to-age-booze
