Posted on 09/11/2015 11:47:10 AM PDT by BenLurkin
This past week, four tasters at the Ardbeg Distillery in Islay, Scotland drank samples of whiskey that had aged for nearly three years aboard the International Space Station. They compared the samples to whiskey that had matured in a similar way here on Earth. The team said the space samples were completely unlike anything they had ever tasted before; something about the space environment had a distinct effect on the alcoholic beverage. "It was the most unusual tasting wed ever done," Dr. Bill Lumsden, head of distilling and whiskey creation at the Glenmorangie Company, told The Verge. "I was amazed at how different the samples were."
Lumsden hopes the test will help him learn more about the whiskey maturation process, but overall he prefers his whiskey aged on Earth. The space whiskey had a much smokier quality, with flavors akin to cherries, prunes, raisins, and cinnamon, he said. He also noted that the whiskey's aftertaste was "pungent, intense, and long, with hints of wood, antiseptic lozenges, and rubbery smoke." This was in contrast to the Earth-aged whiskey, which had richer flavors more characteristic of whiskey drinks. The space whiskey still had strong flavor, but they were strange, Lumsden said and not particularly good. He still has yet to figure out why. "That I havent been able to work out yet," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
I’m thinking that the issue is microgravity and surface tension, and they likely didn’t consider the idea of spinning the barrels so that the whiskey would actually be in constant contact with the charred oak.
So, no, it isn’t ‘space’ whiskey, it is ‘microgravity whiskey’.
Never mind. I see it was only aged in space.
That makes sense.
I think what they did was distill it on Earth, put it in the “casks”, then send it up to age on the ISS. I don’t think they’d want to try actually distilling it in space.
I’d also like to know WHERE on the ISS it was kept. Was it in a storage module? In the crew compartment? Was there exposure to radiation?
Sounds like typical scotch.
It takes pollution and global warming to make proper whiskey.
I think this video shows very much what the issue is for a cask of liquid where the intention is that the liquid with absorb the essential oils in the container:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEdApyi9Vw
Unless they spun the barrels, very little whiskey would come in contact with the oak - probably most of the ‘aging’ was done on the trip up and the trip back when there was something to force the whiskey into contact with the charred oak of the barrel.
...I hereby award the Brass Figlagee with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm:
If the alternative is no whisky, it doesn’t sound so bad.
Laphroaig.
I knew a man that drank that Scotch. As I remember he paid about $95.00 per bottle but that was about 20 years ago.
So they ended up witn Romulan Ale instead.
I think the alternative is Everclear and Tang.
"Da! Now what do we fill the bottle back up with?"
Sounds like fraternity stupidity (fun).
Yes. Yes it does.
We had a koolaid and grain party the week after Jonestown. Got in trouble for that.
That’s bad, in an awesome way.
Colleges are always dicks about stifling such great creativity. We just hid our stuff in the squad bay, hoped the first or cheif never found it, because they’d drink it all on us. They ddn’t ever want to report anything, they’d get crap too.
I’d guess these barrels were not production size and were also hermetically sealed. That’s different from the earthly process where alcohol may escape the barrels by evaporation.
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