Coming of Age
“Aged” spirit made in six days – with the help of GC-MS – rated in the top five percent of whiskies worldwide
Remember Bryan Davis, the art teacher-turned-chemist who claims to have “hacked” the spirit-aging industry? (tas.txp.to/0516/shaken). Davis continues to stir up strong reactions: his peated malt “aged” in just six days has been awarded 94 points and a coveted “Liquid Gold” designation in the 2018 edition of Jim Murray’s famous Whisky Bible, which puts it within the top five percent of whiskies catalogued.
“Abomination – Sayers of the Law” was aged in a reactor developed by Davis at the Lost Spirits distillery (dubbed the “Willy Wonka Booze Factory”). Analysis by direct injection mass spectrometry and GC-MS showed that the chemical fingerprints between the traditionally aged and “technology-aged” malts were identical.
“We didn’t set out to make well-aged spirits more accessible and affordable, by eliminating the time and cost of decades spent aging in a barrel, though our tech does that very well,” said Davis in a press release. “We created our technology because we wanted to find a better way to make the spirits we like to drink.” Cheers to that.
A former library manager and storyteller, I have wanted to write for magazines since I was six years old, when I used to make my own out of foolscap paper and sellotape and distribute them to my family. Since getting my MSc in Publishing, I’ve worked as a freelance writer and content creator for both digital and print, writing on subjects such as fashion, food, tourism, photography – and the history of Roman toilets. Now I can be found working on The Analytical Scientist, finding the ‘human angle’ to cutting-edge science stories.
