A new kind of “gold standard” could soon permeate the whiskey industry.
Whiskey distillers usually Age spirits in charred, wood casksThe liquor can slowly absorb flavors from the wood for many years.SN: 10/31/19). Now, researchers have demonstrated that swirling gold ions into a whiskey can reveal how much flavor the liquor has taken in — a quality called agedness. This method could give master blenders a way to determine how much flavor the liquor has taken in. A quick and affordable test for whiskey ageingResearchers report October 6th ACS Applied Nano Materials.
“A tiny amount of gold gives you this really bright, strong, red or blue or purple color,” says William Peveler, a chemist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He says that whiskey will age faster if it is stronger and more quickly if it arises.
Master blenders can conduct tasting sessions to assess the age of a product, but this is labor-intensive. Alternative methods include laboratory analyses that can determine the age of whiskeys by testing for congeners (flavorful chemicals absorbed from wooden casks). However, such analyses can be expensive.
The past research has shown that many chemicals, including those from the pharmaceutical industry, are capable of being used in a wide range of applications. NeurotransmittersTo Maple syrup contains poor-tasting compoundsThe solution could then be used to create nanoparticles of gold ions or gold nuggets by triggering gold ions. So Peveler and colleagues mixed solutions containing less than a penny’s worth of gold ions into different whiskey blends and a vodka. Although there were no nanoparticles created in vodka, the ions react with whiskey congeners to create nanoparticles within minutes. There were many different sizes and shapes of nanoparticles between whiskeys. This allowed the spirits to thrive with different colors.
To develop a better test for agedness, the researchers will continue to investigate how gold nanoparticles interact with alcohols and sugars in whiskeys.
