
Ultrasound Ages Liquor Two Years in Just Three Days - john_mack
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/ultrasound-ages-liquor-two-years-in-just-three-days/
======
abakker
Incidentally, I have been doing this for making bitters for years. I have an
ultrasonic cleaner and I fill it with a warm water. Then I put liquor and
flavorings in a jar - sometimes grain alcohol, sometimes 151, sometimes strong
bourbon, depending on the intended result - and hit it with ultrasound for
about 30 minutes at 100F. I make about 2-3 fluid ounces at a time and it works
great. Not sure I'd call it (Aging), but it certainly does infuse things well.
for certain things, like fresh rosemary, you can see the oils separating from
the leaves as soon as the ultrasonic starts. it is nearly instantaneous.

I suspect that the time is a function of surface area. If instead of wood
chips they used shavings, I'd bet that they could take the time down even
further.

~~~
nickff
Thanks for sharing this; do you happen to have any guides or blogposts on the
subject handy?

~~~
abakker
I don't, other than to say that experimentation is easy - I bought my
ultrasonic off of eBay. (bigger is better), makes the device more useful.

I use small spice jars for making my batches, and woody things last longer
than squishy ones. i.e. orange rind dried is lasts longer than orange rind
fresh. However, fresh orange rind gives a different taste and is cool if
you're doing a cocktail night, or something. You can do things that you can't
do any other way like this.

Cloves, Sassafras root, ginger, juniper berries, rosemary, lavender, sage. All
have great effect.

Also, Ultrasonic makes EXCELLENT sangria. This is the only way to do sangria,
IMO.

You can either use bitters to add to sangria, or just put wine and other
things directly into the ultrasonic and infuse that way. It works great with
herbs. For fruits, you should really just use the juice or crush them with a
mortar and pestle. Any fruit soaking in the sangria is purely for show. IMO,
all sangria should have sage in it. Sassafras in small quantities makes cheap
red wine taste about 2 shelves better. YMMV.

~~~
malandrew
Can you share the instructions and ingredients for your sangria?

Also, you said bigger is better. What size/volume would you recommend?

Is there any brand of ultrasonic cleaner that is most recommended or are they
basically all the same?

~~~
abakker
If I were doing it again, I'd get one of these:
[http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-6L-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-
Stainless-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-6L-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-Stainless-
Steel-Industry-Heated-Heater-w-
Timer-/252186235237?hash=item3ab7789165:g:J-cAAOSwImRYY0u0)

I have a 1.5L one now and it is constantly too small for my jobs. I'd like to
see how it does at vacuum sealed meat, prior to sous vide, also.

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6stringmerc
This reminds me of some of the goofy aging snake-oil techniques that
audiophile-type guitarists try on their guitars. Putting them in vibrating
jigs and stuff. That said, if there's a way to significantly tighten / age /
enhance the density or resonance of wood using some kind of technique, that's
pretty awesome. Then drink aged liquor before playing on aged guitar. Win-win.

~~~
kibwen
Sounds like a market opportunity: pre-distressed guitars to go with your pre-
distressed jeans. :P

~~~
compiler-guy
Pre-distressed guitars are sold all the time as "relics". Both Fender and
Gibson do it. Their custom shop will relic them to match a particularly famous
one or generally.

I would link to a source, but they are all pretty much just advertisements.
Your favorite search engine could find them.

~~~
analog31
Here's one, just for the sake of completeness:

[http://www.fendercustomshop.com/series/artist/jaco-
pastorius...](http://www.fendercustomshop.com/series/artist/jaco-pastorius-
tribute-jazz-bass-rosewood-fingerboard-3-color-sunburst/)

I'm guessing it won't make me play like Jaco. ;-)

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mixologic
I wonder if thats part of the process that is used in the Lost Spirits
Distillery uses: [https://www.wired.com/2015/04/lost-
spirits/](https://www.wired.com/2015/04/lost-spirits/)

Disclaimer: I've purchased some of their Navy Strength rum, and it was
incredible. Aging liquor may become a thing of the past.

~~~
koolba
How sweet was said rum? I'm a big fan of Anejos in general though some of them
are a bit too sweet for my tastes.

~~~
mixologic
It was kinda sweet? It was also cask strength so like 62% - pretty hot so it
balanced nicely.

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anfractuosity
I'm curious, it doesn't mention anything about oxidisation, which I thought
was pretty important in ageing in casks and I think may be hard to emulate.

Edit: It does mention about acetic acid increasing though interestingly.

According to wikipedia "Ethanol can be oxidized to acetaldehyde and further
oxidized to acetic acid", so I'd be interested to know more about how it is
formed in this case.

It does seem like there are lots of other by-products of oxidation though:

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23143031_Isolation_...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23143031_Isolation_and_Structure_of_Whiskey_Polyphenols_Produced_by_Oxidation_of_Oak_Wood_Ellagitannins)

~~~
massaman_yams
Incidentally, ethanol > acetaldehyde > acetic acid is precisely the way the
human body metabolizes alcohol in the liver.

~~~
anfractuosity
Interesting! I didn't know that.

------
beagle3
Also good for drying clothes efficiently[0], with the unfortunate side effect
of also weakening and undoing the seams...

[0] [http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/21/technology/ultrasonic-
dryer/](http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/21/technology/ultrasonic-dryer/)

------
staticautomatic
This reminds me of something I encountered when I used to work in a wine
store, which was a sort of copper wand that you would place in a glass of wine
and it would "age" the wine. At first I assumed this was snake oil bullshit,
but after some research, it turned out there was actually a well documented
reaction whereby (IIRC) copper catalyzes the conversion of alcohols into
certain ketones and aldehydes, mimicking part of the natural oxidation
process.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
If you really care about fine nuances of taste, drinking almost anything from
metal cups has pretty clear effects. Not aluminum, but things like brass or
even various iron alloys. Especially if the drink is slightly acidic.

Regular "food" and "drinks" tend to be pretty complex chemical cocktails, so
no wonder they have strange reactions with anything even remotely inclined to
react chemically.

Now I wonder if the taste of the original Turkish coffee is related in small
part to the usage of tiny copper pots for making it.

~~~
Balgair
Yes this is typically why European foods are thought to be less acidic in
taste, the issue was the pewter dinnerware of the aristocracy. Tomatoes were
blamed for a while, but all acids will allow the leaching out of lead from the
pewter into the food and then usually death followed. Romans actually used
this technique to sweeten foods and usually wine. To extend this to the use of
general metal ware is straightforward. Though not lead, necessarily, I am sure
that heated/acidic drinks will do something to the food taste, and maybe not
just via leaching. Egg white, whipped in a copper bowl, will stand up much
longer and are more satin-y than in other bowls. It would be most interesting
to compare the different metals and choose the ones that most exemplify the
desired results; hopefully not lead poisoning though.

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-the-tomato-
wa...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-the-tomato-was-feared-
in-europe-for-more-than-200-years-863735/)

[http://io9.gizmodo.com/5877587/the-first-artificial-
sweetene...](http://io9.gizmodo.com/5877587/the-first-artificial-sweetener-
poisoned-lots-of-romans)

------
baccredited
Not sure if the tech is the same but Cleveland Whiskey does something similar
and is already on the market. Disclaimer: I invested through YC company
Wefunder.

~~~
ridgeguy
This looks different from Cleveland Whiskey. Cleveland accelerates aging by
use of high pressure [1].

The technique reported in the NPR article uses ultrasound, apparently at
ordinary pressure. The original journal article (pdf) is open sourced at [2].

[1] [https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/the-pressure-aged-
cle...](https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/the-pressure-aged-cleveland-
whiskey-taste-test)

[2]
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350417716...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350417716304187)

~~~
sjg007
So to extrapolate: ultrasound under high pressure and age in 30 minutes.

~~~
luminiferous
I'm not sure they would go that well together; high pressure inhibits
cavitation, I'm pretty sure, and cavitation is the primary mechanism by which
the ultrasound method extracts the various compounds from the wood. Maybe if
you used higher energy ultrasound?

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ubercore
Relativity Whiskey is doing a similar thing (not the same process, just speed-
aging): [https://www.relativity-whiskey.com](https://www.relativity-
whiskey.com)

I've had it, and it's very convincing. I'm not an expert by any means, but I
doubt I would be able to tell it apart from truly aged whiskey.

~~~
Balgair
Stranahan's did the same thing for a while when they were first starting out
too. For me, it tasted kinda 'egg-y' and I hated it. Now that they have been
out for a few years, their whiskeys are lot better. Something is lost in that
'accelerated' process that makes it taste not so good to me at least.

------
james_pm
The TV show Moonshiners has been dealing with accelerated aging processes
recently. The method used by a pair of the moonshiners was to highly
electrically charge charred wood immersed in the alcohol.

At least according to the show, the two "inventors" had a patent on their
method. They were allegedly getting two years of aging in two days.

------
ape4
Hey, maybe this can cut my liquor budget in half!

~~~
bitJericho
Or you can buy twice as much!

------
psadri
The question is: does it work on cheese?

~~~
luminiferous
I wouldn't imagine so. The mechanism of action for spirits here is that the
ultrasound extracts the various flavor compounds from the wood much quicker
than it normally takes the alcohol solution to without ultrasound. But aged
cheese's flavor mostly comes from the action of mold and/or bacteria
chemically altering the cheese. I can't imagine that blasting ultrasound into
the cheese would accelerate this process, sadly.

------
innocentoldguy
I could have 100 year old scotch in just 150 days? Hoorah!!!

Oh, wait. This is just based on subjective taste? Well, everyone knows that
people, in general, don't have any...

~~~
mikeash
What advantage would 100 year old scotch have besides subjective taste?

~~~
innocentoldguy
That's what makes it a joke, right? Ah, the cleverness that goes over people's
heads...

~~~
mikeash
Oh, is that what that wooshing sound was?

~~~
bubblesocks
Probably. You can fix that by standing taller though.

------
vacri
Maybe this could be marketed as "Yeller Liquor"...

------
dsiegel2275
But can we age babies this way? Or... are we already?

~~~
CodeWriter23
There are no studies showing this process to have any effect on human tissue
or blood.

------
M_Grey
If this had been a conclusion reached as a result of careful analysis, then
I'd be interested. Relying on people to taste-test a difference is just a
broadly pointless exercise I think, and doesn't really prove the conclusion
the headline is selling.

~~~
mikeash
Since good taste is the goal, how else would you evaluate the results? As long
as the taste testing was carried out properly (i.e. blinded, randomized), it's
fine.

