
The Dark Side of the ‘Angel’s Share’ (2019) - jelliclesfarm
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-whiskey-fungus
======
sargun
Who knows, apart from regulatory capture, whisky may cease to exist the way we
know it. Rapid aging processes are becoming more and more common every day.

~~~
tedmiston
Alternatives to natural aging in new oak barrels definitely exist but at this
point they are still very much a novelty, at least in the bourbon market. To
the best of my knowledge none have succeeded in creating the depth of flavor
in the realm of 8+ year bourbons.

~~~
jfengel
Do any of them do even that well? Do you have a recommendation?

~~~
tedmiston
No, I don't think they do — I generally hear comments like: hotter than
expected, artificial taste, thin body, short finish, etc. I just wanted to
establish a somewhat arbitrary "good" baseline _somewhere_.

If you are feeling experimental though, the ones that seem to be the most
popular are:

\- Cleveland Bourbon / Cleveland Underground

\- Tuthilltown Hudson Baby Bourbon (but it appears to be recently discontinued
/ relaunched starting this month as a 3-year aged Hudson Bright Lights, Big
Bourbon)

I'm not lining up to buy their bottles personally. The reviews on
Distiller.com are pretty insightful.

For normally aged bourbon, I really like most of the Four Roses and Buffalo
Trace products.

~~~
jfengel
Thank you. I appreciate the advice.

------
G4E
Couldn't an open flame in the warehouse be enough to burn the ethanol
evaporating and handle the problem ?

~~~
wodenokoto
No.

Such warehouses are shabby and drafty, in order for the barrels to expand and
contract with the temperature changes in the weather. There is no chimney and
nowhere with a thick concentration of vapours.

~~~
CydeWeys
It's a solvable problem. The article mentions distilleries in California that
have done so (likely because they're required to by the government there).

It's not _that_ hard to make the warehouses relatively airtight and add a
ventilation system that sends all the exhaust through a scrubber to remove the
ethanol before exhausting to atmosphere. It's just that the local government
there isn't requiring it and is instead allowing these negative externalities
to be born by the residents, because the whiskey companies have more political
power than these relatively poor residents.

~~~
LorenPechtel
A clear example of red state politics vs blue state politics.

------
jojobas
Surely running the exhaust through some sort of absorbent/condenser could both
capture the alcohol for non-food purposes and deprive the mold of food?

~~~
Angostura
That sounds like it might cost money.

~~~
mint2
And why spend money yourself when you can just let other people spend their
own money cleaning up your mess.

After all a corporation’s civic duty is to maximize their profits so they
can’t be expected to clean up their pollution when they can off load it for
free!

Hashtag capitalism gone wrong.

------
tptacek
I wonder how they’re doing it in Scotland. You see the same mold on distillery
structures, but nothing really noticeable on the surrounding houses.

------
02020202
well, this sucks. you cannot enclsoe the barrels in a air-controlled room
since that will siply stop the agin process qutie a bit. not to mention the
size of the warehouses. i think the people should just move away if possible
since this is a zero sum game.

~~~
londons_explore
Even a regular air conditioner in the same sealed room would extract the
ethanol. It wouldn't be expensive, and might even be profitable if it turns
out the "angels share" is sellable (which it might well turn out to be).

Running an air conditioner in the room shouldn't stop the aging process.

~~~
jacobush
The temperature or pressure differences may be what causes much of the aging,
push the spirits in and out of the casks, taking flavor from the wood back
into the spirits. Either way, it must be possible.

But I guess it's cheaper to do nothing, except just responding to litigation.

------
kalium-xyz
It always strikes me as odd that the population in these areas grows (as with
places that suffer from noise pollution from airplanes) which seems to cause
part of the issue. Would people who mind this not moving there in the first
place not be a solution?

Disclaimer: I am not of the opinion that this should not be handled properly,
am just wondering if people are actually moving somewhere and then complaining
and how to empathize with people doing that.

edit: also I think it looks cool, who minds the fungus to begin with?

~~~
darkmoney007
You're a piece of S.

F the poor as long as it doesn't affect me?

~~~
dang
You can't post like this here, regardless of how wrong another comment is or
how strongly you disagree.

We've banned the account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to
email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the
rules in the future. They're at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

