Suppose, instead of building rickhouse and storing whiskey for years, or even decades, one could throw some oak chips in a vessel and apply ultrasound energy, and achieve in a matter of hours or days a resulting spirit that’s as good as those aged for four, six or more years.
Such a system has the potential to revolutionize the spirits business, vastly reducing costs to suppliers as well as the risk of rickhouse collapse and the ensuing loss of product and environmental issues. It could also reduce if not completely eliminate the “angel’s share” which leads to the black fungus that has aggravated residents near distilleries.
It’s been tested with brandy: Take a high alcoholic strength of distilled wine, a large amount of American oak chips, apply ultrasound energy in large pulses, give the result to experienced tasters, and, according to a paper published in 2017, “the aged spirits had better ratings that the initial distilled wine.”
There are a lot of challenges to overcome before this becomes a common technique, most notably regulatory issues. Scotch whisky must be aged for at least three years.
But we wouldn’t be surprised to see the technique spread, and at least one bar – the Quadrant Bar & Lounge in the Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. – applies ultrasound for 30 minutes to whiskey in a wooden cask. The result is said to taste as though it had aged for 20 years.