tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post7165822483051564239..comments2012-01-30T21:50:59.063-05:00Scott Spolverinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02109548168910173982noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-45835013912746650412012-01-28T18:29:20.290-05:002012-01-28T18:29:20.290-05:00Technical post; I&#39;m in admiration of your scholarly efforts! Extremely interesting. I agree with first commentor that this could be the start of a great series.Whisky Critichttp://www.whiskycritic.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-36794332924393377932012-01-15T13:46:18.621-05:002012-01-15T13:46:18.621-05:001. Correct.<br /><br />2. Correct.<br /><br />3. As these clusters tighten, it becomes harder and harder to separate them. The intermolecular forces between the hydrophobic ethane group become greater and greater as time goes on. It&#39;s like the difference between splitting apart an orange vs. a bowling ball. So it makes it more heterogeneous because if you were to take a liter of this aged spirit and start drawing off picoliter samples (.000000000001 liter), you wouldn&#39;t get an even distribution of those ethanol clusters. Why? Because you can&#39;t break them apart. If you had a combined amount of 3 ethanol clusters in two samples, it wouldn&#39;t be 1.5 clusters per sample, it would be more like 2 clusters in one sample and 1 cluster in another because the chemical bonds in the cluster prevent it from being split between the two samples. This is why it becomes more heterogeneous: the clusters aren&#39;t free to cleave and homogeneously distribute.Scott Spolverinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02109548168910173982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-18395895729248895442012-01-13T11:35:20.781-05:002012-01-13T11:35:20.781-05:00Hi Scott,<br /><br />I am the &quot;Ananymous&quot; above. Thanks for the reply. I am still a little bit confused, so please help correct my understandings: <br /><br />1. Spirits &gt;20% ABV is heterogeneous; &lt;20% ABV is homogeneous.<br /><br />2. Homogeneous spirits tastes smoother than the heterogeneous one because your taste buds are not bombarded by clusters of highly concentrated ethanol.<br /><br />3. When &gt;20% ABV, ethanol form clusters. These clusters became tighter as it ages. Does that make the cluster smaller? Why does &quot;tighter&quot; cluster making the solution even more heterogeneous? Doesn&#39;t it make the solution a bit &quot;more&quot; homogeneous (more uniform size clusters?) and thus, taste smoother?<br /><br />Thanks and really appreciate the article!Bennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-40059153725409576542012-01-12T18:12:50.457-05:002012-01-12T18:12:50.457-05:00Fred: Yeah, I&#39;m not the greatest biologist. But I can design the hell out of a still, so that&#39;s all that matters! Fair points, all, though.<br /><br />Anonymous: It is actually heterogeneous. If it was homogeneous, every volume of liquid you poured (down to the smallest of metric units) would have exactly the same amount of ethanol as all the others. When the ethanol clusters, this doesn&#39;t happen. Some volumes will have more ethanol, some less. These tighter ethanol groupings have less of an effect on the taste buds (I think) as they are currently interacting with themselves instead of all reacting chemically on the tongue.Scott Spolverinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02109548168910173982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-71666166641156794982012-01-12T13:59:56.968-05:002012-01-12T13:59:56.968-05:00&quot;This is why older spirits can taste &quot;smoother&quot;. As time passes, these ethanol clusters become more and more compact, making the solution more and more heterogeneous.&quot;<br /><br />Do you meant the solution get more &quot;homogeneous&quot; as time passes (smaller cluster = less chunk of ethanol = smoother taste)? If so, I assume these cluster tend to &quot;un-bunch&quot; with time. Why is that?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-60978894276340034322011-12-22T12:06:11.418-05:002011-12-22T12:06:11.418-05:00A few comments from the biochemist here:<br /><br />1) cell membranes are made up of more than phospholipids. Often the lipids have a hydrophilic but uncharged end. Some are charged. If all the membrane&#39;s lipids were charged, this would cause massive electrostatic issues such as in acquiring food.<br />2) plants have both a cell wall and a cell membrane. So they do have the fatty stuff. Same with yeast which have a cell wall and a cell membrane.frederichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17939679837071519844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-24503474211540877482011-12-15T15:24:46.983-05:002011-12-15T15:24:46.983-05:00I&#39;d honestly say that artificial atmosphere is just an extension of this. Investigations into artificial atmosphere are investigations into the effect of higher or lower temperature/humidity/elevation/what have you on wood maturation. We&#39;ve covered almost all the science of yeast fermentation and byproducts, malt biology and enzyme interaction, and atmospheric effects of whisk(e)y post-bottling. We&#39;ve kinda run out of things to investigate but, luckily enough, what we have left can go deeper than the Mariana Trench.Scott Spolverinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02109548168910173982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-68834821147680077212011-12-14T10:17:41.832-05:002011-12-14T10:17:41.832-05:00I wouldn&#39;t call this the final frontier. I&#39;d call it the next frontier. There&#39;s so much more that hasn&#39;t been touched, like artificial atmosphere...lawschooldrunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981455538460795016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4796851174433094373.post-76599091117082484532011-12-13T18:57:38.441-05:002011-12-13T18:57:38.441-05:00Nice. Thanks for writing this up. Maybe the next installment could focus on applying this knowledge practically.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com