Introduction written by GARY SPEDDING
JOURNAL OF DISTILLING SCIENCE
T
he inaugural edition of the Journal of Distilling Science ( JDS) presented four papers detailing important current topics of main-stream interest. The authors detail important advances for food and beverage quality control and sanitation issues when shifting between potable and non-potable alcohol products production within the same facility. The last point related to the shift in 2020 to hand sanitizer production at US craft distilleries. It has proven to be an issue in reverting back to potable spirit making while retaining the normal sensory qualities of spirit. Solid state fermentation systems or starters and double parallel fermentation (combined sugar release and fermentation) — as seen for baijiu production — are becoming of more importance to distillers outside of China, Japan, and other Asian countries. The topic of maturation of spirits in or on wood has also become of increasing interest as a result of dwindling supplies of oak, distillers trying to better understand the speed of maturation, to seek alternate wood-derived flavors for differentiating matured product styles, or simply to make use of indigenous tree species. And, in relation to maturation and spirits dilution, a key method for Franklin M. Chen, Nada Abdi, and Nolan Torres spirits producers to accurately dilute their wares is University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311 essential. In the case presented here the dilution is ABSTRACT : The meaning of the partial molar volume, the analytical methods for for essentially a binary solvent system — ethanol finding the partial molar volumes and the additivity theorem of the partial moand water with low congener content (low solids) lar volumes are explained. The additivity theorem of the partial molar volume is — traditional spirits. The situation is more comused for whisky alcohol strength dilutions and for single-shot or multi-shot gin plex with highly sweetened or flavored products. in both flavor dilution with grain neutral spirit and alcohol strength dilution. It is hoped that this latter topic and indeed all topics of relevance to distilled spirits production KEYWORDS : Alcohol by volume (A % v/v), Alcohol by weight (A w/w), Partial molar volume, Additivity Theorem, Alcohol strength dilution, Single shot or multi-shot gin flavor will provide more detailed information in short dilution, Grain Neutral Spirit (GNS) order in forthcoming issues of the JDS.
ISSUE 1 ABSTRACTS
APPLICATIONS OF THE PARTIAL MOLAR VOLUME CONCEPT IN WHISKY AND GIN DILUTIONS WITH WATER
CHINESE BAIJIU – FINDING A CHANNEL TO DESIGN A DEFINED STARTER CULTURE Bowen Wang, Huiyi Hao, Hehe Li, Jinyuan Sun, Baoguo Sun Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, Key Laboratory of Brewing Molecular Engineering of China Light Industry, School of Light Industry, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China ABSTRACT : Qu (a starter composed of multiple microbes, enzymes, and nutrients) is essential for initiating Chinese baijiu fermentation and is usually prepared in an open system to enrich the starter complex with microorganisms from the local environment. However, with the challenge of increasing manufacturing and labor costs, traditional spontaneous fermentation cannot meet the
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growing industrial needs for standardization and modernization. Nowadays, the development of a synthetic microbiota built up from selected and cultured microorganisms enables the repeatable, standardized production of fermented foods. The use of such synthetic microbiota to convert raw materials into foods can hopefully reproduce the smells and tastes of traditional products. This review
critically summarizes the properties of traditional qu and discusses the potential of a defined synthetic microbiota to revolutionize the production of such fermentation starters for future baijui production. The prospects and challenges in dealing with the identification, selection, cultivation, and incorporation of microbes into such synthetic microbiota (or new ecological complexes) are specifically related to developing a fully defined and effective mixed-starter culture for use in traditional fermented food production are detailed here. KEYWORDS : Baijiu, defined starter, enzyme,
microbiota, Qu, synthetic microbiota
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