Happy Friday and happy Spring! This week we are talking about one of our favorite topics: sustainability. We are also talking about the potential for you to start distilling your own gin and some interesting new science that could change your next cocktail experience. Lets kick off a great weekend, let’s get into it!

What a Recent Court Ruling Could Mean For Home Distillers

Okay so don’t get too ready for home-brewed hooch quite yet. A federal appeals court just ruled that the previous ban enacted in 1868 on home distilling is unconstitutional. Although this is exciting news, it doesn’t mean that everyone in the nation can suddenly start up their stills.

So why did this law exist in the first place? In a word: money. The government reasoned that in order to prevent people from avoiding the tax on liquor they had to ensure that making booze at home was illegal. They outlawed the production of spirits by home distillers and threatened any who broke that law with felony charges and heavy fines. The judges who recently ruled that this law was unconstitutional argue that it also actively worked against the solution it was meant to bring. At the time of its enactment this law effectively stalled any government revenue on liquor since there was no available product to tax. Home distillers even expressed willingness to pay excise taxes on their products but the government would not grant them permits and thus loss out on tax dollars again.

After a non-profit called the Hobby Distillers Association brought the suit to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans a panel of three judges ruled the standing law unconstitutional. Now regulations fall to individual states so if you wanted to start investing in some distilling equipment make sure that you check your local laws first.

New Technology Makes Net Zero Whisky a Possibility

Annandale Whisky is working with a clean heat technology company called Exergy3 to develop a carbon neutral system to distill with. Companies that distill spirits have been struggling with ways to reduce their carbon footprint. The biggest concern environmentally when it comes to distilleries is the high heat required to run the stills.

Typically distilleries have to burn fuel over a sustained period at very high heat which can produce a significant amount of carbon emissions. The system being developed by Exergy3 and boiler manufacturer Cochran would utilize surplus wind power generated by area windmills. The system would convert the electricity into heat that then can be stored and used when needed by the distillery. This new system is a first for whisky and a huge advancement for renewably energy overall.

Exergy3’s system can store thermal energy at extremely high temperatures and release it at up to 1,200°C (2192°F). It also has impressive 96% efficiency and losses of less than 1% in a 24 hour period. For Annandale Whisky this system is being utilized with a boiler that will convert the thermal energy to steam at 530°C (986°F) to be used for distilling.

Make sure you check out the quick links below for an article highlighting 8 tequila brands that are making a difference in sustainability in huge ways.

Science and Creativity Meet to Make Cocktails More Interesting

Iain McPherson, founder of Edinburgh bar Panda & Sons, and his team have developed a new way to combine spirits with fats. Citing texture as a major motivation, these cocktail scientists found a way to combine fats and spirits in a way that prevents separation which he calls ‘densing’.

Generally if fats are used with spirits to impart flavor they are combined in a method called “fat washing”. This process involves blending the spirit and fat source and then freezing them in order to remove the fat solids from the washed spirit. The result is the flavor of the fat source (be it coconut, bacon, or olive oil, etc.) held in the base spirit with very little impact on overall texture.

McPherson is a bartender of note in many respects. He is known for his scientific mind when it comes to crafting cocktails along with his willingness to share his knowledge with the world. His bar, Panda & Sons, “is currently ranked 34 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list and picked up three wins at last year’s Spirited Awards: Best International Bar Mentor (for McPherson), Best International Bar Team and World’s Best Cocktail Menu.” He also mentioned the recent fascination with clarifying cocktails as an inspiration for his new technique. Clarification, he argues, removes color and texture where his new ‘densing’ method imparts cloudiness and texture.

Densing is accomplished by blending spirits with fats in a vacuum. This method produces a spirit that not only contains all of the flavor and texture of the fat source but reduces waste in the process. Not only are you not tossing the fat after washing your booze with it, but you can also use less fat to impart the same amount of flavor because it can stay stable inside the spirit being used.

The team over at Panda & Sons plans to release a series of educational videos in order to instruct bartenders all over the world in how to use this method.

This video really helped me to understand the process of densing, which to me sounded like something that you’d need a lab to accomplish. It’s incredible how simple this really is and how many bars could be using this method very, very soon. I hope I get to taste a spirit made dense sometime in the near future because it sounds like a really amazing flavor experience.

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