Happy Friday and welcome back to this week’s edition of In Good Spirits! If you live in New England like I do, by the time you finish this newsletter the thermometer may have gone from sweater-weather to tank-top-temperature. I’m pretty done with the heat but it seems that in true New England fashion the weather is not done messing with us just yet.

Last week we talked very briefly about the impacts of time and environment on spirits that are aged in casks. It’s something I’ve always found interesting because although there are ways to control a lot of the process to get desired outcomes, part of the art and romance of barrel aging is the unexpected influences. That’s why this week I am doing a somewhat deep dive into what aging does to our favorite spirits and why the process can be frustrating and maybe even at times a point of contention. Developments in technology regardless of industry sometimes show us that more isn’t always better.

Despite the lengthy segment I dedicated to this new invention I did also want to talk about another tech development in the N/A spirits world since I love a theme.

the Angels Aren’t Going to Like this One

Aged spirits have grown in popularity with the craft cocktail movement. The ever increasing education of consumers on the quality and ingredients in our food and beverages has pushed many industries to hold themselves to higher standards. This has also made aged spirits like bourbon, rye, rum, tequila, etc. more approachable to those who may have otherwise stuck to clear, neutral based spirits. In some ways this is great for distilleries that already focused on barrel aging - now they have a bigger consumer base - but it also leads to the problem that all distillers face when aging spirits in barrels or casks: evaporation and leaking.

The term used for the volume lost from the cask or barrel during aging is the “angel’s share”. In many parts of the world spirits are aged in large warehouses that are not uniformly temperature controlled. For our reference purposes we are going to be using bourbon as our theoretical spirit. In the bourbon whiskey industry these warehouses are often called “rickhouses” and the conditions inside the various areas of the rickhouse create different characteristics in each barrel. Sometimes these differences are highly sought after and so are selected to be used in “single barrel”* or “small batch”* releases. This does mean however, that some barrels lose significant amounts of useable liquid. Numbers vary but each barrel loses anywhere from 2-5% per year of aging. Depending on the number of years in the cask some barrels could lose up to 40% of their total volume before bottling.

The loss of this much product seems absolutely staggering from those outside the industry but for most distillers this is pretty much the expected amount of evaporation. Here’s where good intentions and seemingly brilliant engineering enter the scene. After visiting the Jameson distillery in 2019, Jeremy Grunewald (a chemical engineer who had a background in the roofing industry) went home to the states thinking about what his tour guide had told him: thousands of bottles worth of whiskey were lost every single day to evaporation and barrel leaks. It was enough to inspire an entirely new patented product: Spiritlock technology. The company Devil’s Cask was created to market this new tech. It’s available in a few different formats including pre-treated barrels and self-applied treatments for existing casks. “In 2024, it was named the grand winner in the Distilled Spirit Council’s (DISCUS) Innovation Showcase competition.” The award is given to products that are poised to revolutionize industry standards and inspire change.

The idea itself and the goal at it’s core (to reduce waste and increase inventory) are very interesting. From the perspective of a distillery’s accountant this is it. I mean the article that brought me to this product even claims it “solves” the spirits industry’s problem, but there is so much more nuance to the process of aging than the numbers and surface level perceptions.

Without going too into detail about how the entire aging process plays out inside a barrel of bourbon I will give you the general reason why the angel’s share is actually a very important factor in flavor. Even without intimate knowledge about distillation and cask aging it is logical to assume that the point of putting a spirit into a barrel is to impart flavor. Spirits aren’t considered “aged” if they sit in glass for years untouched because the vessel offers no new flavor elements to the original liquid. When aged in a cask, a spirit is exposed to a number of conditions that change the flavor over time. Some of this is from the wood absorbing and re-releasing the liquid inside. What a product like the Devil’s Cask fails to fully appreciate is that the interaction with the wood is not the only influence that distillers want. When evaporation occurs the remaining liquid also gets a higher concentration of those desired qualities (since there is less liquid to dilute them), which depending on the time it takes to reduce plays directly with the alcohol content and other important factors in the final drinking experience.

I don’t mean to imply this tech is a detriment to its targeted market. I think there are plenty of ways that this product could be a wonderful tool for distillers. Here’s the thing: when someone outside a specialized industry makes a product for it, there’s a good chance it loses sight of what the devil the point is. (sorry I had to) Although money is a concern, most distillers know that the angel’s share isn’t really all good or all bad. It’s one of many factors that makes the spirit worth sipping, and without it the end result might not be as interesting.

How a Master Perfumer Became the Mastermind Behind a Game-changing N/A Experience Enhancement

Somehow, this is also the story of someone with no real ties to the spirits industry creating a product, hoping their unique perspective could fill a specific gap. After his young son (22 years old; legal, but let’s face it - inexperienced) came home from a night of a few too many spirited drinks, Reynald Grattagliano found himself consumed by the idea his son presented to him: “someone should create a whisky that doesn’t leave you feeling so hung-over”. Being a perfumer by trade and a businessman by his own ambition he essentially built a team to engineer a spiritless spirit with all the experiential qualities loved by drinkers, just without the regret.

In the process, a molecule was isolated and incorporated into each offering that essentially mimics that warm burn that alcohol gives as it goes down. The company then went about trademarking the molecule and calling it the “W.A.R.M. molecule”.

What is this incredible breakthrough? Well, it’s actually capsaicin.

Other N/A brands also utilize capsaicin or other peppers and spices to create the same effect but Grattagliano and his brand Arkay may well be the only ones to trademark the molecule and thus draw an appeal others might not.

This list was so crazy to me because I had never heard of any of these whiskeys before. I am obsessed with the idea of the 100% oat whiskey and I feel like I have to go find it right now. I’m not a dessert person but his description has me feeling like this might be the little treat I’ve been looking for. I don’t know if the cool weather that’s been sneaking in is making me so into whiskey again but I really don’t hate it. Has anyone tried any of these?

Quick Hits:

_{*Note that single barrel and small batch are not interchangeable terms; single barrel refers to an offering taken from one barrel and not blended with any other while small batch is a much murkier term. Small batch means that the number of barrels used to blend that particular offering are lower than the usual number for that brand but there are no legal definitions that any distillery must follow to use that label.}