HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

20-Year-Old Whiskey in 6 Days: Will This Self-Taught Chemist Upend the Liquor Industry?

Views:974
@ReasonVids

Distiller Bryan Davis says he can give you a bottle of 20 year old booze in just six days thanks to new technology he created.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.



Why does a well-aged glass of smokey whiskey taste so good? It's all about the chemistry of sitting in a barrel for decades. "The polymer structures make the wood slowly fall apart," says Bryan Davis, a pioneering distiller who learned the science of liquor production by watching MIT classes on YouTube. "They shed all of these precursor chemicals that turn into different stuff that tastes really good." This time-consuming process is the reason distillers have to charge five figures for a top-shelf bottle.

Not anymore. Davis, cofounder of the Los Angeles–based Lost Spirits Distillery, has figured out a way to compress a 20-year aging process into about six days.

Davis created a reactor that mimics the natural aging process of booze left in a barrel. The result: bottles of spirits with the same chemical signature as those aged for the lifespan of a young adult. His products have won multiple awards, and the technology could transform the aged spirits market by bringing bottles that used to cost more than $1,000 within reach of the masses.

The liquor world has been forbidding to small distillers since the repeal of Prohibition. When Davis and Joanne Haruta (his significant other and business partner) arrived in Monterey, California, more than a decade ago, they wanted to get into the aged whiskey and rum market. First they needed to raise half a million dollars.

"We would just be literally sitting there going, 'OK, we'll sell our first bottle of booze when I'm 60," you know?'"

In search of short cuts, Davis decided to study the chemistry of a well-aged bottle of booze. He began by watching YouTube videos of MIT chemistry classes, pausing only to look up vocabulary words on Wikipedia.

"You can just sort of tunnel your way down the rabbit hole until all of a sudden one day you read a paper and go, 'Wow, I understood everything that said,'" he says.

By 2013, Davis had figured out how to force the chemical reaction called "esterification"—the main driving force behind barrel aging. But he couldn't come up with a natural way to break the polymer structures in a wooden barrel, which is what gives a well-aged bottle its taste. One day, while thinking about how he had to replace the sun-damaged wooden deck attached to his mobile home, he had an epiphany: By blasting wood with light, he could speed up the process of degrading wood.

Today Davis licenses his technology to other distillers, and his invention is the talk of the industry. An art major in college, Davis wants to bring an artistic sensibility back to liquor-making, pushing the limits of the form. He dreams of a future when liquor-store shelves are lined with bottles that customers don't recognize.

"I sort of view myself as that same antagonist to those canonistic systems," he says.

Produced by Paul Detrick. Shot by Alex Manning and Alexis Garcia.

"Marxist Arrow," by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

"Aourourou," by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/BlueDotSessions/Azalai/Aourourou
Artist: https://www.sessions.blue/

"Frost Waltz (Alternate)," by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100531
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Photo Credits:
Photo of whiskey bottles, Credit: RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom
Photo of bourbon bottle, Credit: RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom
Photo of liquor store shelf, Credit: Caro / Bastian/Newscom

how to make whiskey
,
how to make booze
,
whiskey
,
rum
,
lost spirits
,
lost spirits distillery
,
6 day old booze
,
bryan davis
,
distilling
,
moonshine
    Thumbnail for CNN's Jake Tapper on The Hellfire Club, Donald Trump's Big Lies, and D.C.'s 'Bullshit Waterfall'46:17
    CNN's Jake Tapper on The Hellfire Club, Donald Trump's Big Lies, and D.C.'s 'Bullshit Waterfall'
    ReasonVids
    1031 views
    Thumbnail for Doctors File Lawsuit Challenging State's Ban on Dispensing Medications to Their Patients3:32
    Doctors File Lawsuit Challenging State's Ban on Dispensing Medications to Their Patients
    IJvids
    907 views
    Thumbnail for Why Won’t the Supreme Court Hold Police Accountable?21:32
    Why Won’t the Supreme Court Hold Police Accountable?
    IJvids
    980 views
    Thumbnail for 1988 - CBS 60 Minutes - ((( Mike Wallace ))) tells the truth about AIPAC's undue, illegal, and near complete control of U.S. Congress.9:20
    1988 - CBS 60 Minutes - ((( Mike Wallace ))) tells the truth about AIPAC's undue, illegal, and near complete control of U.S. Congress.
    bestofupgoat
    455 views
    Thumbnail for Government Is Still the Biggest Threat to Free Speech5:11
    Government Is Still the Biggest Threat to Free Speech
    ReasonVids
    878 views
    Thumbnail for Treat Pot Better Than We Did Booze! 3 Ways to Not Screw Up Marijuana Legalization1:04
    Treat Pot Better Than We Did Booze! 3 Ways to Not Screw Up Marijuana Legalization
    ReasonVids
    864 views
    Thumbnail for On the Set of Atlas Shrugged: 53 Years in the Making5:36
    On the Set of Atlas Shrugged: 53 Years in the Making
    ReasonVids
    918 views
    Thumbnail for  It Was All A Lie | Ride and Roast36:08
    It Was All A Lie | Ride and Roast
    Terrence Popp
    1933 views
    Thumbnail for The History of Fabric Is the History of Civilization5:07
    The History of Fabric Is the History of Civilization
    ReasonVids
    836 views
    Thumbnail for Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey! Coming March 15! Trailer 10:53
    Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey! Coming March 15! Trailer 1
    ReasonVids
    866 views
    Thumbnail for 38 Studios: Curt Schilling's Crony Capitalism Debacle7:02
    38 Studios: Curt Schilling's Crony Capitalism Debacle
    ReasonVids
    1001 views
    Thumbnail for The Plan to Create a Giant, Privately Funded Nature Reserve by Selling Beef5:33
    The Plan to Create a Giant, Privately Funded Nature Reserve by Selling Beef
    ReasonVids
    944 views
    Thumbnail for Malmö, Sweden - I really hope this fucker got the beating of his life once the camera went off0:39
    Malmö, Sweden - I really hope this fucker got the beating of his life once the camera went off
    AOUisgay
    491 views
    Thumbnail for Crushing Ball Bearing Underwater with Hydraulic Press | Hydraulic Press Channel8:48
    Crushing Ball Bearing Underwater with Hydraulic Press | Hydraulic Press Channel
    invidious
    381 views
    Thumbnail for In this edition of FAFO...0:17
    In this edition of FAFO...
    bestofupgoat
    369 views
    Thumbnail for The Air Force Veteran Fighting to Save Afghans From the Taliban14:00
    The Air Force Veteran Fighting to Save Afghans From the Taliban
    ReasonVids
    970 views
    Thumbnail for Outraged Fullerton citizens react to Kelly Thomas beating tape3:14
    Outraged Fullerton citizens react to Kelly Thomas beating tape
    ReasonVids
    868 views
    Thumbnail for prescient2:50
    prescient
    bestofupgoat
    282 views
    Thumbnail for Liminality | Official Trailer for Lost History Film by Truthstream Media | Truthstream Media12:55
    Liminality | Official Trailer for Lost History Film by Truthstream Media | Truthstream Media
    invidious
    26 views
    Thumbnail for Filmmaker Michael Covel on Broke: The New American Dream9:19
    Filmmaker Michael Covel on Broke: The New American Dream
    ReasonVids
    991 views
    Thumbnail for Ron Paul and the GOP Convention4:10
    Ron Paul and the GOP Convention
    ReasonVids
    798 views
    Thumbnail for BREAKING: Four IDF Soldiers KILLED In Hezbollah Attack; U.S. To DEPLOY Troops To Israel | TBN Israel20:26
    BREAKING: Four IDF Soldiers KILLED In Hezbollah Attack; U.S. To DEPLOY Troops To Israel | TBN Israel
    invidious
    163 views
    Thumbnail for "Bob Dylan Is the Shakespeare for Our Time" -Penn Jillette3:13
    "Bob Dylan Is the Shakespeare for Our Time" -Penn Jillette
    ReasonVids
    866 views
    Thumbnail for All I can say is DAYUM 😍1:05
    All I can say is DAYUM 😍
    bestofupgoat
    61 views
    Thumbnail for An Atheist Billboard in Brooklyn2:13
    An Atheist Billboard in Brooklyn
    ReasonVids
    1007 views

points

Permalink
Reply
how to make whiskey
,
how to make booze
,
whiskey
,
rum
,
lost spirits
,
lost spirits distillery
,
6 day old booze
,
bryan davis
,
distilling
,
moonshine
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle