Can You Produce Aged Beer in Minutes Instead of Years?
By jason on Oct 4, 2008 in Cellaring Science, Featured, Fun
It sounds incredible, but that’s what entrepreneur and inventor Casey Jones claims to be able to do! His device, the “Ultrasonic Wine Ager” claims to be able to take any alcohol that tastes better aged and give it a vintage-like taste in under an hour.
After just a half hour or so, a seven dollar bottle of supermarket swill wine can supposedly be made to taste like it’s a $100+ bottle of the finest vintage imaginable. And even a “bottle of paint-thinner whiskey can taste like an 8-year-aged single malt”.
Mr. Jones’ invention accomplishes its magic not through time travel or the bending of the time-space continuum, but through using ultrasonic waves to “colliding alcohol molecules” inside the bottle to replicate decades of aging in mere minutes.
Early reports say that beverages put through the ultrasonic experience increased bouquet, color, and flavor. I’m not sure how just colliding alcohol molecules accomplishes all of that!
On top of the tasty effects of the artificial aging process, the aged alcohol is said to “be easier to absorb by the kidneys, and therefore hangovers are virtually eliminated”.
WTF? What in the world does that mean? I wasn’t aware that alcohol was even absorbed by the kidneys. Isn’t it broken down in the liver? Somebody please educate me here!
As you may expect, I’m a bit skeptical about this product. The science seems completely sketchy. What in the world does colliding alcohol molecules do? And there is absolutely no mention of any of the multitude of other chemical reactions that help lead to the taste profiles of aged alcohol products.
And even if it does provide some benefit to wine and spirits, I suspect it won’t work very well with most of our aging beers, especially the bottle conditioned ones. I just can’t imagine how a half-hour of ultrasonic waves can replicate the effects of years of yeast-metabolism and autolysis.
The Ultrasonic Wine Ager hasn’t been moved into mass production yet, so we’ll all have to wait to try it out on our Barley Wines and Old Ales. Despite my skepticism, I have to admit I’m interested in getting my hands on one to try it out! Anybody want to go halvesies on one with me?
Jason
I imagine even if this works, it’ll probably produce an aged quality similar to the smoked quality from liquid smoke… it hits some of the notes, but not quite all of them.
Still, if even half decent this could be worthwhile.
Aaron | Oct 4, 2008 | Reply
Nothing beats Father Time. Any means to artificially accelerate aging is bound to have some drawbacks.
Chipper Dave | Oct 4, 2008 | Reply
I saw this and have been discussing it too. I suspect it may work on on wine and spirits, as you say, because the effects of time on them is just a matter of molecules colliding, chemicals blending, etc. As for beer, it seems that the aging process is a largely matter of the yeast consuming sugars, which I doubt could be accelerated. It is quite interesting though.
Jesse | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
I think this could work on beer to an extent. Sure, part of the aging process of beer is related to the yeast. However, a lot of it is also related to the same processes that occur in wine and spirits (remember, some beers that are not bottle conditioned also age well). What I would be a little worried about is what this would do to a carbonated beverage. Would this machine cause bottle explosions or corks popping? Wine and spirits don’t have the issue of carbonation and contents under pressure (sometimes extreme pressure).
The original article I read about this had a scientist say that it actually does work. I don’t know if that means anything, but, to me, it says that there could be something to this device.
Jim | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
Sorry, I don’t buy any crazy gadgets unless Billy Mays yells at me.
John | Oct 6, 2008 | Reply
Love the comments! I’d buy a bucket full of rocks from Billy Mays if he yelled at me enough.
I wonder if I can get the manufacturer to lend me one of these babies to give it a test run once (or if) they’re produced….
jason | Oct 7, 2008 | Reply
ultrasonic aging, sounds interesting, basically the liquid is shaken by ultrasound or? Might be a interesting device which I have to taste myself…
nick | Oct 13, 2008 | Reply
It looks like it is just an ultrasonic cleaner in a fancy package. My wife has a jewelry ultrasonic cleaner. Seems like a easy experiment would be to buy two beers, stick one in the ultrasonic cleaner for an hour and them let them both settle in the ‘frige for an hour. Then taste test.
I dunno… Seems highly unlikely.
HopRunner | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply
I have to say, I doubt this would work with beer. As it’s been noted, a lot of beer is the yeast working to clean up some trace chemicals and producing others, hops fading and slight oxidation. Ultrasonic waves will not speed up metabolism.
Also, I am skeptical of using it on a carbonating beverage. Anything speeding up molecules colliding I’d have to assume would also cause the beer to gush when opened. Unless you let it rest for a while after using it.
Jeff from DrinkCraftBeer.com | Dec 22, 2008 | Reply
I sincerely doubt that it could possibly work on beer. Maybe it gets rid of sulfites in wine and impurities in liquor but there is no way to replicate years of yeast action and byproducts.
I have seen wine aerators that are supposed to be equal to decanting for an hour. It seemed to work, but this was just aerating wine.
Matt | Feb 28, 2010 | Reply