Research Discovery Is Great News For Whisky Distilling

Over the last few decades, research into alcoholic beverages and the processes of making them has increased exponentially and over the years there have been many breakthroughs. Some change the process, simplifying it or creating a higher quality product and others improve existing processes. One key component of beer and whisky making is yeast and scientists at Heriot-Watt University (in partnership with Port of Leith distillery) have been digging a bit deeper into yeast itself.

Quality of Ingredients
It is well known in the whisky world that the quality of the ingredients going into the whisky making process will affect the final product. Many whisky distillers go into great detail about the provenance of their ingredients and why that ingredient has been chosen for that particular whisky. In fact, a good deal of bottle label space is taken up by most whisky brands to do just that.

In short, the better quality the ingredient, the higher the chance that the resulting whisky will be a better quality one. It’s not an exact science, but it works as a good rule of thumb, and it is why you will find that dearer whiskies with more expensive ingredients and processes tend to be better whiskies.

Enter Yeast…
In researching whisky flavors, the researchers at Heriot-Watt University have found that different strains of yeast had profound outcomes on the final whisky flavor. The full details of which are not yet available as the experiments are still underway and the final results will be published and available to the wider whisky industry in 2020.

But the preliminary data is showing that the flavors and complexities that develop in whisky may be attributed to some degree by the specific strain of yeast the brewer/distiller has chosen to use. This has really excellent uses in the world of whisky distillation.

On the face of it that doesn’t necessarily seem like much, but, it is actually incredibly exciting as it means that distilleries will be able to isolate and identify the flavors they want in future whiskies and then use the strain of yeast that results in those flavors accordingly. Meaning that in a few short years, distillers will have never before used insight and control to craft some truly astonishing whiskies.

The Results
Typically, distillers use a common strain of yeast called Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, but recently distillers have been experimenting with other strains such as Glenmorangie using the saccharomyces Diaemath strain for one of their single malts.

All this experimentation has been trial and error and more akin to mysticism than science. Now with the body of research to be published next year, distillers will have an exact science at their disposal and will be crafting wonderful whiskies as a result. Being able to isolate the exact flavors they want and being able to remove flavors that overpower or are unwanted.

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