What is the name of artificial aging of cognac. Biochemical processes of natural aging of cognac alcohol in barrels
The invention can be used in the food industry, in particular in the production of spirits, such as vodka and cognac. The flowing flow of an alcoholic liquid is affected by an interferogram of laser radiation, the interferogram is formed due to two initially equal beams obtained using an optical splitter from one source, and the first beam after reflection from the mirror is directed into the flow of an alcoholic liquid, and the second beam is converted in a chiral medium into a left-handed polarized radiation containing dislocation axes, after which it is also directed into the flow of alcoholic liquid, where it interferes with the first beam. The invention makes it possible to accelerate the aging process of alcoholic beverages, as well as to improve their quality. 3 ill.
The invention relates to the food industry, in particular to the production of spirits, and can be used to accelerate aging and refinement of such beverages as vodka and cognac. There is a known method of aging spirits, in which, in order to accelerate aging, the drinks are exposed to a low-frequency polarized pulsed magnetic field with an intensity of 10 to 120 Gauss, the source of the effect being located next to the container containing the drink. Accelerated fermentation of beverages is reduced to stimulating the formation of associates due to the Zeeman effect: energy levels are split in a magnetic field and, due to the spin-orbit interaction, a relaxation channel opens, which they use to form bound complexes. The disadvantage of this method is that initially the focus is on increasing the amplitude of the field, and not its frequency, besides, the declared polarization of the field is little used at those frequencies that are mentioned in the application: 50-400 Hz, since the relaxation times in a liquid are of the order of 10 -6 s or less, and for the minimum pulsation period specified in the application, ~ 2510 -4 s, any molecular complex always manages to track the orientation of the field, so that at the indicated frequencies the magnetic effect of the alternating magnetic field is almost the same as the constant one. But due to the fact that the alcoholic liquid is a weak electrolyte, induction eddy currents may appear in it, which, due to the finiteness of the electrical resistance of the alcoholic liquid, lead to the release of Joule heat, i.e. to local heating of the liquid and, by virtue of this, to the destruction of associate complexes. In addition, the proposed method requires rather bulky equipment. There is also known a method in which to accelerate the aging process of cognac use microwave irradiation in the centimeter range (2175-2575 MHz) of a mixture of cognac alcohol and oak sawdust for 10-15 minutes, while the mixture is evenly heated in volume to ~ 45 degrees, those. operate in one of the ranges of the extremum of the dielectric loss of water. In this case, apparently, there is some stimulation of the catalytic centers for the extraction of tannins. Then the mixture is cooled to 10 degrees and the process is repeated. The cycle is 6-10 days. Subsequently, the sawdust filtration process takes place. The disadvantage of this method is, firstly, the high labor intensity associated with the need to move large containers with liquid, and secondly, the need for a special room for processing by the microwave field, tk. there is a danger of the operating personnel heating up to the same temperatures. Thirdly, the high cost associated with the need to organize a production line for implementation on an industrial scale. The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the quality of alcoholic liquids while accelerating their aging. It is known that the aging of alcoholic beverages leads to the "eating away" of right-handed sugars, which leads to an increase in the levorotatory properties of the liquid in comparison with the initial one. Therefore, if the formation of left chromophore associates is initiated by external radiation, then the processed product will have the properties of an old drink. This is achieved by the fact that in the proposed method of accelerated aging, the flow of a flowing liquid is influenced by low-power laser radiation with two wide beams from one source, the first beam reflected from the mirror is directed into the flow of the flowing liquid, and the second beam, after transformation in a chiral medium into a left-handed polarized radiation with a singular wavefront is also directed into the flow of an alcoholic liquid, where it interferes with the first, reference beam. When an alcoholic liquid moves under the influence of an interferogram of laser beams, its optical density and optical activity change. In the proposed method of artificial aging, laser radiation is subjected to polarization filtration, since at certain frequency parameters the chiral medium is a polarization filter, it is also necessary that the radiation has phase singularities, then, when interfering with the reference beam, the resulting field will have the properties necessary to initiate aging. The process of associate structuring consists in the fact that upon interference of two beams, one of which contains the dislocation axes of the left-handed polarized wave, a spatial polarization "lattice" is formed in the volume of the liquid, which changes the optical density of the alcoholic liquid, causing a cascade of changes in the conformation and structure of water associates, which lead to organoleptic changes, manifested in the refinement of the properties of the original drink. The proposed method is illustrated by drawings. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the implementation of the method. FIG. 2 is a graph of the dependence of optical density on wavelength for cognac before and after processing. FIG. 3 is a graph of the dependence of optical density on wavelength for vodka before and after processing. The method is carried out as follows. The flow of liquid flowing through a quartz tube 5 with a diameter of 3 cm is exposed to laser radiation with a power of 1 W (radiation wavelength 500-800 nm). In an optical power divider, combined with a diffraction grating 2, the radiation is divided into two wide identical beams. The first beam, reflected from the mirror 3, is directed into the fluid flow. The second beam is directed to the chiral object 4, where it is converted into left-handed polarized radiation with a singular wavefront. As a chiral object, we used a structure consisting of a lattice of dielectric double helices, similar to those described in. Both beams are directed into the flow of the flowing liquid, where they interfere. The resulting field of interfering beams has a spiral structure with a predominance of left-handed spirals, which affects the alcoholic liquid, changing its optical density and optical activity, thereby leading to the necessary organoleptic changes. The measurements were carried out on a spectrophotometer that allows you to smoothly track the dynamics of changes in optical density. Figures 2 and 3 show the results of measuring the optical density before and after treatment. Here D is the ratio of the number of incident photons to the number of transmitted ones. Analysis of the absorption spectrum of cognac (figure 2) confirms that the absorption after treatment increases b, and significantly (at the peak by a factor of 2), which is associated with the formation of new absorption centers, and this can only be associated with the appearance of new bonds in the alcoholic liquid, which only confirms the formation of new associates and a change in the conformational state of the associates of the alcoholic liquid. Analysis of the absorption spectrum of low-quality vodka (Fig. 3) also confirms that the absorption after treatment b increases (at the peak by 1.6 times), and the nature of the changes differs from those in cognac. To assess the intensity of the impact, let us assume that the quantum energy is 2 eV, then 10 19 photons are delivered to the liquid per second, at a pumping rate of 3 l / s, which corresponds to about 100 gram-moles of the solution, about 10 26 molecules are pumped per second, and this means that the initiation of changes is caused by a fraction of molecules that are less than one millionth of the total. Thus, acting on the flow of an alcoholic liquid by the interferogram of two monochromatic beams having one source, one of which contains dislocation left-sided axes, we induce conformational changes in the alcoholic liquid, improving its quality, accelerating the aging process. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, experiments were carried out in laboratory and production conditions, which confirmed the efficiency of the method. Example 1. Brandy "White Aist" with a six-month exposure period was taken as a starting product, a golden liquid with a pungent odor and taste, chromatogram (column FFAP50 * 0.32) showed concentration, mg / l: aldehydes 20.026; ethers 80.09; methanol 0.0118; fusel oils 469.97. After processing according to the above procedure (wavelength 690 nm), the chromatogram of the processed product was registered, mg / l: aldehydes 15.382; ethers 62.619; methanol 0.011016; fusel oils 459.5, additional peaks with long sublimation times that were not identified by the chromatograph program appeared on the chromatogram. The pungent smell disappeared, the taste became noticeably softer, more oily. Example 2. The processed product (example 1) was re-treated with radiation with a wavelength of 614 nm. Result, mg / l: aldehydes 14.869; ethers 73.368; methanol 0.0109; fusel oils 459.76 mg / l. Compared to the previous treatment, the product has a wine smell and a sour aftertaste. In the proposed method, in comparison with the prototype, a low-power laser is used. Due to the high energy of a quantum and a simple conversion of radiation, the necessary result is achieved: the optical density and optical activity of the alcoholic liquid and, as a consequence, its organoleptic properties change. Moreover, due to the coherence of the source during scattering and absorption of radiation, in a certain sense, "conversion" of monochromaticity into organoleptic refinement occurs. Sources of information 1. Patent US 5860353, 19.01.1999, IPC C 12 H 1/00. 2.A.S. USSR 630292, class. C 12 N 1/22, 1978 - prototype. 3. UFN, v. 167, 11, p. 1201-1212. Chiral electrodynamic objects. B.Z. Katselenbaum, E.N. Korshunova, A.N. Sivov, A.D. Shatrov. 4. V.A. Kizel. Physical reasons for the dissymmetry of living systems. Moscow: Nauka, 1985. 5. ZhTF, vol. 70, issue 9, 2000. Method for determining the detonation characteristics of petroleum products based on regression analysis of absorption spectra in the near infrared range. V.N. Korolev, A.V. Marugin, V.B. Tsaregradskiy, p. 85.
Claim
A method of aging an alcoholic liquid, involving exposure to it by an electromagnetic field, characterized in that laser radiation is used as a source of an electromagnetic field, and the impact is carried out on a flow of alcoholic liquid by an interference radiation field created by dividing the initial laser radiation into two beams and subsequent superposition in the flow one beam, the reference one, after reflection from the mirror; and the other, transformed in a chiral medium into left-handed polarized radiation with a wavefront singularity.
I would like to emphasize that upgrading is a second order matter. The quality of the original EMS should come first. Refining should be bringing the drink to your preferred taste sensations, and not skillful concealment of the flaws of the first stages due to the stronger organoleptic properties of the ingredients introduced.
So, here we come to the finish line of production homemade moonshine... Behind were the preparation of mash, hauls and cleaning. Now you need to decide how much to dilute and how to refine the resulting drink? Let's start by diluting.
Dilution of homemade moonshine to drinkable strength. How?
Pouring in moonshine double distillation in a thin stream into the water. I use for this silicone hose from the dropper.
The resulting solution should be allowed to "rest".
My practice has shown that not less than three days. If time suffers - a week. Further, the longer the better. This is especially evident with me with grain moonshine. It comes in about two to three months.
How much should you dilute?
As they say, the taste and color of the comrade is not. The same proverb approaches the question of how much to dilute the moonshine after distillation?
My personal observations are as follows:
55% or more of the alcoholic content of the final product - if you want to surprise, what a strong moonshine you have
45% -55% of the alcoholic content of the final product - if you want to get drunk quickly and then forget (in common parlance -> "get drunk")
40% -44% of the spirituality of the final product - if you do not want to forget yourself immediately, having managed to communicate in a circle of people you like;
38% -39% spirituality of the final product - if you want to spend a long evening in pleasant communication
Simple recipes for tinctures
I myself prefer either bitter drinks or grains / fruits without any additives. But not all guests have the same preferences. Many demanded something more pleasant. Once, from what was at hand, I made a tincture, which went off with a bang in my social circle .. It turned out that the average between liqueur and cognac. So....
Infusion. General theory
Let's first consider the existing classification of alcoholic beverages. The presented division of drinks into categories is based on GOST No. 20001-74 "Alcoholic beverage industry. Basic concepts. Terms and definitions." This is my interpretation of the document. There will be a desire and opportunity, read this document yourself. It is possible that you will find useful nuances for yourself,
Aging drinks in oak barrels
One of the main differences between the technology of distilled drinks (whiskey, cognac, calvados, etc.) from our classic moonshine is its long-term aging in barrels. Barrels can be made from various types of wood, both deciduous and coniferous. However, as it was found over time, almost all types of wood either have a negative effect on the quality of whiskey, enriching it with undesirable components, or are unsuitable for long-term storage of liquids due to decay. Only oak wood has a high strength and less resin compared to other types of wood and does not give excessively strong third-party aromas.
Blending
Blending (also blending; from the French coupage) in the alcohol industry - mixing in a certain ratio of various types alcoholic beverage to improve its quality, bring out a new variety, ensure the typicality of the drink and release batches of uniform organoleptic characteristics. Most often used in the production of wine, cognac, whiskey.
Reforming is a heat stroke produced for the artificial aging of vodka (alcohol). At distilleries, it is carried out by holding alcohol at a temperature of + 70 °, in an airtight container and throughout the entire 24 hours. As you can see, only one day, instead of 3-5 years and with the same results! And all this is explained by chemical laws. It has been experimentally established that with each increase in temperature by 10 °, the rate of chemical reactions increases, as a rule, 2-4 times. And the fact that chemical processes take place in the stored vodka is beyond doubt, because the results are clearly visible. But let's go in the opposite direction: at a temperature of 70 °, exposure is a day, but to get the same result at a temperature of + 60 °, vodka must be kept for four days (four times longer); at 50 ° - 16 days; at 40 ° - 64 days; at 30 ° - 256 days and at 20 ° - over 1000 days, or about 3 years.
The invention can be used in the food industry, in particular in the production of spirits, such as vodka and cognac. The flowing flow of an alcoholic liquid is affected by an interferogram of laser radiation, the interferogram is formed due to two initially equal beams obtained using an optical splitter from one source, and the first beam after reflection from the mirror is directed into the flow of an alcoholic liquid, and the second beam is converted in a chiral medium into a left-handed polarized radiation containing dislocation axes, after which it is also directed into the flow of alcoholic liquid, where it interferes with the first beam. The invention makes it possible to accelerate the aging process of alcoholic beverages, as well as to improve their quality. 3 ill.
The invention relates to the food industry, in particular to the production of spirits, and can be used to accelerate aging and refinement of such drinks as vodka and cognac. There is a known method of aging spirits, in which, in order to accelerate aging, the drinks are exposed to a low-frequency polarized pulsed magnetic field with an intensity of 10 to 120 Gauss, the source of the effect being located next to the container containing the drink. Accelerated fermentation of drinks is reduced to stimulating the formation of associates due to the Zeeman effect: in a magnetic field, energy levels are split and, due to the spin-orbit interaction, a relaxation channel opens, which they use to form bound complexes. The disadvantage of this method is that initially the focus is on increasing the amplitude of the field, and not its frequency, besides, the declared polarization of the field is little used at those frequencies that are mentioned in the application: 50-400 Hz, since the relaxation times in a liquid are of the order of 10 -6 s or less, and for the minimum pulsation period specified in the application, ~ 2510 -4 s, any molecular complex always manages to track the orientation of the field, so that at the indicated frequencies the magnetic effect of an alternating magnetic field is almost the same as a constant one. But due to the fact that the alcoholic liquid is a weak electrolyte, induction eddy currents may appear in it, which, due to the finiteness of the electrical resistance of the alcoholic liquid, lead to the release of Joule heat, i.e. to local heating of the liquid and, by virtue of this, to the destruction of associate complexes. In addition, the proposed method requires rather bulky equipment. There is also known a method in which to accelerate the aging process of cognac use microwave irradiation in the centimeter range (2175-2575 MHz) of a mixture of cognac alcohol and oak sawdust for 10-15 minutes, while the mixture is evenly heated in volume to ~ 45 degrees, those. operate in one of the ranges of the extremum of the dielectric loss of water. In this case, apparently, there is some stimulation of the catalytic centers for the extraction of tannins. Then the mixture is cooled to 10 degrees and the process is repeated. The cycle is 6-10 days. Subsequently, the sawdust filtration process takes place. The disadvantage of this method is, firstly, the high labor intensity associated with the need to move large containers with liquid, and secondly, the need for a special room for processing by the microwave field, tk. there is a danger of the operating personnel heating up to the same temperatures. Thirdly, the high cost associated with the need to organize a production line for implementation on an industrial scale. The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the quality of alcoholic liquids while accelerating their aging. It is known that the aging of alcoholic beverages leads to the "eating away" of right-handed sugars, which leads to an increase in the levorotatory properties of the liquid in comparison with the initial one. Therefore, if the formation of left chromophore associates is initiated by external radiation, then the processed product will have the properties of an old drink. This is achieved by the fact that in the proposed method of accelerated aging, the flow of a flowing liquid is influenced by low-power laser radiation with two wide beams from one source, the first beam reflected from the mirror is directed into the flow of the flowing liquid, and the second beam, after transformation in a chiral medium into a left-handed polarized radiation with a singular wavefront is also directed into the flow of an alcoholic liquid, where it interferes with the first, reference beam. When an alcoholic liquid moves under the influence of an interferogram of laser beams, its optical density and optical activity change. In the proposed method of artificial aging, laser radiation is subjected to polarization filtration, since at certain frequency parameters the chiral medium is a polarization filter, it is also necessary that the radiation has phase singularities, then, when interfering with the reference beam, the resulting field will have the properties necessary to initiate aging. The process of associate structuring consists in the fact that upon interference of two beams, one of which contains the dislocation axes of the left-handed polarized wave, a spatial polarization "lattice" is formed in the volume of the liquid, which changes the optical density of the alcoholic liquid, causing a cascade of changes in the conformation and structure of water associates, which lead to organoleptic changes, manifested in the refinement of the properties of the original drink. The proposed method is illustrated by drawings. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the implementation of the method. FIG. 2 is a graph of the dependence of optical density on wavelength for cognac before and after processing. FIG. 3 is a graph of the dependence of optical density on wavelength for vodka before and after processing. The method is carried out as follows. The flow of liquid flowing through a quartz tube 5 with a diameter of 3 cm is exposed to laser radiation with a power of 1 W (radiation wavelength 500-800 nm). In an optical power divider, combined with a diffraction grating 2, the radiation is divided into two wide identical beams. The first beam, reflected from the mirror 3, is directed into the fluid flow. The second beam is directed to the chiral object 4, where it is converted into left-handed polarized radiation with a singular wavefront. As a chiral object, we used a structure consisting of a lattice of dielectric double helices, similar to those described in. Both beams are directed into the flow of the flowing liquid, where they interfere. The resulting field of interfering beams has a spiral structure with a predominance of left-handed spirals, which affects the alcoholic liquid, changing its optical density and optical activity, thereby leading to the necessary organoleptic changes. The measurements were carried out on a spectrophotometer that allows you to smoothly track the dynamics of changes in optical density. Figures 2 and 3 show the results of measuring the optical density before and after treatment. Here D is the ratio of the number of incident photons to the number of transmitted ones. Analysis of the absorption spectrum of cognac (figure 2) confirms that the absorption after treatment increases b, and significantly (at the peak by a factor of 2), which is associated with the formation of new absorption centers, and this can only be associated with the appearance of new bonds in the alcoholic liquid, which only confirms the formation of new associates and a change in the conformational state of the alcohol liquid associates. Analysis of the absorption spectrum of low-quality vodka (figure 3) also confirms that the absorption after treatment b increases (at the peak by 1.6 times), and the nature of the changes differs from those in cognac. To assess the intensity of the impact, let us assume that the quantum energy is 2 eV, then 10 19 photons are delivered to the liquid per second, at a pumping rate of 3 l / s, which corresponds to about 100 gram-moles of the solution, about 10 26 molecules are pumped per second, and this means that the initiation of changes is caused by a fraction of molecules that are less than one millionth of the total. Thus, acting on the flow of an alcoholic liquid with an interferogram of two monochromatic beams having one source, one of which contains dislocation left-sided axes, we induce conformational changes in the alcoholic liquid, improving its quality, accelerating the aging process. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, experiments were carried out in laboratory and production conditions, which confirmed the efficiency of the method. Example 1. Brandy "White Aist" with a six-month exposure period was taken as a starting product, a golden liquid with a pungent odor and taste, chromatogram (column FFAP50 * 0.32) showed concentration, mg / l: aldehydes 20.026; ethers 80.09; methanol 0.0118; fusel oils 469.97. After processing according to the above procedure (wavelength 690 nm), the chromatogram of the processed product was registered, mg / l: aldehydes 15.382; ethers 62.619; methanol 0.011016; fusel oils 459.5, additional peaks with long sublimation times that were not identified by the chromatograph program appeared on the chromatogram. The pungent smell disappeared, the taste became noticeably softer, more oily. Example 2. The processed product (example 1) was re-treated with radiation with a wavelength of 614 nm. Result, mg / l: aldehydes 14.869; ethers 73.368; methanol 0.0109; fusel oils 459.76 mg / l. Compared to the previous treatment, the product has a wine smell and a sour aftertaste. In the proposed method, in comparison with the prototype, a low-power laser is used. Due to the high energy of a quantum and a simple conversion of radiation, the necessary result is achieved: the optical density and optical activity of the alcoholic liquid and, as a consequence, its organoleptic properties change. Moreover, due to the coherence of the source during scattering and absorption of radiation, in a certain sense, "conversion" of monochromaticity into organoleptic refinement occurs. Sources of information
1. Patent US 5860353, 19.01.1999, IPC C 12 N 1/00. 2.A.S. USSR 630292, class. C 12 N 1/22, 1978 - prototype. 3. UFN, v. 167, 11, p. 1201-1212. Chiral electrodynamic objects. B.Z. Katselenbaum, E.N. Korshunova, A.N. Sivov, A.D. Shatrov. 4. V.A. Kizel. Physical reasons for the dissymmetry of living systems. Moscow: Nauka, 1985. 5. ZhTF, t. 70, issue 9, 2000. Method for determining the detonation characteristics of petroleum products based on regression analysis of absorption spectra in the near infrared range. V.N. Korolev, A.V. Marugin, V.B. Tsaregradskiy, p. 85.
CLAIM
A method of aging an alcoholic liquid, involving exposure to it by an electromagnetic field, characterized in that laser radiation is used as a source of an electromagnetic field, and the impact is carried out on a flow of alcoholic liquid by an interference radiation field created by dividing the initial laser radiation into two beams and subsequent superposition in the flow one beam, the reference one, after reflection from the mirror; and the other, transformed in a chiral medium into left-handed polarized radiation with a wavefront singularity.How to Age 5 Years in 20 Seconds: Fast Decanting
Tim Ferriss is a well-known blogger and author.
About five years ago he wrote a book "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich", by Tim Ferriss.
"4 hour work week. Don't work from 9 to 5, live where you want and get rich"
... Approximately such a translation.
The book made a lot of noise and became a bestseller. It is geared towards people trying to succeed in starting and running their own business. Since then, he has updated and republished the book. Amazon has 2,274 reviews and a 4.5 star rating.
General opinion: inspires to work, something interesting, not everything is accurate, but there are ideas worthy of attention.
I read this book. It is written both easily and fascinatingly, but since I don't have a business, then it's hard for me to appreciate it.
But this is not why I write, but because Timothy Ferriss is a person who is fond of literally everything and writes about it in his blog, which he updates quite regularly: he mastered ballroom dancing, is engaged in bodybuilding, some other all-round sports and wrote a book about it ; looked into cooking and wrote about it too, shows magic tricks, etc., etc.
But recently in his blog, he wrote the following text: "How to age a wine 5 years in 20 seconds: quick decanting".
What does it mean? Here's what:
Tim suggests improving the taste of the wine by whipping, i.e. instead of pouring the wine into a decanter before drinking and letting it get some air, which can take an hour or two, to speed up this process by whipping the wine with an electric mixer for 20 seconds.
The method, as I understood from the comments, was not invented by him, but conveyed to his audience.
But first, he writes a little about aerating wine. The wine must be allowed to "breathe" before drinking it.
The first he describes the method of simply rocking the wine in the glass, the second - by pouring it into a decanter and airing it there for an hour or two, the third - using an aerator (this is a plastic device that allows faster, under pressure, pouring wine from bottle into glass) , and the fourth - pouring and whipping wine in a separate bowl.
Of course, I experimented with the fourth: I did not touch one glass of wine, whipped the wine in the second (in a cup) and, I think, noticed an almost imperceptible difference in taste. Moreover, not immediately.
After a glass of red wine, by the way, initially quite good, but on an empty stomach, the impressions are somehow erased.
And yet, I must admit that I have never been an expert, so I don’t insist on my opinion and ask the audience for help. Yes.
If you try to do this, please unsubscribe. It's interesting all the same.
The original text and video is here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/12/18/hyperdecanting-wine/
In cognac spirit aged in oak barrels, under the influence of oxygen penetrating through the pores of the oak stave (near the tongue above the alcohol-free space), redox processes continuously occur, causing the gradual maturation of cognac spirits and the development of taste and aromatic qualities in them. This process takes place with greater or lesser intensity, depending on the amount of supplied oxygen and temperature conditions. So, according to Janpoladyan, cognac spirits of 1902, 1914 and 1917. their composition turned out to be ripe in 1950 and further aging in barrels does not improve their quality.
Raw cognac spirit acquires aromatic and taste qualities only during long aging in oak barrels. The processes occurring during the ripening and aging of cognacs are considered by Oparin, Manskaya and Emelyanova proceeding from the theory of slow oxidation of Acad. A. N. Bach. A number of studies have shown that cognac alcohol extracts polyphenols (quercetin ( Quercitrin (C 21 H 22 O 12) is a hyucoside of tetraoxyflavoia (quercetin - C 15 H 10 O 7), upon decomposition of quercitrin gives quercetin and isodulcite), quercitrin, and others), which are oxidized to form peroxides with oxygen penetrating through the pores of the rivets. The further oxidation process takes place with the participation of catalysts - heavy metals (copper) ( Iron can only be found in cognac spirits by accident.), which are oxygen transmitters to the constituent parts of cognac. When artificially added to cognacs peroxidase ( Peroxidase in cognac spirits is almost absent) Manskaya and Emelyanova noted the acceleration of the maturation of cognacs and an improvement in their quality.
Little knowledge of the redox processes occurring during the maturation of cognac spirits, their influence on the maturation and development of the qualities of cognac spirits does not make it possible to draw more definite conclusions in this direction.
Table 35 we present the comparative composition of young and 25-year-old cognac (according to Ravaz).
There are no definite data on the influence of certain chemical indicators of the composition of cognacs on their quality. The large fluctuations that are observed in the quantitative composition of the components are one of the reasons that this question remains open to this day.
The solution to the question of the influence of the composition of cognacs on their quality is very important, since the establishment of the distillation mode and the choice of cognac devices of a particular system are closely related to this, which, in turn, determines the main tasks for the design and construction of cognac factories.
Methods of processing cognac spirits, accelerating their maturation... The long time required to obtain high-quality cognac spirits, and their high cost, caused by high production costs and inevitable losses of alcohol during aging, have long prompted cognac manufacturers to look for ways to reduce the aging time and reduce the cost of their production.
All the proposed processing methods can be divided into the following groups in accordance with the factors contributing to ripening:
a) heat treatment;
b) treatment with oxygen and ozone;
c) treatment with various electric currents;
d) processing using catalysts.
| Components of cognac | In young cognac spirits with a strength of 68% vol. in G/l | In old cognac spirits with a strength of 50 and vol. in G/l |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | ||
| propyl | 356 | 40 |
| butyl | - | 218,6 |
| isoamyl | 146 | 283,8 |
| hexyl | - | 0,60 |
| heptyl | - | 0,45 |
| Acetic aldehyde | 7,50 | 9,0 |
| Ether | 4,50 | 35,0 |
| Acid | ||
| acetic | 10,0 | 51,0 |
| propionic | 21,0 | |
| oil | 81,0 | |
| enante | 4,0 | |
Heat treatment... Of the methods that have found the greatest application in production to accelerate the ripening of cognacs, heat treatment should be noted first.
Heating treatment of cognac spirits and cognacs to accelerate the ripening and improve the quality of ordinary brands of cognacs, as well as cognac spirits, was used in our country back in the 90s. Heating was carried out to 60-70 ° for a more or less long period (from several hours to several weeks) in closed metal vessels equipped with capacitors to prevent alcohol losses, or in bottles. For the same purpose, pasteurization was also used, sometimes repeated several times with intervals of 1-2 months.
According to the author's observations, the treatment of cognac spirits and cognacs by heating, although it does not give the results that are achieved by long-term aging in barrels, has a beneficial effect on their taste. In young cognac spirits, heating softens the taste and promotes the assimilation of higher alcohols and aldehydes. When exposed to an elevated temperature, they stand out less in taste and aroma. The longer this process takes, the more noticeable the effect of heating is. The author observed a very noticeable improvement in the quality of cognac spirits after six months of aging in bottles at 60 °.
Korotkevich and Bekirov, as a result of investigations carried out in production conditions, recommend aging them for 2-3 months in oak barrels with a capacity of about 20 dL in order to accelerate the maturation of cognac spirits. Exposure in a sunny area for 3 months has a significant effect equal to approximately 2 years of normal storage.
Oxygen or ozone treatment... For the treatment of wine, cognac alcohol and cognac with oxygen or ozone, many different devices have been produced over the past 30 years, but none of them has become widespread in production. At present, the treatment of wines and cognac spirits with oxygen and ozone, as it has not justified itself, is not used. The negative results obtained in the treatment of cognac spirits with oxygen and ozone can be explained based on the study of similar redox processes in wine. It is well known that only slow redox processes have a beneficial effect on the development of the taste and bouquet of wines. On the contrary, the sharp impact of oxygen on wines is accompanied by a loss of aroma and a decrease in their taste. The slow maturation of cognac spirits, accompanied by an equally slow formation of bouquet and taste during aging, proceeds similarly to a similar process that occurs in wines. The sharp oxidation of cognac alcohols with oxygen and especially ozone can only adversely affect aromatic and taste cognac spirits, for the recovery of which a long exposure is required.
Other processing methods... In the specialized literature, we find a lot of data on the use of the action of electromagnetic waves in the processing of wines, cognac spirits and various vodkas in order to accelerate their ripening.
For this purpose, ultrashort waves, infrared and ultraviolet rays, etc. were used. Only ultrashort waves gave known positive results, and most authors attribute this not to their specific action, but to the heating produced by them. The disadvantage of using ultrashort waves is their high cost.
Ultrasound, according to Lichev's research, stimulates the improvement of the quality of alcohol.
Considering the great industrial significance of research in the field of the theory of cognac alcohol maturation, development, methods of their accelerated aging using hermetically sealed containers, the Scientific and Technical Conference on Brandy Production in Yerevan (1957) decided to continue on a wider industrial scale the work in this direction carried out Krasnodar institute of food industry, institute "Magarach", Armenian, Georgian and Moldavian institutes of winemaking and horticulture.
Noteworthy are experimental studies carried out at the Krasnodar Institute of Food Industry (Prof. Agabalyants) and at the Magarach Institute (Prof. Nilov) to accelerate the production of cognacs by aging them not in oak barrels, but in metal tanks in the presence of oak wood.