An interesting sentence from a wine fermentation paper struck me. But I don't know what it means.
"Bacteria strains also influence enzymatic activity, notably glycosidase activity that affects the ability to release oak lactone compounds from oak wood during barrel aging."
https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=g ... aid=200325" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
I know that some ferments, some cuts: lend better to oak influence. But I don't know why. What does this mean, and where does it come from?
What is Glycosidase?
Moderator: Site Moderator
-
ShineonCrazyDiamond
- Global moderator
- Posts: 3434
- Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:14 pm
- Location: Look Up
What is Glycosidase?
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
-
Single Malt Yinzer
- Trainee
- Posts: 974
- Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:20 pm
Re: What is Glycosidase?
1) I don't think this would effect spirits in the way it effects wine. They ferment in wood so all of their enzymes can still be active. As we distill first heat would destroy the enzyme so it would not be active when it is being aged if it carried over to the distillate.
2) At above 20-25% ABV the spirit becomes antiseptic and also denatures most enzymes. Few if any bacteria/enzymes can survive it.
I'm not saying that by-products of these enzymes won't be there, just they need to be created in the fermentation and carried over to the distillate.
For the craft guys some are lowering their barrel entry strength, but that does not address cuts. No one I know of has looked at more heads/hearts/tails in aging. I would assume heads would have more solvents and would extract more, and more heart/tail cuts would extract less or different? That would be an interesting experiment.
2) At above 20-25% ABV the spirit becomes antiseptic and also denatures most enzymes. Few if any bacteria/enzymes can survive it.
I'm not saying that by-products of these enzymes won't be there, just they need to be created in the fermentation and carried over to the distillate.
For the craft guys some are lowering their barrel entry strength, but that does not address cuts. No one I know of has looked at more heads/hearts/tails in aging. I would assume heads would have more solvents and would extract more, and more heart/tail cuts would extract less or different? That would be an interesting experiment.