Focus on alcoholic beverages and beverage flavors.
New: Websites – After the Flavor Corner we are adding some neat exciting and possibly useful websites that cover the industry. Main items will deal with beverages and especially those covering cocktails and recipes etc.
From an old book on British Distilleries – a colorized picture of one on the many beautiful grayscale plates covering distilleries as they existed at the beginning of the 1900′s. It is Gary’s intention to play with many of these images in photoshop and present more of them perhaps with challenges to see who can name the actual distillery.
An answer to an important question: For clients – the client only edition of the Alcohol Beverage Mosaic, sent out at the end of 2011, had a question with a prize for two winners. Go back and look at that two pager and see the contest rules. If you made it to this page the answer is: Kitunae Ikeda (full name required to win – only two winners). We also note this was biased towards brewers – the prize - that is so, if you prefer, we can cover some wine or spirits analysis to a similar value. We apologize that this was geared towards brewers. All are welcome to participate.
Many new Craft Distilleries are starting up in the US – we run tests for quite a few of them – so be on the lookout for newer products on the market from fresh outfits. Bill Owens’ American Distillers Intitute has a neat interactive map showing the new distilleries, locations and contact information. See: http://www.distilling.com/DistilleryMap.html
GIN AND VODKA – What to know more? See this site: http://www.ginvodka.org/ [Includes History and The Production of Vodka and Gin]
We consider the source and desirability of the particular flavor note, typical sensory descriptors, typical levels in the beverage (wine, beer or spirit) and threshold detection values, how to control the level of the flavor note in the beverage and more.
The first issue considered the classical buttery aroma and taste of diacetyl. This article now appears via this link: diacetylflavornotes1 However, a brand new treatise recently appeared covering the topic; see the Books page for details.
ACCESS HERE TO THE FLAVOR NOTES WE EXTENDED IN SCOPE FROM THOSE PRESENTED TO THE JUDGES IN DENVER AT THE 25th GABF EVENT: completeoctober2006flavornotesforscreen2
Notes are presented as a low resolution printable file. If you would like a high resolution copy please contact us and we will be happy to mail or E-mail a copy. Why do we present a row-resolution copy? We would like to follow up with those interested in the notes and a request for the high resolution version will let us know who the people are that are most interested in this topic. We can also provide further guidance and assistance in setting up Sensory training as required.
The second feature article covered (and is an ongoing project) Esters in Beverages. Click the link below the cover image for the first page of this topic. It will be populated with more detail as time permits so check back frequently.
Kits on the market: For brewers and distillers* there are two sources of kits for sensory training. One is from FlavorActiV and the other is a new kit from Sigma-Aldrich’s Flavors and Fragrances Division. FlavorActiV kits come as powdered encapsulated chemicals with instructions on dosing. The Sigma-Aldrich kit comes as 24 liquid stocks but, unfortunately, comes with no instructions as to how best to use them. However, we can help you here. Call for details in using liquid sensory stocks in your own sensory training programs. [*We shall review kits for wine sensory testing at a later time.]
Interesting Websites: [No bias intended - just plain neat sites that cover our industry.]
The first website here covers an interesting interactive set of pages but mainly details some neat cocktail recipes. Enjoy!
Note more than Tequila is covered here.