GEOL 135 Water rock interaction and Scotch whiskey Fall 2007 Scotch single malt whiskey made in Scotland but just called whiskey there is a national drink whose tastes and character are derived from a set of complex interactions between source water which is jealously guarded as the primary ingredient by distilleries the rocks that water flows through streams that water flows in on the surface and the barrel the whiskey is aged in as well as the atmosphere that barrel sits in for 10 50 years Today we will be learning how to properly taste scotch whiskey noting the subtle and not so subtle differences in flavor between different whiskeys produced in different localities and try to think about the chemical processes that affect these characteristics Scientific projects require money money to pay researchers money for the equipment to analyze and describe materials and money to support the evaluation of hypotheses proposed by a research team The primary way in which projects are funded is by submitting a proposal to a company government funding agency or private fund for research As part of your work for today you will be coming up with a central hypothesis concerning a hypothetical study investigating potential changes to scotch whiskey source waters and final product quality as a result of global warming Your will craft a 1 page statement in the form of a national science foundation proposal summary addressing this hypothesis your plans to evaluate this hypothesis and the impacts your study results will have Success rates for NSF today are lower than in recent times often less than 10 but given our class size we will evaluate and rank these proposals as reviewers and a panel which will meet next Tuesday I will serve as program manager to award the most highly ranked and strategically important proposal I do not have the resources of NSF so your project itself won t be funded but the winning proposal will receive a bottle of 10 12 year old scotch whiskey 2 NSF project summaries are included with your lab material as examples Task 1 Learning how to taste scotch whiskey As with many other foods and drinks the flavors of scotch can be subtle and expressed differently depending on how you concentrate on their flavor It is also a technique to dilute it a little bit with water to bring out more of the subtleties but not too much which for different scotches can dilute it past the ability to determine this We will make notes on each scotch taste with 4 different tasting techniques 1 Nose smell the scotch note any distinct aromas you can compare to some other common sensory input for example a scotch s nose may be woody smoky sweet buttery etc no description is wrong as long as what you smell can be communicated as similar to something others may have also experienced to communicate the idea 2 Front pallatte on taking a sip and before swallowing the first thing you note about the taste will often not always be located on the front part of your tongue sort of a first impression again described as compared to some common sensory input 3 3 Back pallatte as and immediately after you swallow your whiskey but before exhaling over this note the flavors you experience on the back part of your tongue note this again as compared to some common sensory input and also how it may differ from the initial flavor Also indicate the smoothness of the scotch some will be harsh and harder to swallow some will experience this as a measure of pain 4 The finish similar to the aftertaste after you swallow the sip and have exhaled once note the flavors lingering on your tongue and how long they last the finish of the scotch can last several minutes or a few seconds again as compared to some common sensory input and also how it may differ from the initial flavor We will each taste and make notes of each scotch on the table write down your tasting notes for each scotch type and then we will concatenate the results on a table to gather the aggregate experiences for everyone to see what common threads we have discerned for each For more on tasting there are some wonderful online resources http www scotchwhisky com english tasting index htm Task 2 Water rock interaction and Scotland bedrock geology Using the following maps one the generalized geologic map of Scotland and the other a map of distilleries in Scotland what units seem to be preferred for distilleries and what units seem to not be associated with production Are there any differences between scotches we tried that are not seemingly tied to the bedrock geology very well What else might affect the scotch besides bedrock geology here based on the flavors you determined Task 3 Compounds in the starting water and their preservation through the distillation process Now that we have thought about the chemistry of the starting water we need to think about how scotch is produced and how the chemistry may change as the scotch is made and aged Let s look at the following web pages for a description of the production and distillation process http en wikipedia org wiki Single malt whisky http www lochlomonddistillery com making scotch htm Comment on what tastes you think may derive from the starting water and how they would be affected at different points in the process For aging the scotch is placed in used oak barrels typically barrels that previously held sherry but also other fortified wines such as port and madeira and aged for at least 10 years during which time 1 2 of the total volume is lost per year they call this the angel s share and the alcohol content goes up Think about woody material and describe why you think the used barrels may be important and why Also what factors may affect the rate at which this water is lost in the angel s share Task 4 The hypothesis and proposal Now you are ready to formulate a hypothesis addressing how global warming may affect the scotch industry You may put this together and propose to use any combination of field lab or theoretical work but should address the chemistry of the process and how to evaluate these potential changes at any point in the summary process feel free to concentrate on one aspect focused proposals are welcome or a wider approach it is up to you As a scientist remember the quality clarity and value of your idea must be communicated clearly and efficiently These will be due next Monday in class you peers will get 3 random copies to evaluate on Tuesday we will meet to evaluate and rank the proposals this is