GEOL 135 Water-rock interaction and Scotch whiskey Fall 2007Scotch, 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 infor 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 hypothesisconcerning 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 thishypothesis, 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 bottleof 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 othercommon 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 sensoryinput.3. 3. Back pallatte – as and immediately after you swallow your whiskey (but beforeexhaling 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 howit 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 measureof 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.htmTask 2: Water-rock interaction and Scotland bedrock geologyUsing 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 processNow 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_whiskyhttp://www.lochlomonddistillery.com/making-scotch.htmComment 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 proposalNow 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 toevaluate 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