Development of a predictive computational model of whisky flavour compound extraction from wood as a function of environmental conditions

Odd Society Spirits是一家位于不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华的小批量酿酒厂，专门生产优质威士忌，杜松子酒和具有强烈地方感的白酒。他们在现场制作所有产品，并通过他们的品酒室和一些BC酒精零售商销售。这笔赠款支持酿酒厂和温莎大学之间的新伙伴关系，使用现代计算方法，以更好地确定各种环境和成熟条件将对桶中精神的老化产生什么影响。威士忌的成熟是一个复杂的过程，通过这个过程，橡木中复杂的风味化合物被酒精慢慢地提取到酒中。更好地了解这个过程是如何工作的，将有助于酿酒厂更好地确定要使用的桶的类型，并将提供更好的信心，选择将用于长期陈酿的烈酒的桶的类型。这项工作的核心是学术和工业合作伙伴之间的密切合作。该公司的酿酒师（包括化学博士和世界领先的烈酒研究机构Heriot-Watt大学的理学硕士）将提供实验数据来训练和验证Gauld博士正在开发的计算模型。该项目预计将提供一个有用的预测工具，将为酿酒商提供额外的信心，他们的原料酒将以预期的方式老化，降低准备更老，更复杂的酒所涉及的风险。这种确定性将提供更好的产品，并使公司能够比预期更快地扩大员工队伍。

Odd Society Spirits is a small batch distiller in Vancouver BC specializing in the production of premium whiskies, gins, and liquors with a strong sense of place. They make all of their product on site and sell both through their tasting room and through a number of BC alcohol retailers. This grant supports a new partnership between the Distillery and the University of Windsor to use modern computational methods to better determine what impact various environmental and maturation conditions will have on the ageing of a spirit in a barrel. Whisky maturation is a complex process through which the complex flavour compounds in the oak are slowly extracted into the spirit by the alcohol. Better understanding how this process works will help the distillery better determine the type of barrel to be used and will provide improved confidence in selecting the types of barrels to be used for spirits that will be aged for a long time. Central to this work is the close collaboration between the academic and industrial partners. The distillers at the company (including a PhD in chemistry and an MSc from Heriot-Watt University, the world's current leading institution for spirits research) will provide experimental data to train and validate the computational model being developed by Dr. Gauld. This project is expected to provide a useful predictive tool that will provide distillers with additional confidence that their raw spirit will age in the expected fashion decreasing the risk involved in preparing older, more complicated spirits. This certainty will provide a better product and allow the company to expand their staff faster than otherwise expected.