The spirit industry has in recent years begun producing no and low alcohol spirit-like products and there is a demand for innovation within this category. To create a no or low alcohol whisky-like product we must first understand how the flavour and aroma of whisky congeners are perceptually different in variable alcohol strengths and our best tool for this is sensory analysis. The whisky industry typically dilutes samples to 20% abv and generally assesses by nosing as indicative of the flavour effects of whisky. There is little published work on the flavour effects of dilution or the variation between what can be perceived by nosing and tasting whiskies.
This study assessed aroma and taste effects of individual compounds, identified as major flavour-active constituents of whisky, in variable water/ethanol solutions. Descriptive analysis was performed by an expert panel of whisky tasters. Early results have shown that there are clear differences in flavour and aroma of the compounds that is variable and affected by ethanol percentage. There is some indication that there is an effect due to chemical groupings, related to compound stability.
Whisky is a complex medium that contains a plethora of flavour contributing compounds that can be introduced in the various stages of spirit production from grain selection to maturation. The ethanol/ water matrix which forms the base of all alcoholic products has complex interactions between water and ethanol molecules forming an incomplete mixture. Ethanol and water also have reactive relationships with many of the compounds that may be present in whisky. These compounds differ in solubility and hydrophobicity and their influence on the flavour active mechanisms of whisky compounds in the ethanol/water medium has been little understood until this current study. Work is ongoing and expected completion is July 2022.