this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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It's funny, back when brewing/distilling was more an artisanal craft, being able to consistently recreate a product was a mark of high achievement. Now, its the opposite. A bottle of jack is a bottle of jack, whether you bought it yesterday or last decade; now all the collectors want the 'unique' single barrel stuff that wont taste quite like the regular stuff.
My professor (a chemist with a specialization in fermentation chemistry) explained it something like it's very difficult for large scale manufacturers to produce alcohol that's exactly the same every time. Brewing is a finicky process where a slight pH imbalance or just a single cell of bacteria will ruin entire batches. So large scale breweries will produce a very consistent, very exact terrible product. Bud light always tastes the same. Whereas small scale brewers will sort of embrace the chaotic randomness that comes with it
Yeah, as I understand it, the way you make liquor taste the same is to dump all the barrels into one large vat, mix, then bottle. Takes all the minor inconsistencies and just smooths them together until it's dry, if you pardon the pun.