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Off Topic => Engineering => Topic started by: Nemesis on October 02, 2008, 05:25:01 pm

Title: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: Nemesis on October 02, 2008, 05:25:01 pm
Link to full article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3115492/Ultrasound-machine-turns-cheap-plonk-into-fine-wine-in-30-minutes-says-inventor.html)

Quote
Inventor Casey Jones says the £350 gadget uses ultrasound technology to recreate the effects of decades of ageing by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle.

The Ultrasonic Wine Ager, which looks like an ordinary ice bucket, takes 30 minutes to work and has already been given the thumbs up by an English winemaker.
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: knightstorm on October 04, 2008, 02:44:24 am
can't you already do that by adding anti-freeze?
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: Centurus on October 04, 2008, 06:43:02 am
Probably, but with antifreeze, not only is it really unethical to use it, but also very dangerous, and in most cases (if not all), illegal, since it can kill, or cause serious and permanent physical damage.
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: Nemesis on October 04, 2008, 07:28:37 am
can't you already do that by adding anti-freeze?

As a non drinker I have heard of doing that but always thought it was to add "kick" not quality.  As Centurus says it has what are normally considered "undesirable" side effects so I always assumed anyone using that "improvement" to be either insane or stupid (some of course being efficiently both).

This system should be able to avoid those negative side effects while apparently enhancing taste not "kick". 
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: Vipre on October 04, 2008, 10:40:02 am
Quote
"This could definitely have some applications for those restaurants who are buying wine for £10,000 a case.

"Technically I suppose you could buy a good wine at two or three years old and age it so it tastes like a 20-year-old vintage.

"Wine is at it's best five or so years after it's made, so this could help homebrewers taste aged wine more easily."

However, he warned restaurants and bars against trying to pass off a cheaper bottle of wine as a more expensive one just because it had been through the machine.

"You would have to tell customers it wasn't quite the real thing," he said.


I read the second line and the same thing popped into my head. how many think that restaurants wouldn't try to pull that?
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: Dracho on October 05, 2008, 09:37:32 pm
That makes me think of the Bart Simpson exchange student to France episode.  The police didn't care he'd been kept in slavery, but all hell broke loose when he let it be known they were tampering with wine.
Title: Re: Hooch to vintage in 30 minutes?
Post by: knightstorm on October 05, 2008, 10:34:47 pm
Doesn't really matter.  America already has the finest wine label ever produced, and there is little that can be done to improve upon it.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/84/Thunderbirdbottlevancouver.jpg/800px-Thunderbirdbottlevancouver.jpg)