Valley Spirits Lee Palleschi Owner Master Distiller Cold House Vodka

1. Valley SpiritsLee PalleschiOwnerMaster DistillerCold House Vodka MJC Science Colloquium Tuesday, September 13, 2011

2. History of Alcohol • Mead, beer and wine have been around for thousands of years. Distilled Spirits have possibly been around for 2,600 years. • Alcohol has been traded, bought, sold, used for currency, used for medicine and to power vehicles.

3. Alcohol • ethanol especially when considered as the intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors • C2H5OH – Ethyl Alcohol

4. The Science of Alcohol • Beer – fermented grains with hops • Starch converted into fermentable sugars by use of enzymes and heat, fermented with yeast • Hops are added for aroma and bitter taste • Wine – fermented grapes • Sugars in grapes fermented with yeast • Mead – fermented honey and malt • Sugars in honey and malt fermented with yeast

5. The Science of Alcohol • Hops – HumulusLupulus (female flowers) • Malt – grain allowed to germinate • Starch – (amylum) is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds.

6. The Science of Alcohol • Enzymes – Alpha, Beta and Gluco Amylase break glycosidic bonds of starch • Sugar – edible crystalline carbohydrates, i.e. Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose • Yeast - Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols

7. The Science of Alcohol • Specific Gravity - the density of a substance compared to the density of a reference substance • Vaporization point – (boiling point) of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid or solid phase to gas phase

8. The Science of Alcohol • Mashing - is the process of combining a mix of milled grain and water, and heating this mixture. Mashing allows the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars, typically maltose to create a malty liquid called wort. • There are two main methods – • infusion mashing, in which the grains are heated in one vessel • decoction mashing, in which a proportion of the grains are boiled and then returned to the mash, raising the temperature.[2] • Mashing involves pauses at certain temperatures (notably 45 °C, 62 °C and 73 °C), and takes place in a "mash tun" - an insulated brewing vessel with a false bottom. The end product of mashing is called a "mash".

9. The Science of Alcohol • Ethanol fermentation - also referred to as alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process in which sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose are converted into cellular energy and thereby produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as metabolic waste products. Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, ethanol fermentation is classified as anaerobic.

10. The Science of Alcohol • Distillation - is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their boiling points. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction.

11. Simple Distillation Lab distillation Column Basic Pot Still

12. The Science of Alcohol • Fermentation of sugars by yeast • Produce many different types of alcohol Heads ( boiling point starts at 156d F ) Acetaldehyde Ethyl acetate Methanol Diacetyl Acrolein Hearts ( boiling point 173.6d F ) Ethyl Alcohol Tails Isobutanol Iso amyl Propanol

13. I told you Science was SEXY

14. In the beginning

15. Today

16. Today

17. November

18. Cold House Vodka

19. MSB Outlaw Moonshine

20. September 30