SWR: A Fungus Amongus

Interesting article in today's NYTimes on the black fungus that grows in Kentucky, Scotland, Cognac and elsewhere because of the "angel's share" of ethanol being spewed into the air by the distilleries:
ClickOnMe

It mentions that wineries have alcohol recovery systems that prevent the "angel's share" from spewing into the air. Anybody know what they're talking about and what they do w/ the recoverd alcohol???
Tom

There are ways of making more alcohol evaporate, I can't imagine why someone would want to prevent evaporation...

"Spewing into the air"? Is that some sort of Kansas colloquialism or are you auditioning for FOX Noise, Tom?

Some of the ethanol (and thus the fungus) in the air is from production; some (most) is from aging/maturation, where the heat expansion forces molecules of ethanol and water through the barrel staves and into the air. As the article pointed out, this has been the case in every distillery are since the first distillery was begun, so it's hardly a new phenomenon; I think it just hasn't come to a lawyer's attention as something where huge amounts of money could be generated.

While I am of course sympathetic to someone dealing with the angel's share fungi, there's a much larger part of me that says if you build a house next to a distillery that has been producing those fungal problems since time immemorial....and you can see them on the buildings before you start building your house...then, well, yeah, there's a certain element similar to those people who build a house at the end of an international airport runway and then complain about the nose of overhead aircraft.

The person I have the least sympathy for is the one woman quoted who stated that most of her family over generations have worked for the distilleries and now she feels sorta kinda guilty that she's engaged in a lawsuit against those companies. Damned right she should feel sorta kinda guilty.

I suspect lawyers will make countless millions on this, regular people will see next to nothing, and some sort of ameliorating procedures will eventually be put into effect to help lessen the problem.

By the way, when I was in Cognac, the whole damned village was covered in the angel's share. And the cognacais were pretty damned proud of it, almost as a symbol of the livelihood and revenue and prestige generated by the product that created it. Because that's what it was. No one was kvetching.

It will be interesting to see how the Scots react when the lawyers invade.

"Spewing into the air"? Is that some sort of Kansas colloquialism or are you auditioning for FOX Noise, Tom?

Well, Hoke.....when one of our nuclear reactor plants leak as much as one beta particle off the site....or one neutrino goes zipping out into the environment from our Meson facility;
those people get all up in arms for all the radioactivity and contamination "spewing" out into the environment. So thought I'd use some of their vocabulary.

Some of the ethanol (and thus the fungus) in the air is from production; some (most) is from aging/maturation, where the heat expansion forces molecules of ethanol and water through the barrel staves and into the air. As the article pointed out, this has been the case in every distillery are since the first distillery was begun, so it's hardly a new phenomenon; I think it just hasn't come to a lawyer's attention as something where huge amounts of money could be generated.

While I am of course sympathetic to someone dealing with the angel's share fungi, there's a much larger part of me that says if you build a house next to a distillery that has been producing those fungal problems since time immemorial....and you can see them on the buildings before you start building your house...then, well, yeah, there's a certain element similar to those people who build a house at the end of an international airport runway and then complain about the nose of overhead aircraft.

The person I have the least sympathy for is the one woman quoted who stated that most of her family over generations have worked for the distilleries and now she feels sorta kinda guilty that she's engaged in a lawsuit against those companies. Damned right she should feel sorta kinda guilty.

I suspect lawyers will make countless millions on this, regular people will see next to nothing, and some sort of ameliorating procedures will eventually be put into effect to help lessen the problem.

By the way, when I was in Cognac, the whole damned village was covered in the angel's share. And the cognacais were pretty damned proud of it, almost as a symbol of the livelihood and revenue and prestige generated by the product that created it. Because that's what it was. No one was kvetching.

It will be interesting to see how the Scots react when the lawyers invade.

That's actually quite a nice rant, Hoke. I'm a 94 on that!!!
Tom

I don't know of any alcohol recovery systems currently in widespread use in wineries. Some of the larger ones have CO2 recovery systems during fermentation, for mandated mitigation of greenhouse gases. Humidity can be adjusted in barrel rooms to allow a greater or lesser amount of water evaporation, but diffusion of alcohol through barrel staves typically is dependent on concentration and partial pressure, which is virtually zero in the air outside of the barrel. Don't look to the wine industry for the magic bullet to this problem. Nor do I think that the distilleries are to blame. Beady-eyed class-action lawyers, fanning the flames.

Is ethanol the only type of alcohol required for this “black mold” to germinate and form a colony? Isn’t it best that a mold is around to “consume” some of this “angel share” of ethanol that is generated?

Salute