Buffalo Trace Distillery just wrapped up its second experiment utilizing its custom made, experimental Warehouse X. This experiment began in 2016 and focused on how temperature affects the aging process.
Built in 2013, Warehouse X was specifically designed for the distillery to study the many variables that affect the bourbon aging process. Upon the warehouse’s completion, Buffalo Trace embarked on a 20-year project in which it is monitoring a number of atmospheric elements, including natural light, temperature, humidity and air flow, using the warehouse’s four independent chambers and breezeway.
The first experiment, which ended in 2016, focused on natural light, keeping barrels in various stages of light for two years.
This second experiment ended at the end of October when the barrels inside the warehouse were rolled out, following three years of quiet resting. During this experiment the warehouse’s four chambers were used to determine how barrel activity correlates with temperature changes, keeping two chambers constant and varying the other two chambers and leaving the breezeway unchanged.
Throughout the experiment Buffalo Trace tracked temperature fluctuations from 5 degrees to 109 degrees Fahrenheit, and monitored barrel pressures ranging from -2.7psi to 3.2 psi. In total 9.1 million data points were collected during the second experiment.
As a result of this experiment the distillery was able to confirm how temperature affects pressure, color and flavor over a period of three years.
After leaving Warehouse X, the barrels from the second experiment were rolled into a traditional warehouse to continue aging, as was done with the first experiment.
The next experiment will expand on the Distillery’s temperature experiments by focusing on how temperature swings affect whiskey activity in the barrel. This will be a two-year experiment and will begin by late November.
Buffalo Trace estimates it will collect more than 70 million data points by the end of this 20-year project.
