From: "Mark" 

Shit, you finally got my attention Rich  

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:43d96d59$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06win/frontlines.asp
>
>
> Since the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, when farmers of Scottish and Irish
> descent tarred and feathered government excise collectors, Kentuckians
> have fought hard for their bourbon. Federal law makes it very clear that
> unless your whiskey is made from a mash containing 51 percent to 79
> percent corn and produced and stored for at least one of its two years of
> aging in Kentucky, you can't call it Kentucky bourbon. But if a recent
> study conducted for the Commonwealth of Kentucky is correct, global
> warming may soon make it impossible to produce good Kentucky bourbon -- at
> least in Kentucky.
>
> According to the author, Mike Jones, a researcher at American University,
> a bourbon's distinctive Kentucky flavor comes from the seasonal warming
> and cooling of the whiskey during its aging. This is done in white oak
> barrels that have been "toasted" in order to caramelize the
sugars in the
> wood and then charred on the inside to impart flavor to the whiskey during
> storage. "When the temperature rises in the summer, the bourbon
expands,"
> Jones says, "and with lower temperatures in the winter, it contracts. This
> movement gives the bourbon its amber color and oak flavor."
>
> Producers consider these temperature variations so critical that during
> the course of their storage, barrels are shifted from the lower racks in
> the warehouse to the upper racks. However, the 3-degree Fahrenheit average
> temperature increase predicted for the state over the next 100 years will
> mean less variation between winter and summer temperatures. The study's
> sorry conclusion: "In the future, global warming may affect the weather
> patterns which are essential in Kentucky for the aging process."
>
>
>
>

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