12. Reactive distillation

A relatively recent development in distillation development is the concept of reactive distillation, pioneered by Berglund at Michigan State University. Here the concept is to encourage reactivity between spirit components to alter the sensory attributes of the spirit. This has significant potential value for whey distillates as one demonstrated option is to induce fatty acids to react with ethanol to create esters, mediated by a solid-state acid catalyst. From a whey distillate perspective, this can in principle help to reduce the levels of short-chain fatty acids in spirit (with typical flavor descriptors such as cheesy, rancid) and convert them into fruit-flavored esters. Whilst this has yet to be demonstrated specifically for whey this approach offers a tantalizing option for enhancing the neutrality of wheyderived spirits.
