KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee is known for a lot of things like our football, moonshine, mountains and our smooth, smooth whiskey.
Researchers at UT are working to figure out what exactly gives Tennessee whiskey its unique qualities.
"Although the distillers do a fantastic job at making a consistent whiskey there's a lot of guesswork involved," said lead researcher John Munafo, Asst. Professor of Flavor Science and Natural Products Chemistry for UT's Department of Food Science.
Munafo and some of his Ph.D. students took to the chemistry of Tennessee whiskey to see what makes it different from the others.
To be considered a Tennessee whiskey, it must be made in the state and aged for at least 2 years in unused charred oak barrels after going through a step called the Lincoln County Process.
"It's a type of charcoal filtration, so apparently there hasn't been any work done since 1908 on this charcoal filtration in whiskey," said Munafo.
The step is named the Lincoln County Process after the location of the original Jack Daniel’s distillery.
Munafo's team used Sugarlands Distilling Company whiskey and separated the aromatic molecules from the distillate.
They put them through what Munafo called a "sniffer," a nozzle that ejected gaseous aromas from the whiskey.
Researchers used their noses to analyze the aromas of the whiskey before and after it went through the Lincoln County Process.
"We were able to identify 11 whiskey odorants that have never been reported in the whiskey literature," said Munafo.
Some of those included an anise-citrus-like aroma and a "pleasant hay-like" aroma.
Researchers learned that the charcoal filtration reduces the concentration of all the dozens of aromas in the whiskey, some more drastically than others.
"The Lincoln County Process is selective to removing these fatty, rancid and roasty smelling compounds," said Munafo.
There's still a lot more to look at to determine what makes Tennessee whiskey the smoothest, and the team is continuing to study different parts of the distillation process.
But they're hoping these initial findings will help distillers hone their craft.
"This knowledge could help distillers to modulate the process in order to get the Tennessee whiskey flavor that they desire," said Munafo.