Volatile aromas produced during fermentation are lost due to carbon dioxide blowing them out of the headspace. This has been happening ever since fermented beverages were first made and there is considerable interest in developing methods to prevent it. Enter AromaLoc™, a young company that has invented and patented a method to achieve this: www.aromaloc.com.
The aromas normally lost when fermenting any beverage can now be retained in the finished product. The AromaLoc™ process does NOT condense the escaping aroma and then return it to the beverage after fermentation. It is a totally additive-free and a hands-off process. AromaLoc™ prevents aromas from leaving the beverage, and it does this without tampering with the beverage or interfering with the fermentation process. Only the headspace composition above the beverage is manipulated to change the fermenting liquid below.
Over the last 7 years AromaLocTM has tested the process at several boutique wineries in British Columbia’s Okanagan wine region, three large breweries in the USA, Belgium and Scandinavia, two craft breweries and an ultra-premium USA winery. Pentâge winery in the Okanagan valley has fermented their entire 2019 vintage of white and rosé wines using AromaLoc™ technology. Pentâge has also used AromaLoc™ on many commercial size trials over the past 5 years. AromaLoc™ is constantly performing trials on small batch lots of wines and beer which are evaluated by industry professionals. As a result of this testing we have now released our first commercial model to the industry.
Alpha Omega Winery in California (www.aowinery.com), which barrel ferments most of its wine production, has used an AromaLoc™ machine for a portion of their the last two vintages to capture more aromas: https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataId=222676. Using AromaLoc™ for red wine in wooden barrels required considerable innovation to permit punch downs while maintaining a gas-tight headspace. TN Coopers (http://www.tncoopers.com) teamed up with AromaLoc™ to produce special barrel heads for doing this. This year Alpha Omega used AromaLoc™ on Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec: While these wines are far from being finished, winemaker Henrik Poulsen said “There is a noticeable difference in the aromatics of the wine”, adding that the wine may be used in their high-end blends.
AromaLoc™ is building a single model machine at this point that is suitable for up to 5,000 liters of fermenting must at ~18 degrees Celsius, but it is easily scalable from 20L up to virtually any size.
The system, which usually connects to tanks instead of barrels, has been tested on wine, beer and cider fermentations.
The AromaLoc™ team consists of Dick Jones, a retired PhD scientist and amature winemaker who invented the concept, Paul Gardner a marine engineer who is now the owner of Pentage Winery in Penticton and Walter Meyer a retired manager from a large international automotive company and amateur winemaker from Switzerland. The three partners have been friends for about 15 years and met during their common interest in making good wine.
For more information or contact go to: www.aromaloc.com
