THE ISOLATION OF FUNGI FROM AIR AND KILN DRYING OAK WOOD USED FOR THEMATURATION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

This study is the initial part of a 4 year research programme to inves tigate the effects of cooperage processing parameters on Scotch whisky flavour. The aim of the study was to utilise cooperage toasting param eters and fungal isolates that occur naturally in the seasoning of oak wood to control the flavour of Scotch whisky. Following isolation fro m oak, organisms were screened using phenol oxidase and cellulase meta bolic tests to evaluate the likelihood of an organism's ability to deg rade oak wood and therefore release aroma congeners into maturing spir it. The results indicate that a sequence of organisms could be isolate d from air seasoning oak that displayed changing metabolic activity wi th air drying time. Very few organisms could be isolated from kiln dry ing oak wood. This suggested that kiln drying may reduce mycoflora in oak wood. Results show that air seasoning exposes oak wood to organism s that can potentially release lignin and polysaccharide species into maturing beverages.