Buffalo Trace Distillery, a US-based producer of bourbon whiskey, has initiated the construction of an experimental barrel warehouse - Warehouse X - to enhance whiskey research.
The first new building Buffalo Trace has added to its 130 acre complex in more than six decades will have a capacity of around 150 barrels.
The warehouse will feature four independently operating chambers that enable the distillery to test specific variables in order to determine their effect on aging barrels.
Each chamber will feature a varying degrees of light, ranging from 100% natural light to complete darkness.
Buffalo Trace will start experimenting with four variables - natural light, temperature, airflow and humidity initially. Warehouse X will test one variable at a time.
After the natural light experiment is concluded, a new experiment will start on temperature, and then studies will start on the effects of humidity, and so on.
It will also feature a barrel breezeway with an open air rick, underneath a roof enabling the bourbon maker to age a small number of barrels while being exposed to the natural elements.
Buffalo Trace Distillery master distiller Harlen Wheatley said: "By building this experimental warehouse, we'll be able to keep a tight control on the variables that affect the barrel aging process and can make changes along the way to the aging environment that will hopefully allow us to one day come up with the perfect bourbon."
The distillery seeks to complete the construction of Warehouse X by August 2013.
After completion, the company will release the whiskies that are aged in the warehouse bottled as Experimental Collection line. It will take a minimum of eight years after completion of the warehouse.
