I am learning the most fascinating stuff as I get further immersed in my M.Sc. studies. For example, seaweed is comprised largely of plant proteinaceous material. But, seaweed also has a sugar component to it where the sugar is of a di-saccharide made of 2 galactose molecules joined together. There are actually 3 structural variants of this disaccharide present in seaweed and we call them iota-carrageenan, kappa carrageenan and lambda carrageenan. The iota and kappa forms carry a positive ionic charge and are attracted to proteins. Hence, brewers will add seaweed to their brews to assist protein material to settle out in the boil kettle or whirlpool vessel. If you have ever home-brewed beer, you know all this already for you were using Irish Moss from your local brew store to clarify your wort during the post-boil. Lambda carrageenan does little to assist the brewer, but it has been recognized for its foam stabilizing properties. You know this already and have eaten it. Look at a typical ice cream container and the ingredients might include carrageenan. During chilling in the ice cream factory, it helps the ice cream remain as a single phase and not a separated mess. And the connection to distilling you ask? Again, you have had it before. Bailey’s Irish Cream. Note that it does not separate into alcohol and cream phases. It stays as one nicely mixed liquid in the bottle on your shelf. Thanks lambda carrageenan! I just got a pack of this stuff from the good folks at Monashee Distilling in Revelstoke, BC. Thanks Josh!! I am going to play around making some Holiday Cream Liquor from some nice 18% cream and using the copious amounts of Bourbon that I (allegedly!!) might have in my possession from some potential research I reportedly did recently. I will let you all know how it turns out. The maker of this carrageenan is www.ModernistPantry.com. And fyi, if you are ordering some Cream Liquor from Josh at Monashee Distilling, he does not use the lambda carrageenan (that’s why I ended up getting it…). Instead, he mixes his cream and alcohol at extremely high rates of speed and shear using a special mixer. This causes the cream fatty molecules to separate. It takes about 6-7 weeks for the busted up fat molecules to get re-acquainted. Hence, Josh’s Mountain Creamer product will carry a shelf life of 5-6 weeks before the alcohol and cream separate into 2 phases. But, no worries. If it takes you 5 weeks to consume a bottle of Josh’s product, then there is something seriously wrong with you…You will be lucky if a bottle lasts 5 days…By using this hi-shear mixing method, Josh is able to call his product a true organic creation without any added powders or stabilizers.