Kentuckians Fed Up With a Fungus Sue Whiskey Makers - NYTimes.com

Baudoinia, a newly identified type of fungus. Is it a nuisance?

Kentuckians Fed Up With a Fungus Sue Whiskey Makers - NYTimes.com:

In 2007, researchers published a scientific study about Baudoinia, a newly identified type of fungus. Naturally occurring, Baudoinia germinates on ethanol, the colorless alcohol that can evaporate during fermentation, making the area around whiskey-aging warehouses a prime breeding ground.

News of this whiskey fungus soon rippled across spirit-producing communities from Cognac to Canada — a mystery solved, and an opportunity found.

In June, home and business owners in and around Louisville, part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, filed class-action lawsuits in federal and circuit courts against five major distilleries, charging property damage and negligence. In September, with the help of lawyers in Britain, the plaintiffs’ Louisville lawyer, William F. McMurry, plans to bring a similar suit in Scotland, where the fungus is so rampant that it almost seems like part of the architecture.

"Some people say the distilleries were there before you were."

“Every distillery that we’ve tested has had it, as far as I know,” said James Scott, the University of Toronto mycologist who helped identify and name Baudoinia. So far, there is no evidence that whiskey fungus, which has lived in the environment for eons (Dr. Scott estimated it developed in the Cretaceous period), causes health problems in humans or animals, though it may impede plant growth by obstructing light when it covers leaves.

Mostly, though, it can just look nasty.

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