Copenhagen-based Empirical Spirits is on a mission to bring new flavour to alcoholic spirits. Having previously worked at famed restaurant Noma, Lars Williams is eagerly leading an investigation into brewing and distilling, looking at flavours, traditions, technologies and techniques to see if things could be done differently. Why can’t spirits be seasonal, as food can, or have vintages, as wine does? Why should spirits be required to have an ABV of 40 per cent when they could taste far better at 20 per cent? WIRED went to Copenhagen to meet the team and see how they produce experimental drinks out of hacked-together machinery.