Distilling Feints

[Boozehound]

I’ve read that when you get a large amount of feints saved up you can dilute these with water and distil them again to get a spirit of a better quality than even the stuff that first made the feints.

I don’t get it. Feints are a load of heads and tails (obviously). Doesn’t that mean you’re going to get a massive section of heads, a tiny hearts section and then a ton of tails at the end? Will you even get any hearts?

I’m assuming this is a pot distillation.

Has anyone done a feints run? Would it make any difference to dilute with dunder as opposed to water?

I’m confused.

[rad14701]

I just finished a post about re-distilling feints HERE while you were starting this topic... Your mileage may vary...

The magic is in the dilution to below 40% ABV... What happens is that the heads get further compressed, as do the tails, which allows an indeterminate amount of clean hearts to be collected between the heads and tails...

[Dnderhead]

with feints ,a little "nasty" spoil the the whole lot, so you do git quit a lot of good alcohol out of them. I usually add mine to the next charge unless its the end of the run, as far as diluting goes I never found it necessary, as I collect my harts down as low as I can and not git into the bad stuff, that means that the feints average is below 40-50% anyway. and if your worried about adding back "nasty" why whould I want to add back the spent beer? as I just worked my ass off trying to leave it behind?

[Boozehound]

It looks like you're putting the feints through a reflux setup, Rad. Is that how you always run feints or do you ever pot still it? Is there any point?

Dnderhead, I only asked about adding backset in case that added 0.01% of flavour as opposed to water.

Truth is I'm a little toasted right now and I need to run through my theory to get everything clear (I feel great but the model of how distilling works is falling apart in my mind). Thanks for the answers, guys, but another session with "The Compleat Distiller" is required before I ask anything more.

Boozehound over and out.

[rad14701]

It looks like you're putting the feints through a reflux setup, Rad. Is that how you always run feints or do you ever pot still it? Is there any point?

I always run feints through in reflux mode and don't often pot still much of anything except I'm doing stripping runs... I'm hoping to do more pot stilling this summer...

[Dnderhead]

some add back "spent beer" as they did not have the flavor to start with(diluting with sugar), but if you use a good mash/wash to start with that is not necessary.I do know what their trying to do, they do not have access for what they wont to make, so they use some grain/molasses or fruit then add sugar
to make up the difference. but then lack the flavor.

[blanikdog]

I've been tossing feints (no fores) for seven bloody years and just recently I decided to try running them - diluted to 35abv - through 'ole jenny' using a botanicals basket a la old dog's method and made some absolutely delightful gin, again a la OD's recipe.

What a dreadful waste of etho for seven years!!! Needless to say, I now save all feints until I have two gallons and I intend to experiment a lot more with it. Around here there are many deserted farm houses with hundred year old wormwood growing wild. I reckon I can put this to good use.

I'll post the results as soon as I fill my feints jars.

blanik

[kiwistiller]

I can attest that potstilling rum feints in an allfeints run gives an amazing product. I sorely regret all the feints I refluxed.

[Dnderhead]

all you got to do thank about it a minuet.. say you stop collecting harts at 40% and stop collecting feints at 20% that gives you a average of 30% wash.
(where you stop will depend on what your making/the wash and your still)

[goinbroke2]

I always save all my feigns and then do a feigns run. truth be told, I have from a "reliable" source that some commercial guys save them and run it then call it "reserve" as in W****** Reserve.

Yes I potstill.


Save feigns, cut to below 50% if their not already and run them. Alternatively you can add your feigns to a wash run or spirit run. All your doing is extracting more of the residual alcohol out of it.

[flip]

Sorry Wat is feints?

[Dnderhead]

feints are tales,, but most on hear call , both heads and tales feints.

[diesel4ever]

When I ran my first batch of feints (basically slightly headsy and tailsy leftovers from reflux runs) I started out with a gallon of feints that I diluted 50/50 with water (probably making 45%abv) and added salt and baking soda. what I got back was about 1 quart of heads, 1 quart of tails and 1 1/2 quarts of slight flavored stuff and the remaining was neutral spirits. So not much was absolute newtral but when I added all the questionable cuts together and diluted to 50% then ran through a carbon filter it was quite good! I'd send you a sample but unfortunately someone drank it all...

[Barney Fife]

I only toss my nastiest foreshots(that first cup or so from each 5 gal. wash), and save all else. Anything that isn't hearts goes into the feints jars. Like Dnder, I often run them with the next wash, effectively making each wash a high ABV wash. I haven't done this these past few months, as I'm tweaking my new column, so I decided to keep these unknown variables out of the mix, but I have so much feints saved up that it's time for a good run or two of 'em. Since these are crappy rum feints(bad molasses), I'll reflux them and make a neutral. If they were good rum or whiskey, I'd add them to their respective washes

[Honest_Liberty]

I just made a hiccup of a run that turned out awesome!
I meant to run my final 8 gallons from my SF wash, but got confused as 6 gallons was in a carboy covered up. I thought I only had 2 gallons left, so I ran those 2 plus 5 gallons of all the feints I've ever run (SF, Bourbon, brandy) that has been aged on oak for 18 months. The feints were 55%, the 2 gallons was near 10%? The final abv was about 35%.

The cuts have never been easier for me. Holy compression! Now I understand!

I collected 3.5 liters at 77% of very safe, very delicious, very heavy bodied hearts. The legs take a full 6 seconds to develop and begin to fall, with very many, slowly cascading legs. It's a beauty.

I took the remaining 6 jars of either end collected, and ended up with 1200 ml of 75%.

I knocked them both down to 40% and was very impressed. I had no idea such a good, clean drop could come from all that.

[8Ball]

I did my first all feints run a couple months ago. No fores, just heads and tails from all sorts of stuff. Wound up with a gallon of some really good “stuff.” Have it aging on used & fresh toasted & charred white oak & pecan. I call it my distiller’s reserve.

[bilgriss]

Look at some of the old names in this thread!

[RockinRockies]

I did my first all feints run a couple months ago. No fores, just heads and tails from all sorts of stuff. Wound up with a gallon of some really good “stuff.” Have it aging on used & fresh toasted & charred white oak & pecan. I call it my distiller’s reserve.

I'm running 25 gallons of all feints, which I believe was run through a reflux. I'm not expecting much, but at 30% that's like 6.5 actual gallons of stuff. I'm hoping to extract 10-15% to make a nice, filtered vodka to make stuff with.

I wish I knew the expected results but I'm sure I'll knows whether it's worth it to run the other feints I received to fill the boiler again

[RockinRockies]

Wow! So I collected 4.5 gallons at 94% and kept 2.5!

I seriously didn't think there would be that much quality ethanol available in previously refluxed feints. And, the cool thing is a bulk of it had what I perceived as sulphur from bad well water. Well... This completely cleaned it up!

Very clean, but not perfect. Totally drinkable and at 40% it's almost too smooth already!