Grain tails taste horrible

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Virandell
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Grain tails taste horrible

Post by Virandell »

Hi guys I been always making sugar and fruits (apples and plums) recently I get into grains first one was fail peated whisky and 4 days ago I distilled corn with rye and wheat, its came out actually pretty good I am happy but I had big problem with tails blending they are horrible is it normal? I would compare them to sugar tails nothing like fruit ones. They taste bitter/sweet and literally I feel like my tounge going numb but it's not from alcohol, smell quite intresting but after dilluting to 20% they smell horrible.
I seen quite few people saying the tails from grains taste intresting but for me they taste bad like vomit/bitter hard to explain.
(I left bottles open for 4days before blending them with my heart and its been really really hard as all of them tasted horrible)
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NZChris
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Re: Grain tails taste horrible

Post by NZChris »

Tails components are less volatile than ethanol, so leaving the lids off the late jars will lose ethanol faster than tails components, concentrating their flavors in those jars.

Vomit smell is from butyric acid. Distilling before it esterifies into ethyl butyrate should be avoided. It has a boiling point twice as high as ethanol, so I doubt leaving the lid off the jar is going to help much.

What jars taste like individually is not as important as what they do for the flavor of the heart cut, so I sample prospective blends rather than individual jars. Like salt in food, both too much and too little can be mistakes.
Virandell
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Re: Grain tails taste horrible

Post by Virandell »

@NZChris thanks buddy for reply the smell undiluted been actually quite good, very strong toffie/carmel smell but after dilluting it's been like something wet,old the taste been bitter/numbing/kinda sweet/acidic similar to vomit and god know what else. I mean if that's how grain tails supposed to smell/taste like that's OK I want to make sure I am doing everything alright :D it's really reminding me of sugar wash when I am distilling 96% alcohol and when tails starting to come in it's heavy concentrated tails.
I been doing it on 4 bubble plates.
And also good tip to blend it rather than do individual jars
Thanks again for reply
Toxxyc
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Re: Grain tails taste horrible

Post by Toxxyc »

To me, all grain tails smell and taste like a piece of wet carboard that a dog slept on. I steer far, FAR from the tails when I blend my whiskies.

In rum, I sometimes just age a jar of tails to see what will come of it. Hell, I'm doing it now. Just 3l of tails in a jar with oak, stuck in the back of a closet. Will dig it up in a few months to see what's happening. If it sucks, it goes into the feints dump.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: Grain tails taste horrible

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Virandell wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 1:39 pm I had big problem with tails blending they are horrible is it normal?
Tails is tails ...they are horrible, thats just the nature of them, and why I don't include very much if any of them in my booze.
When people talk about blending tails into booze that is to be aged I often wonder how often people add way to much on that advice.
My opinion, you don't need much,......unless you want to wait 6 years to drink it.
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