Heads and tails what to do with them?

[Devonhomebrew]

Ive got about 5l of each heads 80% and tails 20% what can i do avec these i know i can rerun my tails as soon as ive got like 20L for a feints run (i think) but what about the heads use them to start fires or can it be salvaged into good alcohol because i hate to waste things

[beelah]

you could dilute down to 40% and run again, but not sure how much clean spirit you would get as it would seem to me you must have been running through a reflux still already to get 80%ABV heads....so you proly have lots of nastiest in it now.... could use in an alcohol stove or as a good general cleaner

[Devonhomebrew]

Pot still mate I thought getting 80% heads was normal?

[Devonhomebrew]

Oppps it was 80% when it came out the still which is like body temp out of mine so actually its only 70%

[GuyFawkes]

Here is what I do

Fores: Weed killer, fire starter, cleaning windows, paint thinner, disinfectant..... lots of good stuff

Heads: Collect and re-distill any drinking alcohol out, any bad stuff is used like fores

Hearts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTpPmrbwvI

Tails: Collect and re-distill with heads to squeeze out drinking alcohol. Leftovers are tossed

[junkyard dawg]

That song made my ears sad...

[NastyNate]

I have a friend who races motorcycles. He uses my fores as an additive in his fuel. First time he did it he couldn't believe how the engine took off!

[GuyFawkes]

That song made my ears sad...

You weren't supposed to actually listen to it...... just read the title. I think playing that song on repeat is on the list of UN-banned forms of torture..... no offense to anyone who likes it......

[GuyFawkes]

I have a friend who races motorcycles. He uses my fores as an additive in his fuel. First time he did it he couldn't believe how the engine took off!

My friend who allows me to use his garage as a storage facility for all my distillation crap (as well as most stuff the wife deemed "unnecessary clutter") has a half-built track car sitting next to it. My rent is paid in the form of fuel (and rum)!

[Devonhomebrew]

well you cant run a tractor on 70% ethanol can you ahahahaha much cheaper to actually buy red diesel

[Doogie]

For the few runs I have done, I usually toss the first half of the heads, and then keep some of the later heads for a redistill or to add to the hearts. The tails get collected when the wet cardboard taste comes thru, and added to the next production run with the later heads. I do not bother keeping all the early heads because, well, it tastes and smells nasty and I do not want it in my drink, or bleed into subsequent hearts in later runs. I find adding the tails/late heads into similar runs (since I have only done sugars and rums really) add great flavor, and I can usually get a good long hearts run with the added in stuff.

[rad14701]

I collect, dilute to 30%, and rerun all of my feints through a reflux column and keep recycling them... My foreshots always go into my alcohol fuel jar but everything else gets recycled... And I get a lot of extra crisp clean neutral spirits from my feints... I've never ended up with a buildup of nasty feints that I'd just dump...

[Doogie]

Ya, I only have the pot still, no reflux (maybe a new project?). Doing an all feints I usually pull 250ml x 2 jars off of "heads" and immediately get into hearts for about 6-7 jars of hearts, holding around 70%, then interestingly the ABV crashes into the mid/low 60s and I can detect the tails ...

I almost got thrown off on the first all feints - they were combined from a few runs, and some of it was re run a couple of times (I keep adding it into the spirit runs each time - pugi style). Detected a touch of burn and a flavor change and thought it was tails - ABV also dropped 2% or so... kept cutting, lots of flavor, touch of burn disappeared quickly, and collected another 2 jars before the wet cardboard hit ... the flavor change threw me off ... kept those 2 jars with the hearts ...

[GuyFawkes]

I collect, dilute to 30%, and rerun all of my feints through a reflux column and keep recycling them... My foreshots always go into my alcohol fuel jar but everything else gets recycled... And I get a lot of extra crisp clean neutral spirits from my feints... I've never ended up with a buildup of nasty feints that I'd just dump...

That's the beauty of a reflux. Maybe when I get my new thumper setup attached it will be worth it to run more feints for neutrals. I know bicarb is a cheap way to clean them up too, but for now I am usually left with a fair amount of stuff that is just not going to be cleaned up easily enough to make it worth the propane or time cost.

[rad14701]

I collect, dilute to 30%, and rerun all of my feints through a reflux column and keep recycling them... My foreshots always go into my alcohol fuel jar but everything else gets recycled... And I get a lot of extra crisp clean neutral spirits from my feints... I've never ended up with a buildup of nasty feints that I'd just dump...

That's the beauty of a reflux. Maybe when I get my new thumper setup attached it will be worth it to run more feints for neutrals. I know bicarb is a cheap way to clean them up too, but for now I am usually left with a fair amount of stuff that is just not going to be cleaned up easily enough to make it worth the propane or time cost.

I've also been known to toss my feints into a pot still with some spare wash and redistill that way... I do whatever strikes my fancy when I get the itch to fire up a still...