taste buds are poor-how much heads do I toss?

[bingo]

I am figuring on doing a second disstill run after I run a few more single (stripping?) runs. Second run will be with the tails collected and dilutted to 30-35%. The issue here is about cuts from my first runs.

I am using a pot still 15 gall with propane 1.5 "collum and a 40"liebig arm. Am using an allgrain 70% corn 30% 6 row barley. Batch is 9-10 gal. clear wort at 7%abv. The first time I ran this ( little bit slow) It was ok, so so. The second time( last week),ran it faster, it was really good. Smelled and tasted good( better than the $20 bottle my buddy brought to compare). I collect in 12 oz. beer bottles.

Here is the question. I figure the first 12 oz. is fores. The tails are fairly easy to figure out( tastes like dirty dish water). I lable each bottle in order 1,2,3, etc. I can not taste the diff. between 2 to8 or 10 except a stronger alcohol bite- taste. Finallly drank some, 2 stiff drinks from #4 and got a headache soon after.

Can anyone aprox. where the heads start and the harts begin. The goal is to put several gal. on oak till it is fine sipping wiskey.

Thanks in advance

Bingo

[Richard7]

There are a lot to ways to determine heads, smell taste feel..... one trick I have learned to help when I can't taste it is to hold a shot glass with a little in the bottom up to your eye, and just look straight down through the booze (Don't get any in your eye!).
If it is heads it will irritate your eye and make it water. With hearts you can tell its alcohol but doesn't make your eye water. Let me know if this helps, works for me.

Edit to add... There is no way to tell you how much because every still is different as is every ferment and even ambient temps and conditions can change how a run yields, but I do recommend airing out your distillate before making cuts.

[heartcut]

What Richard7 said- the eye in the shotglass works for me.

[ipee7ABV]

fruit flies like heads

[myles]

I would be tempted to dilute a bit further. I like to keep my pot still charge between 27% and 30% ABV.

You can always use the established guide for a starting point, with a bit of experimentation on either side of each transition dependent on your recipe.

ABV greater than 75% is heads.
ABV 75% to 65% is premium hearts.
ABV 65% to 55% is secondary hearts
ABV less than 55% is tails.

How much secondary hearts you add back into the primary, is down to your taste. Likewise there might be some small samples of the tails that you might want to add back in.

Someone mentioned that heads has a bad taste reaction when mixed with cherry cola and is very noticeable.

[DuckofDeath]

Heads tend to smell sweet. Ethyl Acetate smells like fingernail polish remover. But if your plan is to age on Oak I would add some in with your hearts. Ethyl Acetate will turn into phenol on oak and start to taste and feel like honey. It gives a very nice mouth feel to the aged whiskey. I run a hybrid still and can basically set my ABV for the run. So When I draw off at 90% for the entire run only the first part is heads. Only you can determine if its heads.

[Richard7]

fruit flies like heads

Yes they do! How is this for an idea, get an aquarium and throw in a banana peel, wait on the critters to show up, (just build it they will come) Then place the suspect heads in there with coffee filters over the tops of the jars. Cover with a lid that keeps them (the critters) in the aquarium and let them pick the jars that are heads!!!
I'm kinda joking but kinda not, Them fruit flies really do prefer heads! I have read studies where scientist have determined that fruit flies are alcoholics and don't mind a hangover!

[Dnderhead]

"fruit flies are alcoholics and don't mind a hangover!"
you can answer this yourselves ,over ripe fruit makes _ _ _ _ _ _ _
and fruit _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is high in _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[Truckinbutch]

I'm gaining a lot here as I also suffer from poor sensory perception . Wife can't always be holdin my hand by samplin .
I've seen a marked increase in yellow flame on a 1/2 teaspoon burn of perceived heads from 74% on up 8 oz collection jars . Flame on them will rise blue to 3" above spoon and burn solid yellow above that another 1 1/2" . 1 drop to no residue left in spoon when flame goes out . Is this another indicator ?

[Richard7]

"fruit flies are alcoholics and don't mind a hangover!"
you can answer this yourselves ,over ripe fruit makesAlcohol
and fruit Alcohol is high in acetates

Did I get it right Dnder? I'm still a student so I'm looking for wisdom!

Edit to add ...TB good question...

[Dnderhead]

yes i could also put methanol.
but the point is ripe fruit smells like heads.or heads like ripe fruit.
some animals will git drunk eating fruit.

[Truckinbutch]

yes i could also put methanol.
but the point is ripe fruit smells like heads.or heads like ripe fruit.
some animals will git drunk eating fruit.

Yep Caught a few ruffed grouse and a couple wild turkeys by hand that were 'rum dumb' from eating rotting wild grapes .

[MartinCash]

Heads tend to smell sweet. Ethyl Acetate smells like fingernail polish remover. But if your plan is to age on Oak I would add some in with your hearts. Ethyl Acetate will turn into phenol on oak and start to taste and feel like honey. It gives a very nice mouth feel to the aged whiskey. I run a hybrid still and can basically set my ABV for the run. So When I draw off at 90% for the entire run only the first part is heads. Only you can determine if its heads.

That doesn't sound right. I don't see how ethyl acetate could be altered to phenol by wood. Maybe it helps extract / combines nicely with phenolics in the wood?

[Dnderhead]

I believe your talking about esters,witch in derived from diferant acids with diferant alcohols
its a whole other study, so not getting into that,but its what happens in a barrel over time..
even once its a ester (witch ethyl acetate is)can be transesterification into a diferant ester.

[DuckofDeath]

It was my understanding that the tannin over time would break down the ethyl acetate.

[DuckofDeath]

Ok yes I just checked

Phenol and ethyl acetate will react and form phenol acetate as well as several other compounds.

[hopkins21]

Been browsing some posts in the forum for the last hour or so just trying.to soak up as much knowledge as I can, and it amazes me how smart a lot of you ppl are....Ur talking about enzymes and phenol and all kinds of big words...lol....anyway a little off topic I know, I'm just enjoying the reading....carry on.