The Feints Run Myth

[Jimbo]

LOL Crow. Ya, fores for sure, heads too. But there's that fine line between heads and hearts where there's a ton of apple aroma. If ya get it right, there's no bite, fruity warm caramelly goodness after aging on oak. Get it wrong and its that liquid hell youre talking about. Apple gotta be one of the hardest things Ive found to cut, for that reason. I got to a point for a few years I could cut off the still, sensing that 'liquid hell' to good fruit hearts transition. 2012 I jarred everything and came back to make cuts. Prolly a mistake. haha. need to trust your instincts straight up sometimes.

[Prairiepiss]

I would never rule out flavor additives. Firepiss is one of my favorites that I make. It's easy. And its good. And I use the neutral made from all feints. To make it most of the time.

[Jimbo]

lemoncello made with sugar and lemon zest is pretty fine stuff to enjoy on ice too. More good uses for feints runs

[sounder_4]

I would never rule out flavor additives. Firepiss is one of my favorites that I make. It's easy. And its good. And I use the neutral made from all feints. To make it most of the time.

OK, I'll bite: What's in firepiss?

[Jimbo]

I would never rule out flavor additives. Firepiss is one of my favorites that I make. It's easy. And its good. And I use the neutral made from all feints. To make it most of the time.

OK, I'll bite: What's in firepiss?

Check piss's recipe (search box). Good stuff.

[Jimbo]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 6&start=45

[thecroweater]

Limoncello and like likes are good for neutral there is no doubt but EG suspends the citrus above the neutral for the flavour to sweat out over a few months and it is something astounding . I seen it and I tasted it but am yet to do it myself (lazy and impatient ) but one day I most certainly will

[Prairiepiss]

I still don't know why firepiss never made it to the tried and true section. LOL

And I have read about eg's lemoncelo. And have always wanted to try it.
I tried some with zest. And it didn't turn out so good. One of these days I will try again and hopefully get it right.

[Jimbo]

I still don't know why firepiss never made it to the tried and true section.

Thats criminal. We might has ta fix that....

[Prairiepiss]

I still don't know why firepiss never made it to the tried and true section.

Thats criminal. We might has ta fix that....

I never moved it there. Because I never thought it was my place to put my recipe in that section. And I never pushed the issue. Because I didn't think that was right either.

[thecroweater]

I still don't know why firepiss never made it to the tried and true section. LOL

And I have read about eg's lemoncelo. And have always wanted to try it.
I tried some with zest. And it didn't turn out so good. One of these days I will try again and hopefully get it right.

hmm yeah well a lot of methods go over board with sugar so add to taste, as for the rind get a potato peeler and just take off the surface just as thin as you can. i fill the jar and top with neutral. When its all white (the peel) I take it out (about 4 days) and then add the sugar to my taste, done deal and although a little cloudy its just as tasty as can be

[Prairiepiss]

Mine turned out to pungent for my liking. I may have just not let it marry well. I still have it. Who knows it might be some really good stuff now. But its packed away at this time. Along with many of my others. And we ate in the packing phase now. So I can't go unpacking stuff. LOL

[Jimbo]

wow, you fill the jar with lemon zest crow? I use the zest of 4 lemons or so in 1 quart. Its less than an inch in the bottom of teh jar and turns out very lemony after a few weeks soaking. I use a zester that peels long thin strips, 1mm wide or so, maybe that helps to cut through the cells in teh zest? One of these https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/imag ... 3JMdIe8IZA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[thecroweater]

Hmm OK that don't sound like a lot I do soak it in high proof and only temper after steeping

[Dan P.]

I used to just take the outer peel (i.e. the yellow bit and none of the white) of one lemon, preferably unwaxed, and plop it in a bottle of vodka. No sugar. Wait a few days and put it in the freezer. I never bothered to take out the lemon peel.
That's a method for lemon vodka that I picked up from a restaurant in Istanbul called "Rejans" about 20 years ago. It was founded by refugee White Russians in 1917. Interesting place if you are ever in Istanbul. I had never had lemon vodka before, I thought it was amazing, so they told me how to make it.

[Dan P.]

Speaking of feints;
From my last run (around 22 litres of around 30% low wines) of molasses rum, I seperated about a gallon of around 45% feints. Coming back to it a mere week later, I don't think I would even need to do an all feints run with this. It has got a certain tails-y fire to it, and only contains mid/late heads (I tend to toss the first half of the heads entirely), but it's almost drinkable. Given a lot of age and a little bit of oak, it could be a decent rum! I have found the same to be true of panela/jaggery washes I have done, unlike all grain or fruit, which seem to be a much more unruly crowd, feints wise.

My point being, not all feints are equal.

[HookLine]

I just taste tested my feints run that's been on toasted/charred oak for 2 weeks. I had added a small piece of vanilla bean just for shits and grins. Tasted it today...pretty damn good.

Looks like crow on the menu again.

Least you can wash it down with some decent all feints.

Besides a lick of common sense about safety, the most important thing you need for making good spirits is patience, at every step.

You can't rush a good spirit anymore than you can make the tide rise faster.

My point being, not all feints are equal.

Good point it is too.

[Rrmuf]

LOL. All kind of consensus here I see.

[RC Al]

Currently as a potstiller who cuts hard, I find the all feints run a valuable source of extra drinkable that has its own character

[Saltbush Bill]

Throw them back in the boiler with the next wash on the next run....re use them asap.....why wait to have a boiler full?

[NZChris]

Throw them back in the boiler with the next wash on the next run....re use them asap.....why wait to have a boiler full?

I tried that when I first started distilling rum, then gave it another try many years later after reading this forum. For me, the way I choose my cuts, it doesn't work for rum. I've had great results by saving rum and whiskey feints on new and used oak dominoes until I have a full still charge worth of feints with some fresh wash, the more time on oak the better.

Fast aging feints on oak has also given me great results in a short time without having to clutter my shed with aging feints jars.
https://www.wired.com/2015/04/lost-spirits/
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 44&t=55301

[NZChris]

In answer to the OP, if your feints heart cut is rubbish, you haven't done a good job of choosing it. You can never expect a feints run to be as nice as the original, but you should be able to choose a nice cut from it as long as you're not greedy.

[zapata]

One of the few commercial examples I can think of. Haven't had it myself, but the stuff of theirs I have had is pretty good. Not quite an "all feints" and more a "all tails", but, yeah.
https://privateerrum.com/spirit/queens-share/

Queen’s Share rum was known to be the best barrels in a distillery and reserved for royalties special occasions. It takes meticulous distilling, additional cut collection, re-distillation, and extended aging to fulfill it’s promise of dense flavor and plush texture. Sadly it became a victim of bottom lines & large volume manufacturing. We take great pride in being a part of this traditional rum’s revival.

Privateer’s Queen’s Share rum is made from the richest cuts of our rum distillation. In every distillation there are traditionally three main cuts. The “heads”, harsh alcohols unwanted in your final spirit cut, come off of the still first. The “hearts” follow; this is the flavorful rum that is collected and bottled as Privateer New England White Rum, Privateer True American Amber and Privateer Navy Yard. Lastly, the “tails” cut is made to separate the hearts from the bitter alcohols at the end of the still run.

However, as the hearts run is approaching the tails cut, the spirit becomes more powerful and flavorful. Even once these tails have overpowered the hearts and we’ve made our cut, some of these rich hearts are still intertwined with the bitter tails. At this stage, our distillers collect a fourth cut- a blend of rich hearts mixed with tails otherwise known as the “seconds”. These small amounts are collected over many runs and redistilled together, liberating the hearts. This creates a single batch, single barrel expression of Queen’s Share rum.

[thecroweater]

Faints run will give a different product, not better or worst unless your cuts are better or worse. That said the result is not identical to the original and I guess that is likely due to different concentrations of esters and other various flavours in the faints than the original wash.
Edit: when is say not better or worse I mean the difference is subjective

[RockinRockies]

Well I'm not even sure if the original poster is still even in this hobby as this was such a long threat ago but I'm running my fourth distillation cleaning up these faints and an air still and I'm very excited to see what happens.

So far as I'm collecting in 50 ml increments I'm interested to see how this turns out. Definitely bold aroma at what I'm estimating to be around 160 proof but not offensive

[RockinRockies]

So I read though this entire post twice. I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence and perspective based on running something as simple as a air still just for tinkering purposes.

I took 6 gallons at 40%, basically strip them down to 2.25 gallons at 78% or so, and I'm now on my second run of one gallon Spirit runs of an all feints run of a hybrid sweet feed/all grain bourbon recipe.

After taking my cuts of the first 1 gallon Spirit run at 40%, the first 450ml were obvious heads, with the last 50 mL of those being borderline but I didn't want to chance it, so I took the first 450ml set them aside.
After doing all of my blending and tasting and knocking down to 40%, I decided the next 350 ml was actually extremely robust and flavorful with a slight funk bitterness on the very very back end is not awful but it's clearly not as clean as a double distillation, but by no means off-putting... just, with my very sensitive palette just enough to not be perfect.
I then took the next 300 ml and recycled what the first 450ml because they are going to get put into my sacrificial run cleaning run on my new still which is a beast.


So what I'd like to say is although I understand where the OP is coming from, I have to disagree that it is a myth that you can pull good alcohol out of a all feints run.
Each of these runs are going to net me 350 mL of 125 proof spirit that I will likely keep un-oaked. It is wildly robust in flavorful and I think absolutely worth putting into something like an air still for shits and giggles.
Heck if I had enough I would absolutely run this through a reflux to make a high octane vodka to be proof down with some flavor