Pot Still; Spirit Charge Volume

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BlueSasquatch
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Pot Still; Spirit Charge Volume

Post by BlueSasquatch »

Question that I can't quite find an answer for. . .My product consisently shares a similar taste, no matter the bill, seems to be the mark of my pot still so to speak, it's not bad nor good, just there. This aside, Im never getting a strong flavor in my product, as if my pot still or process is stripping away too much flavor.
6-Gallon copper pot still, gas heated, I do a 5-gallon stripping run and yield about 1 gallon which I proof down to 35-40% before doing a spirit run. After reading more, I'm considering running longer into the tails, and see if I can run low enough that I bring down the full volume to about 25% before doing a spirit run. Hopeful that running a longer Stripping run over adding water to bring the charge down, will give me more flavor.

But the question I can't find a good response to. . Is there any negative side effect to running a low-volume charge on a spirit run? My 5 gallon washes give me about 1-2 gallons of charge for my 6 gallon still, since I use the same still for strip and spirit, the 1:1 ratio doesn't work out, but since it's flame fed, I've been running my spirits on a low-volume charge. Would this impact my flavor at all? Or just volume? I'm starting to ferment 10-gallon batches, so this should become less of an issue as I will have 2 strips for 1 spirit run.

With my flavor being absent, I am trying to pinpoint where it's getting left behind, spirit run, stripping run. . etc.

More food for thought, perhaps I run my spirit to fast, it meets the "solid stream" "Pencil lead thick" standards that I've heard mentioned, but then again there is a good bit of range in those descriptors.

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