Describe the taste of low wines

[Copper]

I've been experimenting with stripping runs. Copper raschig rings. Copper mesh in the boiler. Using only stainless steel and no copper. Adding a few inches to the riser column before the bend. Also my last batch, I used some Super-Kleer KC (and it was amazingly clear after a few days). I'm trying to minimize the amount of sulfur that makes it into the batch, with the only "intentional" sulfur being a pinch of metabisulfite to kill any chlorine that carried over from city water. The best way to control a process is from the very start.

Anyway, back to my question. How should the low wines taste and smell? I'm really bad at coming up with descriptive words. I capture and study the foreshots - that's where a lot of evidence will be. Today's smelled a bit fruity, almost like a bath and bodyworks misting spray. Then I try the tails, but I can't come up with words to describe it. Sour? Then the leftover smell when I open the boiler after it cools. Ugh. I hate the smell. And the smell when I wash the copper dome. I hate that smell, too.

Today's batch is my first to run fully stainless steel and no copper anywhere. Once the tails started (about at boiler temperature 94-95C and ABV 45%) it is not pleasant. You'd think at 45% ABV the alcohol taste would dominate, but nope.

What are some ways you describe the smell and taste of low wines? Can you distinguish the character when you experiment with your process? What characteristic do you look for?

[Salt Must Flow]

I generally don't taste or smell my low wines. I don't even make cuts during a stripping run. My reflux column works very well at separating foreshots and heads that it doesn't make sense to me to bother with making any cuts until I get to my Spirit Run. Foreshots get tossed (or saved as fire-starter). Heads get cut and tossed into my feints keg. Once I collect enough feints, I do an all feints run and I make my cuts again. So I just don't see any point 'for me' in making cuts during a stripping run. I rely on the still to do its job and it does it very well. The hearts I drink are WELL AWAY from foreshots whether I make a cut during a stripping run or not.

If I don't clear my sugar wash, the low wines smell significantly stronger than when I clear my wash. When I don't clear my wash, during a spirit run, tails is MUCH stronger in odor and flavor. Other than clearing, which is optional, I can't think of anything that I do that makes such a noticeable difference.

Basically your low wines tastes & smells like a concentration of the wash you put inside the boiler. If you clear the wash, odor & flavor is noticeably reduced and that translates to lower odor & flavor with tails at the end of a spirit run.

[NZChris]

Copper won't help much at getting rid of sulfite, so it's better not to put it in in the first place. To get rid of chlorine I put the water out in the sun with an aquarium aerator in it.

I haven't bothered with smelling low wines since I was a noob.

There are no tails from a stripping run. You just run until you have collected the low wines abv you aimed for, then shut down.

[Copper]

There is some misdirection going on here. This thread turned into "don't take cuts during a stripping run" instead of "how do you describe the smell of the low wines". Keep on target!

In regards to the diversion, no I don't make cuts, except the foreshots. I figure the sooner I get rid of the bad stuff, the better. So I collect and toss the foreshots straight away. During the run, I redirect my discharge to a proofing vial every so often, give it a smell, sometimes taste, then keep on cooking. It all goes in one big jug from start to finish.

[NZChris]

I used to do that too but lost interest fairly quickly. A few years ago I was lucky enough to score a large glass receiver that I can float the alcometer in and I've been stripping into that ever since.

[Salt Must Flow]

There is some misdirection going on here. This thread turned into "don't take cuts during a stripping run" instead of "how do you describe the smell of the low wines". Keep on target!

In regards to the diversion, no I don't make cuts, except the foreshots. I figure the sooner I get rid of the bad stuff, the better. So I collect and toss the foreshots straight away. During the run, I redirect my discharge to a proofing vial every so often, give it a smell, sometimes taste, then keep on cooking. It all goes in one big jug from start to finish.

Don't tell me what to do! I'll say whatever I please! Turns out my suspicion was absolutely correct. You're making a foreshot cut during your stripping run. Do what you want, have fun with it. No one cares.

[jonnys_spirit]

Manky. They smell manky to me and the mankier the better. It cleans up on the spirit run and in the barrel

Cheers,
jonny

[Dancing4dan]

Asking what do low wines taste like is like asking how hard does the wind blow. It depends. On what still, how hard is the still being run, what was the mash or wash made of, at what point in the run is it being tasted.

Through out the run flavour and aroma will be changing. So it is a tough question to answer. It’s a moving target and not worth chasing.

[Saltbush Bill]

What ever you do I'd suggest always having copper in the system.......I and some others also run it in the boiler.

[NZChris]

I've had copper in the boiler from Day One, but I've also known not to put metabisulfite in any wash for distilling from Day One.

[JustinNZ]

Not very nice.

[NormandieStill]

I've had low wines that taste not too bad. Not enough to want to drink them as is, but certainly good enough to give an idea of what to expect from the spirit run. In fact early in my stilling experience (which wasn't that long ago) I deliberately slowed right down mid-way through a stripping run in order to see what the hearts might taste like. I strip 30l runs at 2.5kW to 3kW if it helps to have a data point.

Tasting the wash and tasting the low wines help to understand what gets stripped out and what passes over. How relevant that is depends on what you're running and how. Neutral low wines destined for a reflux run might not tell you a lot, but fruity low wines for a brandy can be very interesting. A couple of years ago I got to compare low wines from an apple brandy ferment. One strip was from a ferment with wild yeast, the other from a ferment with champagne yeast. The difference was night and day and influenced the ferment choices the following year. Had I not tried the low wines, I would never have known.

Personally I don't do a fores cut when stripping, mostly because I make a generous fores cut on the spirit run and I'm always scared that the smearing on a stripping run means that I'll be throwing away some of the stuff I want to keep. In general the first two or three jars on my spirit run end up going into the firelighter bottle. The rest of the heads go to the feints jar.

[shadylane]

There is some misdirection going on here. This thread turned into "don't take cuts during a stripping run" instead of "how do you describe the smell of the low wines".

Sometimes posts tend to drift.

Describing the taste of low-wines is kinda difficult, without knowing what the low-wines were made of.
On a sugar wash, unrefined and harsh.
For a sour mashed bourbon, funky, nasty, oily and icky.