Feints -- when and how

[Tōtōchtin]

Thank you, more reading to be done.

[fiery creations]

Wont heads and tails build up over time and smear into the hearts? I included them once a long time ago then promptly stopped. If I'm going through the trouble to remove them, why add them back in?

[NZChris]

Wont heads and tails build up over time and smear into the hearts? I included them once a long time ago then promptly stopped. If I'm going through the trouble to remove them, why add them back in?

Like I said on the previous page, what you can get away with depends on how you strip and your style of cuts.

[Saltbush Bill]

Wont heads and tails build up over time

Some claim they do, others say they don't.....I've got no more heads or tails now than I had ten years ago.
It comes down still type and cuts I think.

[Bee]

Toto the ester hydrolysis reaction frees alcohol that is bound to an ester (Imagine heads as good clean alcohol, but with dirt stuck to it. The high pH hydrolysis makes the dirt fall off and it can't stick back on) so that alcohol then becomes cleaner and allows a greater amount of neutral to be collected by a reflux still.
The esters are left behind in the still as salts.

Do you run that through copper? Any problems with blue boogers?

[fiery creations]

Wont heads and tails build up over time

Some claim they do, others say they don't.....I've got no more heads or tails now than I had ten years ago.
It comes down still type and cuts I think.

Unless all the Irish whiskey distilleries are sacrificing heads regularly, you’d think they’d be the first to know and stop. Doesn’t seem to be the case.

[MooseMan]

Toto the ester hydrolysis reaction frees alcohol that is bound to an ester (Imagine heads as good clean alcohol, but with dirt stuck to it. The high pH hydrolysis makes the dirt fall off and it can't stick back on) so that alcohol then becomes cleaner and allows a greater amount of neutral to be collected by a reflux still.
The esters are left behind in the still as salts.

Do you run that through copper? Any problems with blue boogers?

I haven't done it yet Bee, although as I'm only going to raise it to around pH9 it shouldn't be a problem.
The lower pH fluids we run all the time are far more corrosive to copper than the level I'm going to aim for, in fact I think pH8.5 water is the max allowed for "Permanent" copper installations, so I'm just above that upper limit, although that's for installs expected to last decades.

Once I've done the run I'll be sure to post about it anyway.
And as it will be run on my reflux setup that only comes out 2-3 times a year, it will be fully cleaned through after the run.

[Bolverk]

Wont heads and tails build up over time and smear into the hearts?

Yes, for about 4-5 runs (depending on a lot of factors), but it will level off. The aldehydes and other congeners breakdown due to thermal decomposition. Some parts will turn to ethanol, acids, and esters and come out in your distillate. This is how you'll end up some very heavy fatty acids esters like Ethyl octanoate. Other parts will turn to heavier acids and come out in the low tails.

[Saltbush Bill]

Yes, for about 4-5 runs (depending on a lot of factors), but it will level off.

That seems to be how it works Bolverk.

[Bolverk]

What's nice is your heads become heads'ier and tails, tails'ier so your cut points become more pronounced... at least in my experience.