Heads and tails

[American newbie]

I've done a lot of reading but I have never seen this topic really brought up. Because of space I use an air still (yes I know). And I run small batches obviously. But I consistently run one to two a night. I always do a stripping run then a spirit run. When I get to my spirit run it will...Out of a gallon the first fifty I would trash the next hundred was yech then 600 of hearts before my tails showed up. But I have started taking the first 150 saving them of course keeping the 600 hearts but then adding 300 tails to the first 150 for a secondary stripping run. Is that crazy?

[shadylane]

Not crazy, just recycling the heads and tails.
Some folks would add the feints to the boiler charge on the next stripping run.
Others would save up enough feints and do an all feints spirit run off them.
If you do this make sure to dilute below 40% so your not boiling a liquid that's already flammable.

[OtisT]

Collecting 1.1 liters and keeping .6 liters for your cut sounds about right to me. Although I would never advice making cuts by volume alone, your cut points seem about in the right place.

[JustinNZ]

You’re right on track. I prefer to add my feints to my next spirit run along with three or four strips. I don’t go deep into tails when I collect feints - I just have a non-scientific aversion to tails (I make rum).

I tried putting the feints into the next strip but I found it messed with my numbers/volumes - nothing to do with flavour.

Good luck out there!

[MooseMan]

I've done a lot of reading but I have never seen this topic really brought up. Because of space I use an air still (yes I know). And I run small batches obviously. But I consistently run one to two a night. I always do a stripping run then a spirit run. When I get to my spirit run it will...Out of a gallon the first fifty I would trash the next hundred was yech then 600 of hearts before my tails showed up. But I have started taking the first 150 saving them of course keeping the 600 hearts but then adding 300 tails to the first 150 for a secondary stripping run. Is that crazy?

You're doing it right, no matter how small you still is.
Well, sort of right... Haha

Keep those later heads, (Put the first 20-50ml from the air still in the fire lighter bottle and write poison on it, this is foreshots) add them to the tails, and keep it all in a big glass jug marked feints.

Now, you have 2 choices to use it easily.

Each time you have enough feints to fill your air still, run that as a spirit run, watered down to below 40%abv.

Or, next time you have just enough strips of your normal wash ready to do a spirit run, add some of the feints to the still as well,

Both of these things will help to make extra flavour in your product, and give you a slightly more heavy, slicker mouthfeel.

[Yummyrum]

Agree too .
Be mindful of what you are making . If you are doing a Rum , keep the Rum feints for the next Rum spirit run . If you are doing a whisky , keep the Whisky faints for the next Whisky spirit run .

Iffn you are doing a simple sugar wash , same applies .

But there is only so far you can go with a Pot still ( read : Airstill)

If sugar wash is what you have been doing then sooner or later , you should consider upgrading to a reflux still . There is only so much you can selvage from a sugar wash and feints .

The process of feints in a spirit run works great for flavoured spirits like Rum and Whisky in a Pot still ….but not so good for chasing a less flavoured …nuetral

[NZChris]

"I always do a stripping run then a spirit run."

Yes, that's crazy. Three or four stripping are needed to make the low wines for a spirit run.

Assuming we are talking about making neutral, putting heads and tails back into wash or low wines is something I never do. I reckon that putting your nasty crap into nice clean wash or low wines is counter productive, so I save mine up for an All Feints run. There are other tricks as well and I've had success with raising the feints collection pH to over 8 with slaked lime before the All Feints run. I've also been experimenting with adding it to low wines and have had good results. Other posters have been using sodium bicarbonate, search the forum for it.