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I think that people are too obsessed with trying to get a pure product from one or more runs. The truth of the matter is that 97% of all commercial distillers make little rerun everything except for cursors and the aging of the booze is what smooths out the fire burn caused from mixing of cuts over a few runs.

Simple fix age your Shit.
Lol

pizzaninja wrote:I think that people are too obsessed with trying to get a pure product from one or more runs. The truth of the matter is that 97% of all commercial distillers make little rerun everything except for cursors and the aging of the booze is what smooths out the fire burn caused from mixing of cuts over a few runs.

Simple fix age your Shit.
Lol

Most commercial spirits don't taste as good as what experienced members make... And they don't leave out the headaches like we do either...

Hope Rad, Dnderhead can help, I run a simple pot still, which I built from ALL the info found here, used Samohon design he posted here, using UJSSM. Can I not make my 1st run an keep some of the hearts an continue to save up feints (I'm confused on rather heads are included in this ) until i have enough to do cut down to the 40% an run as "spirit run" ? I'm using a 15 gallon keg. I've run my still 5 times now an it produced 45% ABV after it aired for 2 days, first run had sting, slowed up an little better for second, but last couple I'm happy with a couple pint jars out of a 5 an 6 gallon wash. I've saved the feints ( heads an tails ) but looks an sounds like maybe ditch heads ?? or build a reflux head to run them ? which I'm going to build another anyway, got 14ft of 2' copper I'm mainly interested in flavored sippin likker, ie.. age in oak, add vanilla bean, maybe make some lemonchello, I'd like to make some fruit flavored likker come summer, I think Rad's fruit recipe sounds too good, an there a peach orchard close to me
Thanks for any info guys ! This is a great place for info, I find myself reading an hour or three almost every night.


Note for other newbies, READ an READ more, I hate reading , but know knowledge is power, I was told/taught no matter what you do try to be the best at it, an to do this for a hobby it takes READING. There is tons of info an can seem over whelming, take a break READ something else, then come back an reread it again, listen to the advice of the guys who been here for years, have posted designs/plans/recipes !

1GOODWRENCH wrote:Can I not make my 1st run an keep some of the hearts an continue to save up feints (I'm confused on rather heads are included in this ) until i have enough to do cut down to the 40% an run as "spirit run" ?

Keep everything but the foreshots. That's what I do with my UJSSM. The first run wasn't that great, so I kept most of it as feints. I then threw it in the next batch, and it was pretty good. I still save all the heads and tails for feints, especially if they're cloudy. I sometimes blend the redistilled feints run into the next batch of hearts. That usually makes it a lot smoother.

There are so many said to skin this cat.

You could.
Do a stripping run for the first run. Tossing out the fores and saving everything else for a spirit run.

Do a slower run for the first run. Tossing out the fores. Keeping some out of the middle you like to drink. And saving everything else for another run. Could be considered a all feints run or spirit run. Depending on how much you kept out.

Saving the feints from a spirit run. And use them for an all feints run.

Then there are variants of those.

Add the low wines from a strip run to a new wash.

Adding feints to a new wash.

These are just a few off the top of my head. And you would need to experiment to find which one works best for you. Remember that just because it works with one recipe. You mite find that for a different recipe. That you will like to do it completely different.

About the only wrong way to do it is an all fores run.

There is still good alcohol in both the heads and tails from a pot still run. The more you collect. The easier it is to get more of that good alcohol out of them. But you can only squeeze it so much before it has nothing left to give you.

rad14701 wrote:

pizzaninja wrote:I think that people are too obsessed with trying to get a pure product from one or more runs. The truth of the matter is that 97% of all commercial distillers make little rerun everything except for cursors and the aging of the booze is what smooths out the fire burn caused from mixing of cuts over a few runs.

Simple fix age your Shit.
Lol

Most commercial spirits don't taste as good as what experienced members make... And they don't leave out the headaches like we do either...

+ a big 1 on Rad.

Re: Rerunning Feints
by Prairiepiss » Fri Jan 11, 2013 2:05 am

There are so many said to skin this cat.

Thanks, yeah seemed like a bunch of different ways.

I recently did a spirit run of individual stripped batches of sweetfeed low wines on a boka. I did add about 4 quarts of feints (pretty much equal volume of heads and tails) from 2 previous spirit runs. It really increased my total yield, but I think I ended up cutting more off the front end than I usually would on a spirit run, than without the feints added. So, you do extract some good ethanol and flavor from the feints, but you are adding concentrated heads and tails, so you naturally would get more heads and tails, than if you didn't include them. It kind of through off my mojo too, as I was doing a lot more taste testing and smelling to get my cuts right. I couldn't believe how my proof was staying so high for so long. Then, when it did drop, it dropped very fast, and got nasty fast. I ended up with about a quart more hearts than my usual yield for that amount of starting wash.

I think I would benefit more from saving all my feints from spirit runs, and then running a larger all-feints run down the road, and creating a neutral out of that. Or, maybe keeping all the "feints" separately is the key.

Re-run large batches of saved tails on a pot still for whiskey and run the batches of heads on a reflux column for neutral.

Anyone tried this?

I don't add feints back to my ujssm runs. I save all feints ( heads and tails ) and run them through the boka. Then discard the feints from that. I got more vodka than i can poke a stick at.

No I have read old recipes where they call the tails "Backens" and they actually used them to dilute or temper down the high apv spirits.
That never made any sense to me what so ever until I did a few All Grain mash's.

If you do an UJSM first generation run the tails seem to come in hard and stinky. They seem less with consecutive generations.
The last two all grain runs I did that stinky sour smell/taste was almost non existent. Now cutting with tails makes sense to me if I was trying to get a lot out of it.
Of coarse I cut with filtered spring water not tails so Im not advocating that anyone should do that.

When I run heads together, I run them real real slow.
I have been known to toss heads out too. There is still a lot of headache in the very first of the heads.

I've got to say, this has been one of the most informative threads I have read on running a still(if not the most). A big thanks to everybody for all the info. Hopefully sometime down the road I will have some info that helps someone else out as much.

I cant count the times I've read here to throw in the feints(heads and tails) for the next run. So thats what I been doing.

I have a potstill and a Boka reflux still but use the potstill most.
I usually take off a full cup of fores and discard that, then collect heads, hearts and tails in 8 oz jars. The first 2 are considered heads, or 1 pint, which I keep out for the next run. They are nasty with a hard bite and I dont put them in my keepers section. From there I taste and may discard one more jar. The late tails are usually oily and cloudy so I been throwing them out. Keeping everthing in the middle after diluting for drinking.

So ya'll are saying "dont re run the heads in the next batch but keep them for the reflux still" ???? Also,,, how deep into tails should I keep????

Corn-fused agin
Bent

i keep till about 20%

"I cant count the times I've read here to throw in the feints(heads and tails) for the next run. So thats what I been doing "

Heads are not feints. Tails are. Dnderhead gives a good explanation on page 1. As does Usge for the reason why heads should not be added back to the next run. These guys know their stuff and we should have no reason to doubt any advise they give.

I think you can run some/all of heads once or twice in a 1.5 distillation process but you have to keep track of them and toss the them after that. You just can't keep using them over and over and over.

hi great info yet again
but am i correct the heads are called so because they give you the sore head
hearts= good for you
tails= lower alc oils etc

Ive already got 5L feints im gonna save up 15L and run it as a stripping run my feints are 40%+ I love this hobby.

Devonhomebrew wrote:Ive already got 5L feints im gonna save up 15L and run it as a stripping run my feints are 40%+ I love this hobby.

Assume you mean "spirit" run not "stripping" run, correct?

I just did a run of feints (both heads and tails) from all my stripping runs of PugiRum and a few sugar washes. But I made pretty conservative cuts ok both ends, so I'm sure I had a bunch of ethanol on both sides of the cuts to squeeze out. I think I had 2 close to 3 gallons of feints at about 50% ABV. I managed to get a quart and a pint of 185proof outa it with a very clean neutral flavor/smell. I'm pretty happy with the results considering they were just useless scrapps I saved up from the other runs. I will probably make some kaluah or some berry liquors with it...

read all this a coupla times ,,front to back,,then back to front. didnt see anyone mention running a flute. what / how should one do with heads n tails in a flute?? when to add back,, when to toss??

I thoroughly enjoyed this whole thread. I think it was covered but I can't seem to find it again, so I'll ask. When a combo of heads and tails are diluted and run through a reflux column it is a good idea to at the very least pitch the heads because they will be compressed?

Are you talking about after an all feints run in a reflux still? If so after cuts are made I would toss out heads and tails. Then start collecting feints from your normal runs. As you normally do.

Prairiepiss wrote:Are you talking about after an all feints run in a reflux still? If so after cuts are made I would toss out heads and tails. Then start collecting feints from your normal runs. As you normally do.

Yes that's what I was talking about. I figured I would save all my feints from both stripping and spirit runs with my pot still but not sure if its a good idea to save them from the reflux?

I'm using my tails w/ an equal amount of water in my thumper (1qt ea). I pull about 2/3 of the alcohol out of the mixture, Should I save that liquid as feints or is it just crap at that point? Actually, I suppose if I save enough I could do a stripping run of just that couldn't I.....or not ?!

I had a run of Total All Bran vodka that I was not satisfied with so I re-ran it. While putting it in my boiler, I added the two gallons of Mini Wheats All Bran feints that I had saved up. This turned out some of my best vodka yet.

We speak of aging our spirits always helps with mellowing. I have to wonder if this has something to do with why feint runs come out good. We collect them over time so they have usually aged months or longer before running. Just a thought.

I have to say though, I would discourage all you guys from run your feints in your very next batch and save them up for the all feints run if you have not tried it!

I just went through this entire thread....lot's of good knowledge but I still have a couple of questions. Can i use backset to cut my feint's down to 30-40% without compromising flavor or product? Also, I've been using my feint's as the liquid in my thumper to raise the alcohol content in my run, any problem using that thumper liquid in my spirit run also?

Man I just came out with a fantastic neutral feints run. I ran a batch twice through my LM watering it down to 35% each time to clean it up. Cut to drinking strength it is 100 proof water!
I used, feints from all bran wheat, sweet feed, rye bread, panela, peach brandy and a bad batch of second generation corn flake whiskey. Mixed it all up and boiled away! I am a firm believer in saving all heads and tails now for a later date and not just mixing into the next batch. The all feints runs are great.

Yes this is very old post but very informative when I started I wanted to read some books and there is a lot of info. But those books suggested to
discard the foreshots heads and tails mixed and collect hearts. And I was doing that for long time and had some hint of heads in my spirit.
For now on I will separate heads and use tails for my next stripping run. This just makes sense.

hanks for info guys it takes a lot of reading here but it is worth it.

PapaPro

I have been reading the Lagavullin scotch site who keep a low wines receiver into which they toss everything that's not spirit run hearts.
So all from the stripping run they call low wines.
All but hearts from the spirit run they call feints. That's foreshots, heads & all tails.

On the stripping run they go down to zero. I just ran a barley mash and sure enough there's great flavour in weak tails right down past 1.0%ABV
On a spirit run it's comforting to know I can be tight on the cuts. Leave it past heads until hearts are sweet, cut to tails real early before fusels turn it sour. Nothing is discarded, all feints go into the low wines.

Apparently their low wines receiver has oils floating on it. All good stuff

I was going to use my stovetop potstill for the barley spirit run. I always do my strips there anyhow.
But this time I refluxed (CCVM 3" in SS). As soon as hearts developed that licquorice taste I stopped collecting,
siphoned the hot ale into the stovetop and kept her lit, collected all feints to zero.

There was quite a lot there. Nothing wasted, and I have a few gallons feints waiting for my next low wines