Question about low wines and whiskey

[cornwhiskey]

Yes I did a search.

I'm a little confused about what exactly low wines are. From what I understand it is a first distillation that ends up around 20% ABV. If you are distilling a regular mash, why would the ABV be so low.

On the Jim Beam site http://www.smallbatch.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow, they say they do a first distillation on on a column with perforated plates and get low wines. Then they do a second distiallation (didn't say what type of still but I would assume a pot still) to get their final product.

Now everything I have read so far says that you should distill whiskey in a pot still because you don't want to strip the flavor out and have a neutral spirit. Well, the Jim Beam site they said they are using a column with plates for the first distillation, wouldn't this strip the whiskey of all of it's whiskey flavor and make it neutral?

[Dnderhead]

20% most likly from a pot still. the first time through 20-30% secend 50-80%.
but it can be done on a column still as well ,run as fast as you can, called "stripping"
(say you have 50 gal.(200l) of wash to do and a 10gal still,,instid of doing 5 slow runs you
you 5 fast runs, add all together then do one slow run. this saves a bunch of time.
some run the first time through a pot still then a column.
most of the "big boys" run continueis stills.and some just buy alcohol and blend to sute.
even if it says "pot distilled" most likly not all of it is. a few run 2-3 pot stills, a "wash" still
a "intermediate" still and a "spirits " still.

[carl1078lewis]

dnder is right, I've been able to tour several Kentucky Bourbon distilleries, and almost all had the same procedure: run the raw wash through a "beer" still or "wash" still, as they called it, which was a continuous run plate fractioning column. The output of this still is the commercial version of 'low wines', although if I remember right, it was higher ABV than what you'd get from a single run through a pot still. This goes into a pot still, which is used to 'finish' the whiskey. Every bourbon distillery I've toured so far does it this way other than Labrot & Grahm (Woodford Reserve), and they run their bourbon through 3 pot stills.

The output of your 1st distillation run (low wines) will vary in strength depending on the efficiency of your still and other variables. If your output is only 20% (assuming the starting wash was in the ballpark of 10%), that's a pretty poor result, I would expect higher even from a pot still (which I have no practical experience with, just going off what I've read others discussing in this forum).

[rad14701]

Wash + Fast Strip Run (Cuts Optional) = Low Wines + Additional Slower Run(s) With Cuts = Spirits...

[cornwhiskey]

Wash + Fast Strip Run (Cuts Optional) = Low Wines + Additional Slower Run(s) With Cuts = Spirits...

In a previous post where I was considering the Bokabob still you told me I need to use a pot still to make whiskey. If you do a fast strip run and do cuts won't you be taking out a lot of the whiskey flavor, being as you will also be doing cuts on the second run?

For my beer stripping run, should I pack my column with some raschig rings or copper scrubbers? This would essentially be doing the same thing that is described on smallbatch.com where they do a stripping run with a column the has perforated plates, correct?