Stop cutting for heads while distilling!
Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:11 pm
Why? Because I feel we spend a lot of time discussing cuts. Especially the cut for Heads. As if distilling is the way to control Heads. No, distilling is just one way to control Heads. The real way to Heads control? Mashing, washing, fermenting.
If you mash as well as possible. If you make sure your ferment went just perfect. You just may end up with a "beer" or "wine" that is pretty clean, pretty devoid of lower or higher Boiling Point alcohols.
The key to controlling Heads is not "while distiling", it is "while fermenting".
Consider that pro distillers don't make a Heads cut. They only distinguish between Fores, Hearts, and Tails.
Something else to consider. Something I hear over and over again, when I talk to pro distillers.
"Distilling?" they tell me, "distilling is the easy part!"
And when I ask them where the difficult part is, what do you guess they answer?
"Controlling fermentation."
And, well, as ever, I felt the need to challenge that. Telling those master distillers, it is the distillation process that makes all the difference.
You know what the answer is you will get? The same I got. A lesson to remember.
Here it comes. I will phrase it as a Q myself.
Do you know how much of the financial investment to start up (or keep running) a big pro distillery takes? No? Well, neither do I. At least I do not know it in advance and even then only approximately.
But ask a master distiller how much of his money is tied up in fermenting. And how much is tied up in his distillation equipment.
The answer you will be getting is this: "90% of our money is directed to equipment we use for fermenting."
A distillery spending 90% of their money on ... fermenting? So what do they spend on their distillation equipment?
The answer may baffle you.
It is just 10%.
My statement? If you want to control Heads, look at the way you ferment. That's where you can gain 90%.
Odin.
If you mash as well as possible. If you make sure your ferment went just perfect. You just may end up with a "beer" or "wine" that is pretty clean, pretty devoid of lower or higher Boiling Point alcohols.
The key to controlling Heads is not "while distiling", it is "while fermenting".
Consider that pro distillers don't make a Heads cut. They only distinguish between Fores, Hearts, and Tails.
Something else to consider. Something I hear over and over again, when I talk to pro distillers.
"Distilling?" they tell me, "distilling is the easy part!"
And when I ask them where the difficult part is, what do you guess they answer?
"Controlling fermentation."
And, well, as ever, I felt the need to challenge that. Telling those master distillers, it is the distillation process that makes all the difference.
You know what the answer is you will get? The same I got. A lesson to remember.
Here it comes. I will phrase it as a Q myself.
Do you know how much of the financial investment to start up (or keep running) a big pro distillery takes? No? Well, neither do I. At least I do not know it in advance and even then only approximately.
But ask a master distiller how much of his money is tied up in fermenting. And how much is tied up in his distillation equipment.
The answer you will be getting is this: "90% of our money is directed to equipment we use for fermenting."
A distillery spending 90% of their money on ... fermenting? So what do they spend on their distillation equipment?
The answer may baffle you.
It is just 10%.
My statement? If you want to control Heads, look at the way you ferment. That's where you can gain 90%.
Odin.