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As a rule, with my pot still I keep the hearts for both white dog and oak aging, love the flavor of both. The rest is kept for the occasional spirit run just because........and yes, tails and H20 make a refined and exceptionally smooth whiskey, incase you haven't tried it. Now, as a habit, I throw away my fore's (a calculated amount that's consistant with my still run's), on the spirit run, but is there actually any methanol left to dispose of?

You always make all four cuts on a spirit run...

You really should be saving your heads in your feints jug because there is a lot of good alcohol that will be extracted when run again... But, if you want to waste perfectly good alcohol, go ahead... Some of my best neutral spirits comes from all feints runs...

Rad, I do put the heads in the spirit run, sorry I left that out. And it looks like there still is some methanol left to discard, thanx for the reply

Somehow it seems there is always some methanol or fores to discard. I throw away about the first half of my heads. I HATE heads and while I like to recover some alcohol from them I am eager to get rid of them too. I keep a few quarts for cleaning runs and if there's more it's down the sink.

Edit:spelling.

Brutal, as rad pointed out and I agree, that's a waste! A spirit run using both heads and tails is delicious.

sltm1 wrote:Brutal, as rad pointed out and I agree, that's a waste! A spirit run using both heads and tails is delicious.

He said he throws the first half of the heads out. And runs the second half. Early heads are just junk in my opinion. And I don't se how he is doing it very much of a waste. Tossing them all out would be a waste.

PP as I said, my still runs consistently, every still"s different and I've never had a hangover or headache, so for my still I must be right on the $$.

The real question is. Was there any methanol to begin with? Foreshots isn't just methanol. It's a mixture of a bunch of bad alcohols. Who can or could be just as bad as methanol. That we don't want in our drinks. So the other question should be. Is there any bad stuffs to be thrown out at this point?

Yes there is. Especially on a pot still. Where you get a little of all the cuts mixed in all the way through the run. They just happen to have higher concentrations in there respective cuts areas. So that means on the next run. The fores cut will have the highest concentration of all those bad alcohols that slipped by into one of the other cuts. In the prior run. How much? Who cares it tastes like crap anyway. So who would want to drink it?

PP. I think he was wondering so he could eliminate it from being included. I have looked around on this site too and have been searching for info about Fores in a spirit run. On my 1/2 barrel pot still charged with 12 gallons I dump 300 ml from my stripping run. I will probably do the same in the spirit run , if I cant get any other insight.

300ml is a bit much for a Foreshots cut... Realistically, ~10ml per gallon is enough for most washes... So you're taking ~3x what you need to... I'd suggest ~120 for the stripping run and ~120 for the spirit run... I usually combine foreshots with early heads because I run such small boiler charges and don't want to bother detecting the cuts during the run... Instead, I just collect in 125ml increments and make my cuts after airing... Regardless of what method you use, you should still make proper cuts during the spirit run whether you make cuts during a stripping run or not...

Thank you. I do make cuts during the stripping run. It has been helping me get my nose and taste buds up for the spirit run. I have at least two quarts of very good hearts out of the 12 gallon strip. Proofed at 120. I collect in Pint jars during the stripping. I will probably use 1/2 pints to initially collect in the spirit run.

PP, to clarify my position, on a 5 gal wash, I collect approx. 85ml in fores and 170 in heads. Most folks here run larger stills so their collection amounts are more, therefore their waste is more and as with, Brutal, un-necessarily large. Hey with a 5gal run (7gal boiler), one tends to be frugal with his product.

So for a spirit run say 25l of 40% low wines how much is everyone throwing out for fores? I'm doing 300 to 400ml with a reflux still... But got me thinking its to much....

StillDrunk, 1st of all, then safe % of low wines should be between 20-30%, you're running high. Next, I'm doing 5 gal and you're doing approx. 6.6gal. I'm considering 255ml to be enough heads and fores, see my previous post, so I would recommend tossing a little less, maybe no more than 325ml as heads and fores. I can't smell or taste your product, but if you're getting the same basic results I am, I wouldn't think you'd need to consider any more than 125ml as fores, and quit collecting heads (good recycle stuff), at 325-350ml

Low wines for a spirit run should be 40% or lower. They don't need to be as low as 20 or 30%. But some do go that low.

As long as frugal isn't tainted by greed. There is a fine line between the two.

For the record. But not to be a suggestion. Just for reference. I usually make a 600 ml fores cut for a 10 gal batch run. And sometimes as much as 800 ml. Just whatever suits my fancy that day.

sltm1 wrote:StillDrunk, 1st of all, then safe % of low wines should be between 20-30%, you're running high. Next, I'm doing 5 gal and you're doing approx. 6.6gal. I'm considering 255ml to be enough heads and fores, see my previous post, so I would recommend tossing a little less, maybe no more than 325ml as heads and fores. I can't smell or taste your product, but if you're getting the same basic results I am, I wouldn't think you'd need to consider any more than 125ml as fores, and quit collecting heads (good recycle stuff), at 325-350ml

I am going to disagree with your cut measurements. My charge is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-4.5 gallons each
Spirit run [35%-40%]. I take about 200 ml as fores, but then take another 800ml-1000ml average a heads.

Everyone will be different of course, from the wash to the preference of taste. I can't stand heads, though. That's just me.

Didn't want someone leaving here thinking that if they took more than you do, that they were song something wrong.

ShineonCrazydiamond, everyone has different output from their stills and everyone has different nose and taste reactions, I wasn't giving directions, just stating what works for me and making a suggestion. Out of curiosity, how many ml's of hearts do you get out of your run's?
.................oh by the way, which one's Pink? (great name you chose)

There are no set numbers for cuts because there are too many variables... Pot still, reflux column, sugarhead, all grain, type of yeast, nutrients, etc, all come into play... Expecting an exact answer is like asking "How long is a piece of string?"...

sltm1 wrote:ShineonCrazydiamond, everyone has different output from their stills and everyone has different nose and taste reactions, I wasn't giving directions, just stating what works for me and making a suggestion. Out of curiosity, how many ml's of hearts do you get out of your run's?
.................oh by the way, which one's Pink? (great name you chose)

Ok, so I collect in 1/2 pint mason jars...they don't get filed to the brim, so I'm guessing they get right around 200 in each jar. I get about 8 jars of hearts, or 1600ml hearts. Then blend my favorite tail jar, or half jar and half heads jar. Usually take 9 jars for my product. The remaining 10 jars on the backside are tails, along with the rest I collected down to whatever percent I take that day.

But I realized the conversation had switched to reflux, and I run a pot still. So I may be off in the conversation.

And thanks for the handle shout. I always say, the one in the middle

How long is a piece of string ?