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Recently had a gentleman's disagreement about retaining some late heads, you know, a small jar or two right before the hearts.
This is for anything destined for a barrel for a year.

I am pro heads, his argument is "heads are heads and you're just going to get a headache over it."

I'm sure I picked that tip up here --I certainly didn't make it up. And so far my drinks (even 6 months old) are pretty painless.

Pick a side, and have your report on my desk by Monday.

Naw! Fore's yes, early heads may be. I like the sample on my fingertip of the sweet floral flavor that comes early but I wouldn't want a shot glass full. My heads are the intense alcohol flavor and in my pot come out at 150 or so. If you cut them to 75 p. They are much smoother (of course) . If you don't like the bite save them for the next batch. I would rather drink heads than cardboard flavored tails. You know that the commercial distillers use all the heads fo their $12 a bottle stuff. A friend picked up a bottle of Climax shine from Tim Smith's distillery. It tasted like all heads to me. Nothing smooth about it. I don't mind a alcohol bite but don't like the burn all the way down. That's not smooth to me. My buddy likes my 5th. gen Uncle Jess much better.

Jimbo wrote about saving off a bit of heads for barreling Said it added "spank"

personally i'm no where near as tight fisted with barrel likker as i am with white dog.

HDNB wrote:Jimbo wrote about saving off a bit of heads for barreling Said it added "spank"

personally i'm no where near as tight fisted with barrel likker as i am with white dog.

I knew I read that from someone with "spank" themselves. Yep, probably Jimbo.

For me it depends on how long I'm going to leave it in the barrel, environmental conditions, how much of the barrel is left after whatever was in it before (new or used?).
In my once used 15 gallon Bourbon barrels that I'm using for rum and letting age a couple years minimum I do a 1.5 run and include most everything except fores and tails.
If it starts to smell bad it doesn't go in.
Hot heads also do not go in, but I don't get much of that stuff in my 1.5 runs.

6 Row Joe wrote:Naw! Fore's yes, early heads may be. I like the sample on my fingertip of the sweet floral flavor that comes early but I wouldn't want a shot glass full. My heads are the intense alcohol flavor and in my pot come out at 150 or so. If you cut them to 75 p. They are much smoother (of course) . If you don't like the bite save them for the next batch. I would rather drink heads than cardboard flavored tails. You know that the commercial distillers use all the heads fo their $12 a bottle stuff. A friend picked up a bottle of Climax shine from Tim Smith's distillery. It tasted like all heads to me. Nothing smooth about it. I don't mind a alcohol bite but don't like the burn all the way down. That's not smooth to me. My buddy likes my 5th. gen Uncle Jess much better.

Appreciate it, 6 Row. I'm surprised you can tolerate fores. There's nothing intriguing about them for me.
And again, not a LOT of heads. Just a meager pre-transition to hearts.

nerdybrewer wrote:For me it depends on how long I'm going to leave it in the barrel, environmental conditions, how much of the barrel is left after whatever was in it before (new or used?).
In my once used 15 gallon Bourbon barrels that I'm using for rum and letting age a couple years minimum I do a 1.5 run and include most everything except fores and tails.
If it starts to smell bad it doesn't go in.
Hot heads also do not go in, but I don't get much of that stuff in my 1.5 runs.

Wish there was a "LIKE" button.

fizzix wrote:

nerdybrewer wrote:For me it depends on how long I'm going to leave it in the barrel, environmental conditions, how much of the barrel is left after whatever was in it before (new or used?).
In my once used 15 gallon Bourbon barrels that I'm using for rum and letting age a couple years minimum I do a 1.5 run and include most everything except fores and tails.
If it starts to smell bad it doesn't go in.
Hot heads also do not go in, but I don't get much of that stuff in my 1.5 runs.

Wish there was a "LIKE" button.

On a side note after aging for a year and a half I added some used red wine stave chunks from a big barrel sold by a Washington state winery.
The rum is a very nice color now and tastes so sweet, I am very happy with the outcome.

Hey Fizz,

I still outside, (partially protected from the wind) and on my last AG wheated-bourbon spirit run I went with about 40" of 3" copper for the 'added reflux' which I know is speculative at best. I took my usual 200ml of fores (8gal charge) but about midway through heads a breeze came up, cooled my column and caused my takeoff to sputter. I had to increase the heat to get a minimum stream, and viola! At the end of the run I could tell I had smeared heads throughout the entire run. That 'spank' was evident throughout hearts and some into tails, even after airing 48 hours. This had nowhere near the much more distinct heads-hearts-tails cuts of prior spirit runs. (Did the wheat contribute to this at all?)

Sure I was disappointed, but put it on oak sticks and hoped for the best. Its been a couple months and damn if the hotness has subsided greatly, leaving a full, rich wheat taste. I'm thinking this is gonna turn out okay, and while maybe not perfect, the inefficiency associated with pot stills seemed apparent. I'm starting to think (just a guess) that the big scottish stills purposely return a heads element to the boiler via passive reflux, and thinly spread them out over the course of the run.

Maybe you can mention in your argument that in this case it is possible the mid-late heads got gently distributed throughout the run and promises to turn out pretty tasty.

Twisted Brick wrote:...Maybe you can mention in your argument that in this case it is possible the mid-late heads got gently distributed throughout the run and promises to turn out pretty tasty.

I presented real life experience from my Odin's Cornflake Whiskey to no avail.
But I can tell you I value the words y'all have said, and that's good enough for me.
Some men you just cain't reach.

I make a reasonable fores cut, then collect down till my take is at about 50% ABV, drink and enjoy. No fuss, no muss.

Well I don't use a barrel, but I made an all grain last year December, that didnt give enough whisky to fill up my demi john. I threw in some late heads and early tails so the wood chunks would be covered with whisky.

The next all grain I made (from the same sort grains), I made sure to use more grain and this allowed me to make a tighter hearts cut.

I like the tighter cut much more 9 months in, but I do feel like if you use a barrel, it breaths more, so more heads and tails might allow for more complexity. But this is just a hunch, as I have not used a barrel before.