StillSmart

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-17T22:52:59+00:00

It may take a while to spot why,but Meatloaf is singing in my ear that "two outta three ain't bad"
Maybe just my frivolous and alcohol fueled mood tonight.
Peace,love and mustard.
Now there hangs a tale!

Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Easydrinker — Thu Sep 17, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-17T07:10:09+00:00

If and when I ever try, I'll take a photo or video and you guys will be the first to know.

Statistics: Posted by Icefever — Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:10 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-17T06:46:01+00:00

I have to agree with both of those comments. Spot on Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Mash — Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:46 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T23:12:35+00:00

Icefever wrote:
:D ...I know what you mean John, I lost my Mojo for brewing beer back in 2014...now I have my BM it's back. I'm looking forward to the day I've got the balls to run the still along side the BM brewing.

C'mon Ice,You know,and I know, that you can do that.
Anyway,multi tasking tends to keep ME sharper than janitorial stuff.
And supposed frantic days always seem more fulfilling than the ones where nothing really matters.

Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Easydrinker — Wed Sep 16, 2015 11:12 pm

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T18:15:59+00:00

But on the plus side by drinking my spirits I'm not shitting through the eye of a needle on a morning after a sesh on real ale and being bloated blaming bread. lol

S4BB[/quote]

Errr I think the topic here was Heads Run...not tails run.

I'm leaving now >:D

Statistics: Posted by packapoo — Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:15 pm

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T16:56:11+00:00

...I know what you mean John, I lost my Mojo for brewing beer back in 2014...now I have my BM it's back. I'm looking forward to the day I've got the balls to run the still along side the BM brewing.

Statistics: Posted by Icefever — Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:56 pm

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T08:53:24+00:00

Icefever wrote:Well done John it's all starting to make sense now....and very rewarding don't you think??

I really enjoy the thrill of it all, trouble is I've lost a little interest in brewing beer at the moment...

But on the plus side by drinking my spirits I'm not shitting through the eye of a needle on a morning after a sesh on real ale and being bloated blaming bread. lol

S4BB

Statistics: Posted by Spirits4BB — Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:53 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T05:53:02+00:00

Thanks Robert.
Slow learner, just realised the significance of this.

Statistics: Posted by packapoo — Wed Sep 16, 2015 5:53 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T04:32:51+00:00

Wowee do I love it when an old thread gets new life!
I personally love a heads run for the amount of fire/BBQ lighting fluid that it provides,but the amount of drinkable hearts is not to be sneezed at.
When you are at the stage of doing a heads run,you have already produced much that is good,and so various milestones are passed.
IMHO get one of these under your belt,and then you can claim to be an experienced distiller.

Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Easydrinker — Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:32 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-16T02:31:21+00:00

Well done John it's all starting to make sense now....and very rewarding don't you think??

Statistics: Posted by Icefever — Wed Sep 16, 2015 2:31 am

Re: Heads run?

2015-09-15T19:00:33+00:00

Great thread, I'll be doing my own 1st Heads run soon.... Happy Days.

Statistics: Posted by Spirits4BB — Tue Sep 15, 2015 7:00 pm

Re: Heads run?

2013-09-20T06:52:28+00:00

On the heads run I always dilute the Heads to 30% because this lower strength aides ethanol separation and makes the detection of the Heads cut much easier.

You will have a bigger amount of Heads but this shouldn't concern you, it's definitely worth doing.

Seeking to detect the Fores/Heads cut is unnecessary as you will simply run the distillate until you detect the begininning of the Hearts cut. Everything collected as Fores/Heads should be disposed of as it's not suitable for further recycling

Similarly, at the end of the Hearts cut there is no point collecting after the end of the Hearts is detected and whatever is left gets chucked down the drain.

A Heads run is a good place to educate your palate to detect the changes from one fraction to the next but you must be careful to follow the accepted procedure for tasting 'live' distillate straight off the still.
Dilute - use an eye dropper to mix equal amounts of distillate and clean warm water on a spoon
Smell - very early and very late samples will be detectable by smell and won't need to be tasted
Taste - once the diluted sample smells OK you should taste it and let it make contact above and below your tongue so your taste buds get a good look at it.
Spit - DO NOT swallow the samples they will affect your ability to detect changes in the samples
Rinse - always rinse your mouth and taste buds a couple of times with clean, cool water after each sample tasting.

With Heads there really are no pre-set points for cuts. It all depends on what's in the Heads in the first place. Having said that, you can safely discard the first 250ml as unusable Heads etc., and start live testing after that or you can collecting everything, after the initial 250ml, in small batches, say 100ml and test them after they've had a period open to air to allow volatiles to evaporate.

AM

Statistics: Posted by Almanac — Fri Sep 20, 2013 6:52 am

Re: Heads run?

2013-09-20T03:11:49+00:00

So I've collected 2l of heads following the double distillation guides and am now interested in doing a heads run. I am planning to take Chill's advice of adding some baking soda in order to gain more clean spirits but am wondering if I should collect the entire run in 100ml jars or if there is any recommended amount that I should immediately set aside as heads. I plan on carbon filtering but am scared that this run will have much more heads than normal and I don't want to create headache juice. For people doing heads runs in airstills, about how much good hearts are you collecting before dilution on average?

Rhinus

Statistics: Posted by rhinus — Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:11 am

Re: Heads run?

2012-02-09T11:54:12+00:00

I have just completed another very successful heads run, gaining 1.7 litres of 40% spirit.

I left it to air for a day, then another night after diluting.

IT SMELLS LIKE RUM!

Really nice rummy smell of it. I have smelt tested with a bottle of Bacardi and I can't tell the difference.

I haven't carbon filtered it yet.

I know how rum is made, but never got this smell off my fermented processed sugar.

Strange indeed.

Statistics: Posted by mozr — Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:54 am

Re: Heads run?

2011-12-09T23:24:52+00:00

Nice one mozr, the first time I got a result like that it really sunk in that making good cuts from the spirit run, rather than trying to squeeze every drop out of a run, isn't wasting anything - if you save it up, you get at the good stuff eventually.

When running the column I only save heads, and feints, to be run at a later date, the tails are so concentrated it's not worth sweating it (in my opinion)
When running the pot for flavoured spirit- I save everything - it all goes back in with the next batch of the same wash - boosts the flavour - and you don't end up with any more volume of heads or faints than doing a single run - just like the whisky guys do - again, no "waste", as long as you have the storage it will all come good in the end.

My last heads only run, resulted in some really nice neutral.

CC

Statistics: Posted by Capt-Cudellez — Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:24 pm