Heads & Tails

[umpa]

Hi Gang,
Heres what I have been up to,
I have decided to distill the original AlcoTec Tripple Still wash I originally made, I had already done the turbo express 24hr one I had started after but finished first, and was very impressed with it.
This Tripple Still with the carbon was not good, Whilst it cleared as in all the solids fell out of suspension it did not really fall bright and had quite a bit of fine carbon in it.
So Heres what I did, I loaded up 4Ltrs of wash and ran it till I had 800ml & put that into a demijohn and labled it heads as I did not discard any. I carried on till the distillate fell to 30% about, put that into another DJ and called that one tails.
I threw the rest from the still away and re-filled with wash, and did the same. Then I re-distilled the tails untill I got 75%, and put that into another DJ.
Now I am about to distill the heads, get the maximum out I can and combine that with the re-distilled tails.
Ok, so I will have about 3Ltrs (estimate) of 75% super clear distilate, its not been carbon filtered and all the heads have been left it.
The is 'How much' heads should I discard on my final run ? and this time I am going to run it through carbon, I might even filter it a second time though a carbon chamber I have for a cleaner taste.
Regards
Ian

[Jimmy]

On a still this size, you should never need to chuck more than 50ml as true heads, and even that is overkill really. The next part is the strongest, but sometimes you want to miss a bit of that out if the flavour is too much - with a vodka you are carbon filtering, it's fine. I have seen various people discuss whether you should throw away heads from the FIRST distillation, or from the LAST one - nobody seems to have a definite answer but they seem to agree that either is fine.
Don't forget that the maximum you'll get is about 83% or so, so if you're putting 75% in then you'll get a lot of that back out again, which is good! Enjoy!

[alan]

HI Jimmy /Ian Ionly take 10-15ml of heads off any of my runs even when i run a wheatgerm wash through, i run the finished spirt through carbon 3-4 times its always worked for me

[HangOver]

so if you double or tripple distill you only need to take out the heads once????

[umpa]

sorry for the deley,
It seems the case, and they say if you use a sugar wash there is so little methanol you dont need to remove any, most of the advice seems to be on the side of caution.
regards
Ian

[Jimmy]

My advice would be to take heads yourself in a small glass or something, then switch to your main container. By smelling the heads, you can tell whether you want them in your drink or not! Don't sup them though, they'll be far too strong. The first turbo I did, the heads stank like rotten eggs and I was very glad I kept them out!

[umpa]

As always some good advice from Jimmy there,
I made a bottle of TopShelf 'Southern Haze' and supped half the bottle last night, sure was not a southern comfort, but was nice.
I had to get up in the night for a drink and a pee, but this morning - no hangover, not even a slight one. (I tripple distilled a turbo and removed heads) in this batch.
So I guess the proof is in the drinking. ps my re-used turbo yeast is still at it !!
Regards
Ian

[Jimmy]

When I first started off doing this, I only used Alcotec 48 turbo yeast, and each time I took heads, triple distilled and carbon filtered. I drank a lot of vodka at the time, not in an alcoholic way but I had time off work and we did a fair bit of staying up and drinking and chatting - not once did I get any form of hangover. Never. That's good enough for me!