To cut or not to cut

[Vicki55]

Hi all, i hope this is allowed

I was on Facebook and in a group called Home Distillers Australia an the topic of cuts came up, after everything we have read and discussed with various people cuts are pretty much mandatory, but then you are people the write things like thing to newbies that have just go into the hobby

" All the nasties that your don’t want to drink in any Still vaporise first and are dispelled out both reflux and Pot stills (The Heads).. The other congeners that affect taste are only expelled in pot stills that allow for a quicker exit for vapours etc.. A reflux Still is so effective (like a fuel refinery) as keeping the negative congeners in the boiler only allowing a super refined final alcohol end product.. Pot stills are better at imparting Mash flavours into the final product ie Rums, Whiskeys etc.. Therefore Cuts in a reflux still is pointless and by doing so is purely a waste or time.. Research it mate before wasting your time"

[Doubleuj]

Yes always make cuts, some people are just trolls. Try a neutral that has been cut vs one that hasn’t.

[Sam.]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

If you think that's bad you should read some of the things posted on Facebook beer brewing pages :wtf:

Anyone that says cuts don't make a difference either have never run a still properly and tried it for themselves of their taste buds are that cooked they can't smell or taste the difference.

Yes the "nasties" will mainly come out first but as far as flavour goes you really do need to cut it, you should ask them where the tails go in a reflux still :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Mr Tinker]

Making good cuts is never a waste of time or ethanol. Discard your foreshots, keep the rest of what you cut and run it again later.
Be patient not greedy! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Nathan02]

I was old mate on there trying to tell him. I gave up.

[woodduck]

If you can't trust what people are saying do your own experiments and find out for yourself.

Do a run with cuts and tell me you can't tell the difference from first jar, middle jar and last jar. I very much doubt you would happily drink the first or last as they are so why put it in with the good stuff and drink it??

[neservice]

Just read the thread on FB, damn knuckle everywhere, one guy says he is educated enough not to listen to anyone of any forum and sounds like he wanted to challenge people in the industry to his way of thinking

[Sam.]

Just read the thread on FB, damn knuckle everywhere, one guy says he is educated enough not to listen to anyone of any forum and sounds like he wanted to challenge people in the industry to his way of thinking

Sounds about right :-B

:laughing-rolling:

[hillzabilly]

If you can't trust what people are saying do your own experiments and find out for yourself.

Do a run with cuts and tell me you can't tell the difference from first jar, middle jar and last jar. I very much doubt you would happily drink the first or last as they are so why put it in with the good stuff and drink it??

:text-+1: My thoughts exactly plus proven by my own experience,your choice as allways.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[bluc]

Cuts are where the magic happens :handgestures-thumbupleft: but dont take our word for it do a run with cuts taste all the jars particular the first,( after foreshots, I wouldnt recomend tasting the fores at all.) last and middle to compare for yourself...

[EziTasting]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
I smelled my tails of the last run :puke-huge: NOWAY I was putting that in my mouth! NOWAY!!
I’d rather nail my ..., erm, nachos to the kitchen bench... :shifty:

Had a similar discussion with a young guy using an air still. He reconned the air still removed all the bad stuff - he didn’t have to worry about any cuts at all (not even fores)... :scared-eek:

Retards!

[db1979]

There is only one component that your still will not collect. It's the sweet smelling esters that you can smell before the foreshots come through. You're still won't condense them because their vapour pressure is so high and their boiling point is so low. Everything else will boil and be condensed given enough time, regardless of whether you run reflux or not.

It's possible that if you run a really high reflux ratio and just the right amount of heat you can get the still to stop production before tails comes along, ultimately suppressing tails completely. Many do just this with the foreshots, running just enough reflux to bleed off the fores but knocking back everything else. It should be possible to do this with the heads to hearts transition too but it's a very tight transition with very close boiling points and similar vapour pressures so I should imagine is harder to get right. Regardless of all this, the point is that the first few components to come off the still are undesirable.

It's not possible to run a still and collect everything that comes off and be good alcohol (unless you're running already cut hearts).

[Plumby]

I use to run tpw in my super reflux still with no cuts except foreshots and carbon filter it. One day I decided that I might try this " cuts " thing. After one go I was sold, no need to carbon filter the hearts and anything else I kept and when I had enough I did a feints run which was really nice.
Cuts are essential for a good tasting, hangover free spirit. Especially if you make brown spirits.

[hillzabilly]

Doing cuts does not add fuck all time to the process,but it sure does improve ya outcome,and it's one of the good habits that will serve you well and helps you understand the process of stilling,ifn people want ta stay in the past go right ahead but do not expect your quality to be up there or steadily improving ,it is just laziness and a stupid superiority complex wich will keep you in the average at best league ,the best is never easy or quick ,wich is mother natures way of rewarding the ones that make the extra effort ,in my opinion .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[The Stig]

I was deleted from that group for speaking truth 8-}

[hillzabilly]

Their loss our benefit.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[Flowerpot]

Read that thread, what surprised me was the number of people who said they had tried cuts and it made no difference. The only time cuts have made no difference for me is when as an experiment I wildly overpowered the still and got such a smeared product that all the cuts were uniformly undrinkable. So that got me thinking maybe the way some of the HBS stiils are being run with no power controller , short column etc is making such smeary shit that cuts really don't make much difference.

[Sam.]

Read that thread, what surprised me was the number of people who said they had tried cuts and it made no difference. The only time cuts have made no difference for me is when as an experiment I wildly overpowered the still and got such a smeared product that all the cuts were uniformly undrinkable. So that got me thinking maybe the way some of the HBS stiils are being run with no power controller , short column etc is making such smeary shit that cuts really don't make much difference.

I reckon you have hit the nail on the head there mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

If you run a still hard it won't matter where you make your cuts because they are all going to be shit :puke-huge:

[db1979]

Ultimately, what's in the wash is also present in beer or wine. All they are doing by not doing cuts is reducing the amount of water that is mixed with the other components of the wash. If they're happy to drink the methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, acetic acid and others with their ethanol (just like in beer or wine) then it's their loss. They could, with a small amount of effort, make something so much better tasting and better for them.

[RC Al]

Most likely a combination of what Flowerpot said and they are probably mostly turbo users (I dont do FB, cant look), my crappy little still lets alot of flavour through - its flat out hitting 80abv and the tpw im processing dose have a taste im not super impressed with (it slowly grows on you), but happier with the cost vs turbo, will get on to some ffv after i finish the 45L of tpw i got sitting here - 5l at a time plus the double distil after :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: I have a family car to get working b4 i can get working on anything else, stupid mundane life....

try doing cuts on turbo with a smaller still
jar 1 metho smell and taste
jar 2 metho smell and taste
jar 3 metho smell and taste
jar 4 metho smell and taste
etc :laughing-rolling: