early rum tails?

[kelbygreen]

I am doing my first spirit run and charged the boiler with 22lts low wines. I got about 3.5lts in and smells like I hit the tails.

Is this about right? The abv was pretty consistent at 82-83 then tested it when smelt tails and was at 76.

Not sure about collecting to 20% as its been almost 3 hours and still above 70%.

[Urrazeb]

I've had tails come thru about 1/2 way into the run but it cleared up and was no sign of tails in the morning

3 hrs seems very long for 22L, especially if u never even ran it right down. What's the take off like? I run at a very thin stream, have ran at drips an cant notice a better result so its a thin stream for me!!

[kelbygreen]

stream was a little bit thinner then a toothpick got about 9lts out in just over 3 hrs I think I miss counted the bottles befor I was prob close to 4 lts. I gave up collecting at 60% had about 9lts so didnt bother anymore.

[crow]

high ABV tails is not weird for a pot but 3 hrs to get to 60% is I would think particularly with a 3" is a bit, :think: Ok how are you heating it

[Kimbo]

I found when i was potstillin that rum seemed to have a larger tails cut compared to UJ ;-)

[Urrazeb]

I found when i was potstillin that rum seemed to have a larger tails cut compared to UJ ;-)

Yeah I find that too compared to macs knockoff, I think the tails are more skanky so the smear is more noticeable earlier with the rum

[crow]

yeah i duno, with my pot at least have of every wash is fucked up tails . just did a mash whiskey run that went like this 4 jars of heads 15 jars of hearts and 19 jars of tails seems to be similar no matter what the wash is :angry-banghead:

[Urrazeb]

Would ya say it was pungent whiskey Crow?

[crow]

Would ya say it was pungent whiskey Crow?

yes very much so as in can smell it from some distance but in a very pleasant way, here's a link to my review of it
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1677&p=39741#p39741

[emptyglass]

Let it breathe for a day KG, before making a judgement.

Damper is always good straight out of the fire, but the time tells if its good or not. Same thing on a spirit run.

Leave the lids off, and throw a tea towel over them. Tomorrows Friday, good day for making cuts, historicly.

EDIT; sorry, today is friday. Just looked at the clock.

[googe]

Yeah kb let it sit like empty said, most of my pot stilled rum.comes.out.like.that, but after a but of rest it's more defined and easier to distinguish . Mmmmmmmmmbeer damper

[kelbygreen]

yeah they been sitting there with tea towel over them, I just got home and have to cut some blinds down for the inlaws and I am not going to do the cuts today as I am just about to grab a beer.

Had a quick smell and it is alot less although they are in stubbies so hard to get a good smell. How do you make the cuts as I only got like 5 jars so I cant make them all up to 40% and smelling out of beer bottles is a waste of time.

I may of ran it a bit slow but being the first run I wast sure and it was hard to see how it was coming out as it was in broken stream but thick when it came I found a little stick off the tree out the back and jambed it up there and that made it flow out instead of very inconsistent like it was and it was almost a toothpick size then so I turned it up a little. When it started I only barley had the second ring on in the 3 ring burner.

[emptyglass]

Don't make cuts while drinking, if thats not possible, so be it. And don't smoke for a while beforehand.
Good chance your first jar will be heads, or have enough heads in it to make it smell a bit "metho"ish. Your last one or two might smell like wet cardboard, wet smelly dog, old socks.
The middle jars are probably going to be your drinking/aging stock. Grab a glass and pour a dash in there, then pour a dash of good clean water in there, swish it arround and leave it for 30 secs to a minute, then take a sniff and a sip. If you use a mixer, add some of this in and give it a taste.
If you want to be anal, rinse your mouth before trying the next jar.
Stubbies make for a better size jar. You might have smeared some good hearts with heads and snails and puppy dogs tails.

[kelbygreen]

yeah I have made the cuts I think I was a bit to careful but didnt wanna stuff it up to much, was like 1.8lts of heads, got 3lts of hearts watered to 65% and rest in tails. I think I could of gone further in the heads and tails but with the first one thought best to be safer lol.

Yeah I just tipped about 20ml into a small jar and about the same in water and done it that way. I think there was smearing as one bottle of the tails smelt then the next down smelt fine lol bit strange but one way to learn the keep tasted alright watered down so thats good and will rerun the rest in the next batch.

[emptyglass]

I think I could of gone further in the heads and tails but with the first one thought best to be safer lol.

Too far into the heads, and you'll just get a headache, too far into the tails, and your booze will stink. You only really know when you got too much heads by the result in the morning. Store bought stuff often has heads in, but its tempered with a good portion of hearts. The headache you get from just hearts is quite unique, if you get what I'm saying.

Yeah I just tipped about 20ml into a small jar and about the same in water and done it that way. I think there was smearing as one bottle of the tails smelt then the next down smelt fine lol bit strange but one way to learn the keep tasted alright watered down so thats good and will rerun the rest in the next batch.

That can happen. Some of the tails can have some distinctive flavor and you may even want to include some. Just do some trial blending in scale so you dont ruin the batch. Use teaspoons, tablespoons shot glasses as a measure and mix small lots to try. If in doubt, leave it out.