Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Howdy gang.

So n00b sauce here is up to Gen 3 on the UJSSM, I can do cuts ok, (im getting better) with neutral but when it comes to UJSSM i think im doing something wrong.

im collecting 250ml at a time and number the jars, give each jar 24 hours covered in paper towel before testing any jars.

The last batch i did cuts in almost every jar smelt and tasted ok. (all the way down to 10%)

SO either my UJSSM is simply amazing and has no funky stuff going on (I seriously doubt it)

OR

Ive fucked up somewhere and have a whacked sense of taste.

My method is to take a teaspoon from the cuts jar and tip that into a shot glass, then 2 teaspoons of filtered water and give it a mix, let it sit for a minute then give it a sniff and a taste and spit into the sink. At 50% abv its just 1 teaspoon of water I am to get the abv in the shot glass to around 30% for tasting.

Am I doing something wrong? is anything im doing painfully obvious or is it just an experience thing?

Any help would be great

kind regards

Hi M8Harry.

Are you performing stripping runs first? I usually strip about 4 generations of UJ and then run one slow spirit run. Only perform cuts on the final spirit run. Low wines from my stripping runs go into the boiler at just under 40%. After slowly removing foreshots, heads start at about 82% abv (using my pot still) They taste quite sharpe and have a biting, strong smell. The hearts section of my spirit run is usually somewhere in the range of 70 to 80%. Tails start to show up just below the lower abv. You can smell and taste them straight off the pot. I then quickly remove a lot of the remaining tails down to about 40% and then shut everything down. Those percentages are only rough guides. I use my cuts to determine what will be kept. The tails on UJ taste foul and are easy to pick up. Finding the transition from heads to hearts takes a little more time. Just be patient and enjoy the process. It doesn’t hurt to have a watered down sample from the centre of your hearts to keep as a reference when tasting/ smelling cuts. This will help you to find the transition from heads to hearts a little easier.

Also could have a look at if you have enough zinc as a zinc deficiency effects your sense of taste and smell and can do a test.


https://www.melbournenaturalmedicine.co ... aste-test/

Looks like you do everything by the book. This is on your bubbler? If collecting down to %10 with a bubbler you should have some serious funk going on..I normally stop @ about 86%

Sorry M8Harry. Should have looked at your equipment list first. Please ignore my earlier comments.

I hate them.
They throw up on the carpet.
They kill native birds and mammals.
They piss in the house plants.
They lick their arseholes and then your face.
Can’t stand them.

Oh, hang on, where are my glasses?
CATS I mean, I was talking about CATS!

You sure you don’t have the “rona”?

bluc wrote:Looks like you do everything by the book. This is on your bubbler? If collecting down to %10 with a bubbler you should have some serious funk going on..I normally stop @ about 86%

I know thats whats doing my mind in. Some way down in the tales tasted like liquid caramel, not a bad taste to add in the mix i reckon, but some just smelt like corn or nuts and tasted ok.

Maybe the next gen ill run soon might have clearer distinctions.

I only take cuts down that far is because I seen Still It go that far and he found some good stuff down in the tails so I was using his video series as a guide.

OK so bit of an update

One night recently I was doing cuts and suddenly it felt like the penny dropped. The first 8 jars (200ml collection roughly per jar) the mouth feel was like the entirety of my mouth was licking a 9v battery, thats the best way i can describe what I was tasting. The next jar the ethanol burn was there but that spikey / jagged mouth feel was gone. SO i figure I have nailed separating heads from hearts. Wow i sure make a lot of heads in some runs.

My Mac whiskey i made is headsy as fuck. The mouth feel is not nice. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:
Its been on oak for a month (2.6L of it) so if its not settled down when the next batch is ready for distilling ill just chuck it into the still and have another crack at it.

I tasted my UJSSM and my mouth felt electrified so i figure I have way too much heads in the Milk Can (im aging in a 50L milk can, no oak added yet, only have 10L of spirit) so I am hoping with the next 20L worth of spirits i have the cuts better it might come good. Otherwise ill just re-distill it if its beyond salvation. I tend to get about 1200ml to 1600ml from a 50L batch that I keep so hopefully i have the cuts dialed in moving forward.

Im now working on where to make cuts in the tails where some jars have some amazing smells and tastes but have a bit of an after taste or a taste that I dont like but it comes with stuff i do like so thats a bit challenging but im working on it.

Give it some time that is why have to make gin and vodka because go broke waiting for whiskey to age.

when i am deciding what to keep i try to replicate the abv i would normally drink it at. How do you drink your spirits ?

i drink Rum & Whiskey on ice, it will start out at 40% when first poured but it dilutes as the ice melts, the last bit might only be 10 - 20% abv > this is the abv level i dilute down to when sampling. It also reduces the alcohol burn and allows you to taste more / new flavours.

if you are going to age in the 50L milk can you might as well get some oak in to it at the same time.

I used to proof off the cuts to but to my way of thinking if your dropping abv 25ish % (my own numbers not yours) then you must be adding tails. So instead I use water less crap in the spirit..

I started off being able to taste the difference between cuts straight away. thought it was easy picked the cuts no worries now I struggle like anything,
a few runs ago I was like this whole run taste crap but the missus just done the same cuts as the last few good ones and taste fine once on coke (same as the other runs..... so f'd if I know.
I find I can taste it better and pick the cuts straight off the still at 90% atm :think: