“I don't know about art but I know what I like” SO applies to making cuts and blending, however...
First up I'll declare I have a Turbo 500 / T500 and successfully made at least 10 Still Spirits Turbo Yeast (Classic 6?) brews as per the manufacturer's ingredients and instructions which tasted good enough for me and anyone else who tried it and didn't give me hangovers (after filtering at 1 drop/sec, 2 drops/sec as per instructions was still too rough and flavoursome for me). Then I wanted better taste, so I tried two Birdwatcher's Recipes / Tomato Paste Wash / TPW with different starting SG, one with Wine Nutrient (DAP plus vitamins and Minerals) , and a Freddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka / FFV / TFFV, all with varying not quite worth the effort success with flavour and yield.
So I replaced the plastic with copper and bought a Voltage Regulator (Andrew! ;) ) from 5 Star Brewing and Distilling Supplies, because I'm a pensioner and can't afford to buy anything better, and have started using it in pot-still mode for stripping runs (remove packing, bypass reflux cooling) to create Low-Wines, then a spirit run with the Low-Wines diluted to half way up the urn which ends up <40% (last run 20%ABV at 80% power which turned out best yet!), with packing and reflux cooling at drip, drip, drip, dribble (not dribble, dribble, drip – there is a huge difference) ignoring the temperature. AND for harm minimisation purposes I'm only interested in drinking spirits with the least congeners ie the purest ethanol I can make, hence my username. Now we've gotten that out of the way...
Given we can get at best roughly 93%ABV out of a reflux column before temperature correction, that's 7% flavour. And the difference between using raw sugar and dextrose for exactly the same yeast/ nutrients/ process is surprisingly noticeable. Maybe not so surprising once I learned dextrose/glucose is immediately available to yeast, but any other type of sugar has to be broken down by the yeast TO dextrose/glucose first, which then creates byproducts / congeners which create unwanted flavours (and wanted!) and burn, and hangovers.
So when I want to compare my own notes between brews so I can continuously improve, I feel like there are flavours there that I can't quite describe properly. It's like the first time I heard “pepper” when describing a shiraz I really liked, and “citrus” and “passionfruit” in a sav blanc and I went “YES!!! THAT'S IT!!!”
So in the interests of improved comparison could I ask my neutral spirit stilling colleagues (we'll be here all year if we include rum/ whiskey/ bourbon/ gin... maybe a separate thread?) for the words you use / feel / think when you're making (neutral spirit) cuts? Mine so far are -
cardboard - mild, mild-med, med, med-high, high, yuk;
yeasty - mild, mild-med, med, med-high, high, yuk;
burn - almost no burn/warming with mild burn finish (this has only so far happened once mid hearts), mild, mild-med, med, med-high, high, ouch;
neutral / good;
sweet – haven't yet made or noticed various levels. So far has only happened with one yeast (Pure Distilling Premium Spirit Yeast) and raw sugar, mid hearts.
And in the interests of sharing knowledge and learning, perhaps your observations or best guesses about where both my and your descriptions come from ie heads, hearts, tails, different yeasts, nutrients if any, sugars, starting and finishing SG's?
If I've glossed over details that raise questions, I'm happy to explain - I feel there's no nobler effort than taking the time to share knowledge and experience (might even be the meaning of life? Cooperation?)
Oh, and lastly, I have Autism (and ADHD and Depression) and I've observed that I get excited about stuff no-one else gives a shit about, so if no-one replies I won't be offended. But if you've thought about this too, then let's see if we can learn something from each other...