-
Head and Tail Collection Concepts
So I have been running my reflux still for a couple years making ethanol from mostly potatoes, little corn, some malted grain, some enzymes. I’ve run about 20 batches through now that were 4 to 8 gallons of mash and I have the cuts of each individual run stored up. I would like to come up with a plan to use the cuts. My goal is just nice clean vodka. I have a carbon filter set up that has taken some of the rough hearts and cleaned them up to really smooth, so I’m fine with having some output that will be rough but will clean up with carbon filtering.Roughly the first pint of each batch can go to fuel / solvent. I’m fine with that and actually have some use for it. I’ve got a pint or two more that I labeled as Head 2 and Head 3 that I think might be alright to run again in some form or fashion. I have 2 or 3 pints of hearts I will dilute and filter to 80-100 proof vodka. Then I have the tails. Up until the last few batches I had been shutting down my run when I got about a half pint or so of cloudy and kinda smelly stuff out. This left me with 2-3 pints of tails. Then I bought a refractometer and realized there was a lot of alcohol still coming out so I ran until I was down to 10% and that gave me another 2 pints or something in the last few runs I’ve done.I’m wondering if I should make up a batch of just tails, and if so should I cut out the late stuff at some level of alcohol or other indication? I read something here about the more smelly ones / later stuff might not come out well. I do know about diluting to 30% for running feints again.What should I do with the heads? Just run a batch of heads? I have a new potato crop about to be harvested so I could throw them into a new batch if that helps reduce the potential for extra rough output. Thanks for any thoughts.JP
-
17 Replies
-
I’m a bit confused here. When I do spirit runs, after equalizing I begin taking foreshots. Later heads. Eventually hearts and lastly tails hits so I just shut down. Everything that exits my still is 95%+ ABV from start to shut-down. I don’t continue collecting tails because there’s really nothing left worth collecting. If I let the boiler cool down overnight, I’ve taken samples and the contents are approx less than 1% ABV if I recall correctly. My question is, how are you getting 10% ABV out of the spout with a reflux column?Are you doing stripping runs then a spirit run?4″ VM Build
-
Are you doing stripping runs before refluxing?, or just one and done runs?People do all sorts of things with feints, depending on what the desired product is. Generally for brown spirits, feints are often added to subsequent stripping runs or kept aside for an all feints run. For neutral spirits, i save the heads to add to next strip run, but the still gets turned off as soon tails start to come over.EDIT: Posted same time as Salt Must Flow
-
I was just doing one and done runs. I was under the impression that was all that was necessary with a reflux still. It comes out at 95% or so and gradually drops. I don’t know the exact profile but I have measured what I am calling my hearts and they are like 85% or something and my column temp hits 172F during this part. The first jar of tails I collect might be at 75%, second 50% and the third one that gets cloudy is around 30%. I was under the impression that the cloudiness was fusel oil and I thought that was mentioned as kind of the tail end of tails so that is where I stopped, around 200F column temp. The last few batches I ran down from 30% to 10% and got another pint or two on the way thinking I might be able to do something with that.Forgive me if this is a horribly wrong way to distill.
-
My 2 cents worth. Potatoe tails are the worst of the worst. For drinking purposes there’s a lot of unrecoverable alcohol because of the taste. Maybe a change in protocol could let you salvage more.Strip long and deep, then treat the low-wines with activated carbon.Filter out the spent carbon, dilute the low-wines as needed and then redistill.
-
It doesn’t matter what your making with a reflux still, the end result is always going to be cleaner and better if you strip first.Get all of the garbage out of the wash before you begin85% isn’t great, as SMF said a good reflux still should be pulling 95 from the very start to the end.
-
Maybe my carbon filtering is doing a lot of work that could be done by breaking it into two runs. I have had some pretty nice tasting stuff out of it. But I have not consumed much of what I have and I’ve only diluted and filtered a small amount. I’ve been running the batches to use up extra potatoes that will go bad or were damaged by the harvester. Thinking one day to make some nice cases of vodka. Getting nervous about the fire hazard at this point though and need to get this stuff processed further.
-
If you already have everything separated out, and have not done any blending, you could mix it all back together, dilute to below 40% ( i do 30% for neutral) then run it again. Hold it in reflux for 20 mins or so to stabilize the column then slowly start your take off, (the type of still you have will dictate how you do this, and how fast you can take off). I turn my still off when the proof drops to 94% coming out the spout.
-
jpettymore doing a stripping run then a spirit run is standard operating procedure. Do this and you’ll notice a huge difference.The fermented wash or mash contains all of the flavors and odors. A stripping run separates the ethanol from most of the flavors and odors from the mash or wash which is called Low Wines. When you do a spirit run with your Low Wines diluted to at least 40% ABV (or lower), it will be MUCH cleaner than doing a single run.Once you start doing stripping runs then a spirit run, you can then begin critiquing how your reflux column is behaving. If it isn’t producing 95%+ ABV, it may be worth questioning the height of the packed column, the packing used, your power input and your take-off rate to optimize performance.4″ VM Build
-
So… chuck it all back into the still, adjust to 40% with distilled water and run it again?
-
That will work, water does an excellent job of keeping tails in the pot for disposal.Diluting to less than 40% might clean things up even more.Plan B and I’m just guessing that a packed column is being used.On the next stripping runs, use only minimal reflux.It’s a compromise between take off speed and holding back the tails.Figure on stripping with a takeoff rate 50-75% of the same power pot still run.
-
Do stripping runs, dilute your low wines and do a spirit run. You don’t have to use distilled water, but yeah dilute with water.4″ VM Build
-
Sounds possible to me.1% alcohol left in the pot and 10% out the spout on a reflux still.
-
Yes, and dilute to BELOW 40% I’d suggest.Run again but run slow enough that your output remains at 95% through the run. If your column is built and run right, when it takes a dip in abv towards the end, there will be very little worth keeping after that point. In future, if you do multiple strips and recombine them, adjust for a full boiler stripping run of c. 35% total and run it well, you shouldn’t even need to filter.Be really fussy with your heads cut, keep all of what you are calling heads 2 and 3, and any small amount of tails you keep, and while you are building up enough of that to make an all feints run, do some research on “Base Ester Hydrolysis”Make Booze, not War!
-
Sounds possible to me.1% alcohol left in the pot and 10% out the spout on a reflux still.Less than 1% alcohol left in the pot and 10% out the spout on a reflux still? How so?4″ VM Build
-
Since this is the novice distillers’ section and folks are trying to help the OP figure out potato vodka.Maybe start a new post and everyone can join in on boiler vs vapor abv at the tails end of a reflux run.
-
Just want to say thank you for all the responses to this thread. You were all very kind and helpful about my misunderstanding of my reflux still, thinking I could skip the stripping step. I had read about stripping runs but thought that was only needed for pot stills. I will no longer be a Step Skipper, AND I am pleased that it seems there is a way to recover my production to a good finished product. FWIW, I was running a packed column, copper and ceramic. The end of my last couple runs were yielding 10% according to my refractometer. Column temp close to 204F. I have no idea of the alcohol content of the pot though.
-
I think you are missing the point because the question is absolutely on topic. In his very first sentence he said, “So I have been running my reflux still for a couple years”. Everything he originally posted led me to suspect he’s doing a ‘one and done’ run and refluxing DEEP into tails. Turns out that’s exactly what he’s been doing. If he were stripping and doing a spirit run like normal, his still wouldn’t be behaving as he was describing. That is precisely why I posted what I did when I said “less than 1% ABV left in the boiler”.4″ VM Build
Log in to reply.
English 
Spanish 
German 
French 
Russian