Where To Make Cuts - Finishing Run - Small Volume Beer

[juandela]

Hey all,

I'm distilling beer using my grainfather and alembic dome. I have two batches, both are approximately a beer growler and a half after stripping run.... so..... approximately 3/4 gallon (3L) for each finishing run.

Grainfather recommends collecting (and tossing) a full 200ml of foreshots. With such a small batch volume, that seems excessive and wasteful.

I've also read recommendations that you should collect 4oz per 5 gal being run. With such a small volume, that works about to be .6 of an ounce for me.

I'll have the grainfather on the low power setting as this is so small and will go quick. Should I collect foreshots based on temps? Grainfather says foreshots are everything up to 176 degrees. I've read elsewhere that 175 is where collectible heads start.

Can someone please set me staight? How would you approach this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[binabik]

While I am not a master 175 degree is the cutoff. Ethyl alcohol starts to boil around 173.5 degrees.
I'd stop foreshots at 175, then heads until 196 and heart from there to 205 degrees.

I think that way you get more consistent results. That's my opinion, good luck.

 

[Contrarian]

Late reply, but I thought I'd give my 2 cents anyway.

I never do a discrete foreshot cut in most of my distilling. Most of my batches are feint free so I don't have any build up to worry about. I think the foreshot is also tied into the myth of removing the methanol to keep distilling safe - which is inaccurate at best. A better reason to keep up a foreshot cut is that there is no way you are ever going to want those flavours in your final product. I tie it into the heads cut and whether its thrown away doesn't matter as much. Just be aware that if you recycle feints those nasty flavours will build up and discarding foreshot/very early heads and late tails becomes an option.

I also wouldn't use temperatures to make cuts, at best they give you an idea of alcohol percentage on the output but are not useful for gauging flavour. Much better to collect in numbered jars and taste/smell to make your cuts. On a reflux still temperature gives a better measure on whats happening but on a pot its much less useful. On my pot still my temperature probe is for gauging the progress of strip runs almost exclusively. And even then taste and an alcoholmeter are the primary tools.

For cuts having 10/20/30 jars of various percentages (in order) is a difficult task to dilute, taste and smell when you have days to do it. Making cuts straight off the skill is an order of magnitude harder.

 

[Toxxyc]

I cut purely on taste, on both the stripping and the spirit run. On the stripping run I usually have the foreshots and the heads bundled together, because it tastes horrible (I keep that aside and play with it when I'm bored, usually tossing it in the fire to make flames go poof). The rest (including tails) I collect until my column temp hits 96°C (around 204.8°F). I find this to be the place where my still stops producing enough alcohol and the tails start coming in at very low ABV and tasting bad.

The collected hearts + tails is usually watered down a bit (about 70% distillate, 30% water) and distilled again in the spirit run. Slowly this time. Here I make more cuts, but I more finely control it then. I usually cut on taste again so I can get more of the foreshot leftovers out of there, and then I distill until the flavour changes from hearts to tails. I then switch jars (I've got big ones) and later on I blend the two to get the flavour I want. This way I have only two jars to worry about, and not 20. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll repeat this process again (a third distillation).

I've always found the hearts jar after the second run (the first spirit run) tastes amazing, but a bit bland. The tails jar is lower in ABV so I blend that back in for flavour before I water down for oaking. I usually don't have to add a lot of water, and I think my results are pretty neat.

That's just me though. It works for me and I've come to know my still by now. YMMV.

EDIT: To answers your question on the foreshots cut, I cut about ~250ml of foreshots + heads when I distill a batch of 20l. About 200ml on the first run, and about another 50ml on the second.