How much heads are you normally getting

Perforated & bubble cap plated columns

How much heads are you normally getting

Postby Smithy » Sun Jun 11, 2023 12:29 pm

Just wondering how much heads people are getting
4 inch bubble plate 3 plates
Ag wash 7.7% 80lt
Reflux for about 15/20 minutes
Slowly winding water back until slight stream
Abv 90% coming out
I take about 450ml of fores
Then into jars collecting 300ml each
I seem to be only getting 2 jars that I would call head then straight into hearts

Does that sound right because I get alot more heads on the pot still

Ps I’m very new to all this
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby BigRig » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:29 pm

How big is the boiler charge ?

From a 45L (1.5run) charge i collect in 250ml cuts. I dump the first as fores then usually end up with the next 5 or 6 going in to feints for another day.
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby Smithy » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:32 pm

The boiler charge is 80lt. Are you going on smell and taste
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby The Stig » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:33 pm

Cuts are always done by smell touch and taste
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby BigRig » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:38 pm

The Stig wrote:Cuts are always done by smell touch and taste

:text-+1: to stig.

From a 80L charge i would expect more heads than 2 jars. How long are you airing them before tasting / testing ?

Are you diluting the cuts when tasting?
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby Smithy » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:40 pm

The Stig wrote:Cuts are always done by smell touch and taste

I’m using the smell and taste but to me it smells and taste good after the 2nd jar. The run I’m on now the 3rd jar might have a bit of heads in it. Does that sound right tho to only be getting that little heads
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby Smithy » Sun Jun 11, 2023 1:42 pm

BigRig wrote:
The Stig wrote:Cuts are always done by smell touch and taste

:text-+1: to stig.

From a 80L charge i would expect more heads than 2 jars. How long are you airing them before tasting / testing ?

Are you diluting the cuts when tasting?

Been leaving over night and tasting in the morning. I haven’t been watering them down. Does water down help
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby iOnaBender » Sun Jun 11, 2023 2:54 pm

On a 120ltr charge I take 500-600ml foreshotes and 1.6-2ltr of heads as the usual.

Are you starting on the middle jars and working your way towards first and last jars? Maybe you're blowing your taste buds out on the earlier jars?

Off the still heads sting my tongue and taste like crap, hearts have a little less sting but taste sweet to me

Cheers
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby BigRig » Sun Jun 11, 2023 4:04 pm

Smithy wrote:
BigRig wrote:
The Stig wrote:Cuts are always done by smell touch and taste

:text-+1: to stig.

From a 80L charge i would expect more heads than 2 jars. How long are you airing them before tasting / testing ?

Are you diluting the cuts when tasting?

Been leaving over night and tasting in the morning. I haven’t been watering them down. Does water down help


Absolutely watering down will help with slightest changes in taste and you wont blow your palette out.
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby The Stig » Tue Jun 13, 2023 5:05 pm

Seems we might have got to the bottom of this little dilemma
Nice chatting to you Smithy :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby Multipleg » Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:10 pm

BigRig wrote:Absolutely watering down will help with slightest changes in taste and you wont blow your palette out.


Old thread I know but an interesting topic. As I understand it, the reason most spirits are cut to 40% abv is that any higher abv overwhelms your taste buds -- blows out your palette. Higher abv drinks come alive with a block or two of ice, or splash of water for that reason. With tasting cuts you're usually better off cutting lower -- about 30% or 60 proof works for me.

My pot still on about 45 litres of wash run on a 2400 watt element used to pretty reliably give me 2.8 litres of heads or 8 corona bottles. I'd love to compress that with a bubbler in the near future. We'll see...
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby B-Man » Mon Jan 29, 2024 5:51 pm

i definately get alot less heads with the bubbler than hte pot still.
i went from 5 stubbies of heads from the pot still to 1 stubbie.
also the speed you push it out with also affects it. i run the bubbler nice and slow for the fores so that probably takes half the heads with it too.
where as the pot. even running slower still runs faster than the bubbler for my first few jars.
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Re: How much heads are you normally getting

Postby bluc » Tue Jan 30, 2024 7:26 pm

A bubbler will compress fractions a lot more then a pot, normal to get less, more concentrated heads on a bubbler...(And tails...)
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