Making cuts in vodka stripping run.

edited December 2013 in Usage

It occurred to me that if I make cuts in the stripping run for for vodka I have a better chance of a near perfect product when I reflux it later for vodka (I would recycle the heads & tails in the next stripping run, so nothing is wasted). Having a lousy sense of smell can anyone offer a guide by temperature or percent for making these cuts to the stripping run.

Comments

  • PS stripping run would be in a pot still.

  • i personally might just strip it and do the spirit run, and address the fores and heads then... but thats me...

  • I make Heads and Tails cuts during my 1st run for my Vodka. (Strip Run) And only collect the hearts to run again for a spirits run. I then still cut a small amount of Heads from the Spirits Run. But I do it all by taste and smell. So I can not give you a Temp.

    Gives me a very nice and clean vodka.

  • edited December 2013

    Actual temperature might not be of much value in this instance on a pot still. However, you should be able to make a preliminary cut on your strip run just based on VOLUME.

    I know its not quite the same, but you could use examples from other spirits. For example (and there are bound to be others you could average out) look at Cognac.

    For a strip charge of 2500 litres @ 8.5%, they would traditionally take:

    Heads - 10 litres, Hearts 700 litres, Tails 150 litres.

    The results for the subsequent spirit run are not really relevant because they take the premium quality product at 70%.

    EDIT. That's a total take of about 1/3rd of starting volume. I usually strip to 1/5th so they would be recovering more at the end of the run that I would usually bother with.

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