Whisky Maturation, questions arising from Horst's Vlog

toddstevens4

Hey Malt-mates,
Question for Horst or anyone else in the know. Since the feints in mash distillation are very harsh in flavor, they are not included in the heart cut, which makes sense. They are the feints by virtue of having a lower boiling point, and thus evaporating first. All good so far. Horst mentioned in his vlog entitled Whisky Maturation that those same harsh feints are recycled into the next distillation batch, increasing the copper contact they have and catalytically converting them into more pleasing and palatable compounds. This is where I am stumped. Wouldn't it not matter if the feints are converted or not, as they'll always evaporate first--and therefore remain outside of the heart cut--and thus never make it into the cask?
Thanks in advance for your help,
Todd Stevens

[Deleted User]

Some desirable congeners remain in the foreshots and feints, but the essential reason for adding them to the low wines from the wash still is to raise the alcohol level prior to distillation in the spirit still. If we distilled just the low wines (without the foreshots and feints) in the spirit still, the alcohol level would never get high enough to reach the desired cut points, and the distiller would not be able to get the desired congeners out of the spirit still and into the spirit receiver.

As an example, assume that a distillery starts its spirit run at 70% abv and stops it at 60% abv to capture its desired flavor profile; if a distillation of just the low wines (no foreshots or feints) can only get a maximum of 60% abv in the spirit still, then the distiller has a problem.

horst_s_2

"toddstevens4" wrote:
Wouldn't it not matter if the feints are converted or not, as they'll always evaporate first--and therefore remain outside of the heart cut--and thus never make it into the cask?

Beside of what the user Carlton said it is also a matter of money resp. yield. If you always dump the feints, you would get a few percent less sellable product out of the barley.

toddstevens4

Friends,
Thanks for the thorough and timely response. It makes sense now that a Small percentage of those feints will make it into the heart cut due to adding them to the total volume of low wines, especially if the cut is determined by alcohol percentage. Learning more and more.
Happy Drams,
Todd Stevens