Heads & tails in continuous production

  • Jake
    Topic creator
    Member
    Joined: 16.09.2016Posts: 2Ratings: 0

    I have been looking at the videos of distillery tours and the info pages so I understand most bourbon is produced using a beer stripping column followed by a doubler. What I haven't been able to see is and where the heads and tails are being removed in this process. From what is presented the beer strippers don't seem to be designed or run as fractionators. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks Jake 

  • horst_s_2 Administrator horst_s_2 Joined: 01.07.2014Posts: 507Ratings: 661
    , edited November 7 2016 at 7:42AM
    Options
    @Jake

    The doubler is a special piece of work. It is not a further still. It is just vaporizing and condensing the raw whiskey once again. So the vapors come closer in contact to the copper. This changes the taste by a catalytic conversion. There are no faints or pot ales.

    Kind regards, Horst Luening, Master Taster, Whisky.com
  • Jake
    Topic creator
    Member
    Joined: 16.09.2016Posts: 2Ratings: 0
    Options


    @horst_s

    Thanks Horst for your feedback. So are there no heads to remove? Or is it that, because the process is continuous, they are there but at a low background concentration rather than coming off concentrated at the start of the run as they would in a pot still?

  • horst_s_2 Administrator horst_s_2 Joined: 01.07.2014Posts: 507Ratings: 661
    Options

    @Jake
    The stills I saw weren't taking off the raw spirit at the top of the column, where the lighter feints concentrate. They took out the liquid some distance below. So the feints should stay at the very top and get converted by temperature and copper slowly to more suitable and heavier aromas, which will then pass on the the doubler.

    Kind regards, Horst Luening, Master Taster, Whisky.com
Sign In or Register to comment.