Three stages of collecting distilled liquor during whiskey distillation

Liquor head

    Liquor head is the first batch of liquor collected during distillation. Because the liquor head contains too much acetone and methanol, it is completely unsuitable for drinking. In addition to the disgusting smell of liquor heads, drinking liquor heads can also affect the central nervous system, causing blindness and even life-threatening. Fortunately, the liquor head has a special smell and the alcohol content is particularly high, about 72%-80%, so it is easy to identify. If the liquor head is mixed with a little distilled water, the color of the liquor head will become cloudy. The liquor head is not discarded, which will distilled together with the next batch of first distilled liquor. The step of separating the liquor heads takes a few minutes to half an hour, depending on the size of the still.

Liquor heart

    Liquor heart is something that the distillers to pursue with one hart and one mind. Put the liquor hart a barrel and matured, we can get  a whiskey in three years later.

    The alcohol content of liquor heart is between 68%-72%. The distillation time determines the liquor taste. The long distillation time will let the liquor with soft texture ; the short distillation time results in a whiskey with full strong bodied and sulphur flavor.

Liquor tail

    The final obtained from the distillation process liquor has less than 60% alcohol content. Which will appear blue after being mixed with water. The distiller can use this characteristic to identify the liquor tail. The liquor tail is rich in strong aroma compounds of sulfide rain. The tails will not be discarded, which will be distilled together with the next batch of first distilled liquor.