Heads, hearts and tails in making the cut

The run changes as the still empties

When a spirit still charge heats up, the most volatile compounds leave first. Ethanol boils at 78.4 °C, water at 100 °C. Acetaldehyde boils at about 20 °C. Ethyl acetate boils at about 77 °C but behaves as very volatile in a mix of alcohol and water. Both pile into the first spirit off the condenser. As the run goes on, the alcohol strength coming off the still falls and heavier compounds with higher boiling points or a stronger liking for water start to come through.

Distillers split that stream into three parts. The heads (foreshots) come first. The hearts, or middle cut, are what goes into casks. The tails (feints) come last. Heads and tails are not thrown away in a malt distillery: they go to the feints receiver and are redistilled with the next charge.

Heads smell like nail varnish for a reason

The first spirit off a pot still is strong, often above 80% ABV. It smells of solvent, glue and green apple. That is ethyl acetate, acetaldehyde and other light esters and aldehydes. It also carries oils and residues rinsed out of the still neck and condenser from the previous run.

Many Scotch distillers run foreshots for something like 15 to 30 minutes, then use the demisting test in the spirit safe. Spirit mixed with water turns cloudy while long chain esters and oils are still coming through. When the mix stays clear, the cut to hearts can be made. The strength at that point is commonly in the low to mid 70s ABV, though every still differs.

The hearts are a choice, not a fact

The middle cut is where the house character lives. A narrow cut, taken from about 75% down to about 68% ABV, gives a light, fruity, floral new make. A wide cut that runs down to around 60% ABV brings in heavier, oilier, nuttier and more cereal notes that need longer in oak to settle.

Neither is right. A distillery chasing a delicate spirit cuts high and narrow. One that wants weight and a meaty texture cuts lower. What matters is that the cut is the same run after run. Our guide to new make strength and cut points goes into the numbers in more detail.

Tails bring weight then trouble

As strength drops below the cut point, the feints come through. Early feints carry heavier esters and fatty acids that some distillers want a little of. Later feints bring sulphury, vegetal, sweaty, cardboard and wet dog notes plus higher alcohols such as isoamyl alcohol in larger amounts.

The still keeps running on feints until the strength falls to around 1% ABV, so that all the alcohol is recovered for the next charge. That tail end can take as long as the hearts. It is wasted heat and time only if you forget that every litre of alcohol in it is money you will collect next run.

Cutting by nose and by number

Older distilleries cut by time and hydrometer reading in the spirit safe. Craft distilleries with small stills often cut by nose, collecting the run in a line of small jars and smelling each one before blending the hearts. Both work. Both drift without records.

We prefer a hybrid: smell every run, but log the strength and temperature at each cut and the volume collected. With a few months of that data you can see whether your cuts are wandering. On a 500 litre still, moving the cut by half a percent changes the hearts volume enough to show up in your yield and in the cask a few years later.

In Indian heat, cooling water matters here too. If the condenser runs warm, spirit leaves the still hotter, aromas flash off at the safe and your nose gets a different picture from the one you got in February.

The spirit safe is where the cut happens

In most licensed distilleries the spirit runs through a locked spirit safe on its way from the condenser to the receivers. Inside are glass bowls with hydrometers and a thermometer, plus a swivel spout that directs the flow to the feints receiver or the spirit receiver. The stillman reads strength and temperature through the glass and moves the spout at each cut without ever touching the spirit.

The safe exists because excise authorities want spirit measured and secured from the moment it is made. In India the rules on sealing, locks and records vary by state, so the design of your safe and receivers should be agreed with your licensing adviser before the stills are ordered.

Where cut decisions go wrong

• Cutting by the clock alone. A charge at a different strength or a different heat rate shifts every cut. Time is a guide, not a rule.
• Tasting neat spirit at 70% ABV. Dilute samples to about 20% ABV in clean glasses before nosing. Neat spirit numbs the nose within minutes.
• Greed in the tails. Pushing the cut down for more litres fills casks with spirit that tastes heavy and vegetal for years.
• No reference sample. Keep a sealed jar of a good run's hearts and nose against it every week.

Judging a cut well takes trained senses plus an understanding of what each compound is doing in the still. That combination is hard to pick up from reading alone.

Common questions

What are heads, hearts and tails in distilling?

They are the three parts of a spirit still run. Heads come first and are light and solvent like, hearts are the clean middle cut that goes into casks and tails are the heavy, oily end of the run.

What ABV do distillers cut to hearts?

In malt whisky pot stills the cut to hearts is commonly made in the low to mid 70s ABV, often after the demisting test shows no haze. Each still and each house style is different.

Are heads and tails thrown away?

Not in a malt whisky distillery. They go to the feints receiver and are mixed into the next spirit still charge so the alcohol in them is recovered.

Why dilute spirit before nosing the cut?

Spirit at around 70% ABV numbs the nose quickly. Diluting a sample to about 20% ABV opens up the aromas and lets you smell the change from heads to hearts to tails.