How to Make Cuts When Distilling

Knowing how to make cuts when distilling is the single most important skill in home distilling — and the one that separates clean, safe spirit from something harsh or undrinkable. When distillate comes off your still, it does not arrive as a uniform product. The output changes character continuously throughout the run: in strength, in aroma, and in the compounds it carries. Making cuts is the process of separating this stream into distinct fractions and deciding which parts to keep, which to discard, and which to recycle.

Get it right and you produce clean, flavourful spirit. Get it wrong and you end up with either harsh off-flavours in your final product, or a wasteful yield from discarding too much of the good stuff.

What Are Distillation Cuts?

A distillation cut is simply the moment you switch your collection vessel — moving from one fraction to the next. During a spirit run, most distillers identify four distinct fractions:

The ABV ranges above are approximate starting points. In practice, cut points shift based on your still design, spirit type, and personal preference. They should always be confirmed by sensory evaluation — not by ABV alone.

Wash Run vs. Spirit Run

Before discussing cuts in detail, it is important to understand which run you are making cuts on.

On a wash run (stripping run), you are not making proper cuts. The spirit is too dilute and too mixed for sensory evaluation to be meaningful. You simply discard the foreshots — roughly 50 mL per 20 L of wash — and then collect everything else as low wines. Speed and alcohol recovery are the priority.

The careful cut work happens on the spirit run (finishing run). This is where your low wines are redistilled into concentrated spirit, the fractions become distinct, and your sensory judgements actually matter.

Foreshots — Always Discard

Foreshots are the very first liquid to come off the still at the start of a spirit run. They must always be discarded — no exceptions.

The reason is chemistry. At the start of distillation, the most volatile compounds in your wash come over first. These include methanol (boiling point 64.7°C), acetaldehyde, and acetone — all of which concentrate heavily in the foreshots. Methanol is toxic in sufficient quantities, and acetaldehyde is responsible for severe hangovers even at trace levels.

The standard guideline: discard the first 50–100 mL per 20 L of wash, or approximately 5 mL per litre. On a 25 L wash, that means discarding at least 125 mL at the start of your spirit run. When in doubt, discard more rather than less.

Heads — The Transition Zone

After foreshots, the distillate enters the heads fraction. This is where things start to get interesting — and where new distillers most often make mistakes.

Heads run high in ABV (typically 80–96% off the parrot) and carry a characteristic harsh, solvent-like aroma. The primary culprits are ethyl acetate (nail polish remover smell) and residual acetaldehyde (green apple, paint thinner). You will know you are in the heads because the spirit smells sharp and unpleasant, even at this strength.

Heads are typically either discarded or recycled back into the next run's charge. Recycling them recovers the alcohol while avoiding waste — but be careful not to build up too many recycled heads over multiple runs, as compound accumulation can eventually affect spirit character.

The heads fraction ends — and hearts begin — when the harsh solvent notes give way to the cleaner, more pleasant character of your spirit type. This transition is gradual, not a hard line.

Hearts — What You Are Here For

Hearts are the primary target of the run. This is the clean, smooth fraction that will become your final spirit.

In terms of ABV, hearts typically span from around 75–80% down to around 60–65% on the parrot during a spirit run. But the ABV is a guide, not a rule. The real indicator is sensory: hearts smell clean, rounded, and characteristic of your spirit type — grainy for whisky, fruity for brandy, clean and neutral for vodka.

The key practice for accurate hearts collection is collecting in small jars (100–200 mL each) rather than directly into a large vessel. This lets you evaluate each jar individually after the run, compare them side by side, and make your final cuts with much more precision than you could achieve at the still in real time.

Tails — Useful, But Know When to Stop

As the hearts fraction winds down, the distillate transitions into tails. The ABV is dropping (typically below 60–65%) and the character changes noticeably: a thick, oily quality appears, sometimes described as porridge, wet grain, or earthy. This is caused by fusel oils — heavier alcohols like propanol and isoamyl alcohol that are less volatile than ethanol and come over late in the run.

For most spirits, you stop collecting hearts and switch to tails at around 60–65% ABV, confirmed by the change in aroma. Tails are typically collected separately and recycled into the next run's charge.

The one exception to the "discard tails" rule is when making spirits where fusel oils are part of the intended character — heavy rum, some brandies, and certain whisky styles sometimes benefit from including a small amount of early tails in the final blend.

Once the ABV drops below around 20–25%, the energy cost of further distillation rarely justifies the diminishing alcohol recovery. Most distillers stop the run here.

Cut Points by Spirit Type

The table below shows typical starting cut points for a spirit run. These are guidelines for a pot still — column stills tend to produce cleaner fractions and slightly higher cut points throughout. Always adjust based on your own sensory evaluation.

Practical Method: Making Cuts Step by Step

1. Set up your collection jars before the run

Label 10–15 small jars (100–200 mL each) in advance. Have a permanent marker ready to note the parrot ABV when you fill each jar. This takes two minutes to prepare and gives you much more information to work with after the run.

2. Discard foreshots at the start

As soon as distillate appears, collect and discard the foreshots. For a spirit run charged with 20–25 L of low wines, discard the first 75–125 mL. Note the time and move to heads collection.

3. Collect heads in your first jars

The first several jars will be heads. Note the ABV on each. The spirit will smell harsh and solvent-like. Continue collecting in separate jars until the character begins to shift.

4. Transition into hearts

As ABV drops toward 75–80% (spirit-type dependent), begin smelling each jar carefully. When the harsh solvent character gives way to a cleaner, more pleasant aroma, you are entering hearts territory. Mark this jar as the probable hearts start — but do not finalise cut decisions yet.

5. Continue collecting through hearts and into tails

Keep filling jars, noting the ABV on each. When the character becomes oily or porridge-like and the ABV has dropped below 60–65%, you are in tails. Mark the transition and continue collecting tails separately if recycling.

6. Evaluate after the run — not during

Once the run is complete, smell and taste every jar in sequence at room temperature. Compare the borderline jars — the last suspected heads jar and the first suspected hearts jar — side by side. This is where the final cut is made. The difference is usually clear when evaluated this way, even if it was hard to judge at the still.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Making cuts in real time at the still. It is very difficult to make accurate sensory evaluations while also managing the still. Collect in small jars and evaluate after.
• Using ABV as the only indicator. ABV is a guide, not a cut point. Two jars at the same ABV can smell very different depending on your wash composition and still type.
• Cutting too tight on whisky or brandy. Pulling very tight hearts is appropriate for vodka, but for character spirits you want some of the congeners that sit at the edges of the hearts fraction. Experiment and blend.
• Discarding all tails. Early tails contain good alcohol and can be recycled. Only discard the very late, low-ABV fraction where recovery is no longer worthwhile.
• Not collecting in small enough jars. Large jars give you no resolution. If your first jar is 500 mL, you may have mixed heads and hearts and have no way to separate them. Small is better.

Frequently Asked Questions