Is that even when it's barely detectable, maybe not even sure whether I should take this jar or dump it into feints, there's an unpleasantness that sticks to your pallet and your nose. Or mine, at least.

Rub a drop in my hand and nose it. Take a little sip of it. If there's tails in there, Even just a tiny bit, everything I taste for the next half hour becomes vaguely unpleasant, like it could be a little nauseating if I focus on it too much. Even if it's just a glass of water 15 minutes later.

This is convenient if I'm working my way through the jars slowly and trying to figure out where my cut to tails is. The first jar that makes my life unpleasant like this, is probably my first jar in the tails cut.

It's inconvenient if I've happened to sample a jar with tails, and now I can't taste anything else for half an hour until that crap clears out of my head.

1 gallon air still run very slow, 100% pale ale malt, exactly 1 gallon of low wines at 35% ABV. 40 ml jars. Looks like I've got 440 ml of foreshots and heads, 400-440 ml of hearts, coming over from somewhere north of 80% ABV down to about 70%. Maybe 480 ml, we'll see how that jar comes out after I let everything sit overnight and then dilute an aliquot down for final sampling. My third mash / fermentation / distillation ever.

My first two batches were distillers malt and grain barley, and even the grain going in didn't smell like anything except barley. The spirit I got was pretty neutral, not much to it.

The pale ale malt in this one had a lovely aroma, and I can pick up the malt and malty warm-fruity flavors in the hearts cut even before combining everything. Toasting the malt really does make a difference.