Don’t Throw It Out Just Because It Missed the First Cut

I have containers of liquor that I have absolutely no intention of drinking.

If you make moonshine, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. If you don’t, here’s the short version.

When you run a still, everything that comes out doesn’t belong in the jar you eventually want to drink. As the run progresses, you make cuts. That’s where you start and eventually stop collecting the good stuff and set it aside for filtering, proofing, and jarring. It’s at that point you get into the tails. There’s still alcohol coming off the still, along with plenty of flavor, but it’s no longer something I want in the finished product.

If you’ve ever used a cheap, unscented hand sanitizer and thought, “This stinks,” it was probably made with tails, and that unpleasant odor is exactly what tails smell (and taste) like.

But I don’t throw them away.

Save the Feints

I collect those tails, also called feints, and save them from one run to the next. Eventually, I’ll have enough to put them all back into the still and do an all-feints run. I’ll heat them up, make another set of cuts, and recover whatever is worth keeping. It makes for a good neutral spirit (vodka) base to infuse with any kind of flavor your little heart desires.

I like that idea.

Something can miss the cut the first time around and still have value. It may simply need another purpose, another opportunity, or another trip through the still.

That happens in business more than we probably realize..

There May Still Be Something There

Businesses throw away a lot of things because they didn’t work the way we originally intended.

An idea that didn’t fit one project. Research that never made it into the final product. A person whose skills were better suited for another role. A customer conversation that never resulted in a sale. A product feature that customers ended up using differently than anyone expected.

We tend to decide whether something has value based on the purpose we originally assigned to it.

Moonshine has taught me to look at that a little differently.

Sometimes something has value. Just not in the form you originally wanted it.

That doesn’t mean you save everything. The stillhouse would get pretty crowded if I did. Judgment still matters.

But there’s a difference between something having no value and something having no value right now.

Run It Again

That’s one of the things I enjoy about distilling. Very little happens in isolation. One run teaches you something about the next. What you leave behind today may become part of something worthwhile later.

There’s a business lesson in there, and it fits pretty well with the idea behind Against the Grain. Value doesn’t always show up where we expect it.

So I save my tails.

Eventually I’ll have enough for an all-feints run. I’ll pour them back into the still, fire it up, and see what’s worth recovering.

‍Call to Action

What are you throwing away because it didn’t work the first time? Give them a shout-out in the comments. I'd love to hear their story.

Enjoy business lessons from the history and craft of moonshining? Explore more posts in The Stillhouse Blog, listen to the Against the Grain Podcast, or learn more about my upcoming book, Against the Grain: Business Lessons from the Still.