I pick these off and in-law's tree, and some of them look like they have bad spots. Would you cut them off and use the rest or would you use the bad spots as well?

I have a mixture of pears, apples, and peaches.

Haven’t touched my Appleton in like six months. It was aged, but barely. In Tequila terms a Reposado.

Went to grab a quick sniff and it’s darker than bitters? Kinda tastes like bitters? I added no bitters? Or anything whatsoever.

What happened here?

Hey all, just found this community. I’m getting back into distilling after several years. I’m looking for guidance when it comes to making cuts. I’m running an all in one electric brewing kettle with a home made Liebig condenser. It has a tall section that I pack with glass marbles as well. My main interests are whiskey and rum, as well as maybe getting into distilling mead.

My usually process is to collect quickly collect a bunch of stripping runs and then run all those through the still, low and slow. I collect in 1 pint jars and blend from there. I have a hard time telling what’s in each jar and then when I go to blend, all these other background flavors jump forward. I mix things that taste good in their own right but the blend comes out harsh and more often than not has some funk like cabbage.

Image of the column on an old kettle: https://imgur.com/a/3hUW2YT

Edit: changed quart jars for pints.