Reheat mash

[BuffaloBob+837]

Just completed my first distillation and thought all the mash was done. I thought this because the drips were getting slower and the temperature was rising. However when I stopped and looked inside the pot there is still about a couple of quarts left. Can I restart the heat and continue on or wait and add it to the next mash. Thanks.

[OtisT]

Just completed my first distillation and thought all the mash was done. I thought this because the drips were getting slower and the temperature was rising. However when I stopped and looked inside the pot there is still about a couple of quarts left. Can I restart the heat and continue on or wait and add it to the next mash. Thanks.

If I am understanding you correctly, then the short answer is "you are done." Slower drips and higher temp is a sign of this. Since you are new to stilling, just toss what is in the boiler and start all over again with your next ferment or re-run your low wines (diluted to a proper ABV.)

FYI
As alcohol is boiled/evaporated out of your wash and collected in your product condenser, the ABV of your wash (what is in your boiler) is lower. This is a big part of why your vapor temp increases toward the end of your run.

One good learning practice is to measure and/calculate the ABV of your ferment/wash before distilling, then calculate the volume of what you expect to collect given the ABV of your low wines. It is a good sanity check. i.e. if your calculations show that expect to collect 4 liters of low wines and collection begins to slow down at 3.5 liters, you know you are in the range of what you expected so no need to freak out. If, however, you start slowing down at 2 Liters, you should re-check your math or perhaps look for other issues. There are some good calculators linked to from the parent HD web site that will help you with the math.

Good Luck. Otis

[Kareltje]

Just completed my first distillation and thought all the mash was done. I thought this because the drips were getting slower and the temperature was rising. However when I stopped and looked inside the pot there is still about a couple of quarts left. Can I restart the heat and continue on or wait and add it to the next mash. Thanks.

So you made a solution or mash of tasty stuff, water and sugar and made yeast transform the sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. (No, you are not contributing to global warming, for the sugar was made of carbon dioxide by plants!)
The result is called beer (when made with grains), wine (when made with fruits) or mash (when made with other ingredients). You don't want to drink it as it is, although it contains from 4 to 12 %ABV of alcohol.
When you heat this mixture, collect the vapours and condensate them, you will see that the alcohol content of the condensate is higher than the alcohol content of the beer/wine/mash. (In this heating you probably do contribute to global warming, unless you heat with fire wood!) But the volume of the condensate is less than the volume of the mash.
For a stripping run of a 10 to 12 %ABV mash you typically get one third of the volume of a 35 to 40 %ABV distillate, called low wine.

That is (one of) the point(s) of distilling: getting rid of the excess water and other disturbing stuff and concentrate the alcohol and good taste in less volume.
What is left in the boiler is called backset. It can be used for some purposes, but I propose you concentrate on distilling first before we discuss that.

The low wines are distilled further in a so called spirit run, but that is more complicated.