First spirit run

[Ferthy]

Well I finally did it. Built a pot still with a 5 gallon keg. Heated it with a 1500w element controlled but a SD power controller. Cleaned it tested it several times with cheap sugar wash. Then ran 4 washes of UJSSM at 10% abv each. Saved everything and diluted which gave me 4 gallons of distilled spirit at 40%. Ran it all through collecting every thing in 6-8 oz. samples. Which have me 37 little jars of stuff ranging from 85-35% abv (though most is in the 60-80% range) to chuck or blend depending on what I think of each sample.

Now from what I read all stills are different. Most people I have read seem to run there stills in low power particularly when doing spirit runs. I run mine hard on cleaning runs 90-95% power which gives me a slow but steady stream and takes about an hour to distill everything useful out. On my first spirit run I found that if I dropped down to the high 60's on my power gauge nothing would happen no stream no drips. I mainly operated in between 70-85% on my spirit run. Tried to keep slow drops at the beginning, and pumped it up to have a thin broken streak or fast drip when I hit what I believed were the hearts. I noticed the harshness smoothed out a bit when I did this.

I feel like I did pretty good on my first run. I got some stuff that tastes pretty good. My only concern was my power draw. Everyone seems to only use a minimal amount of power on spirit runs. But I also don't know what I could have done different to change it, or if I needed to as i seemed to have pretty accurate control. I could keep it at a full blown river if I wanted to or back it down to a slow rate of a drip every second.

Any thoughts? Should I stop worrying and just keep stilling?

[hamshine]

It's a pot still drive it for how you want the output.... If you want a thin stream just get a thin stream don't worry about where you have to set the dial to get it.

[Pikey]

Smallish Pot still - Pencil lead thick steady stream is what you want. Mine runs pretty much the same power on distil as it does on "warm up" (probably about 65% - but i just turn the controller round to the black line I drew on the casing ).

The "harshness" went because you hit the "hearts" rather than "when" you hit the hearts

Save a bottle of that "good stuff" for a year or so and when you have done it for a while try it again - I wish I had !

Congratulations

[ShineRunner]

You also only have a 1500W element. When I run my 5500w element low and slow for a spirit run, I'm realistically at around 1200-1500W anyways. So, you're probably about right with that size element. I know you can't fit a bigger element in your pot, but it would definitely speed your stripping runs up!

As others have said, you've got a pot still. Run it based on your output stream and enjoy the results!

SR

[Jes2xu]

Is it wrong that seeing other people make their first run gets me all pumped up?

Awesome man! Cant wait to pop my cherry too Pretty sweet to have this place to help us get there!

[Ferthy]

I don't think so. Thanks everyone. I got just under a gallon that I will be paling with some white oak staves. And just a bit left over to make 3 liters of strawberry shine once it's all disputed. Hope to get back to another spirit run by the beginning of June.

[mulligan]

As a under 1 year newbie, I can't stress enough that that some of us are more chemists and others more chefs, but I surely remember first spirit run buzz (as well as sneaky sips from first stripping run). Just stay safe and enjoy your hobby, learning and most of all your produce.

[Jes2xu]

As a under 1 year newbie, I can't stress enough that that some of us are more chemists and others more chefs, but I surely remember first spirit run buzz (as well as sneaky sips from first stripping run). Just stay safe and enjoy your hobby, learning and most of all your produce.

That sir, was well said

[ShineRunner]

I don't think so. Thanks everyone. I got just under a gallon that I will be paling with some white oak staves. And just a bit left over to make 3 liters of strawberry shine once it's all disputed. Hope to get back to another spirit run by the beginning of June.

Sounds about right. I usually get about 3 quarts or so of keeper from 3-3.5 gallons at 30%.

Out of curiosity, how low are you running your stripping runs? If you're not already, I would recommend trying to run your strips down until your low wines average 30%. Usually that means I cut off around 8-10% or so. Keeps you from having to dilute your low wines and captures more flavor. Your keep cut will be 68-70% as well. Less dilution there too. Downside is that you have to run longer, which may be difficult with your 1500W element.

SR

[kimbodious]

Sounds like a great run!

As far as heating efficiency, is your boiler insulated?