Trouble with amount of finished product

[WhiskeyPete]

Yep,I'm one of the new guys and have a question.I'm new to distilling,and have been reading for at least 6 months now on this forum and have learned alot!(Thanks to you guys)I figured I was ready.So I got a tilt reflux still,a glass thumper in line,it has a 15 gal beer keg,2 electric heaters,one is on a controller to adjust the temp.This is one of the same that stilldrinken makes.Now my question:I am making UJSM and am on my 4th generation,the ferment is finished dry,the SG started at 1060 and finished at .999.Every time I run it I get the same small amount of finished product.This last one,I have made a 12 gal wash and charged my still,I ran it at about 179 deg and let it go to 205 deg and came up with about 1 gal of shine.It came off at 85% down to 68%.this included heads,hearts,and tails.A friend of mine has a pot still and on 30gal of wash gets 5gal of shine.I'm running it slow so I can learn to make the cuts,and keep a eye on it.I can't figure what the hell I'm doing wrong?? HELP!!

[HookLine]

Hi WP

For a start you should ditch that stilldrinkin piece of shit and get a proper still, or at least fix that one up.

Read this thread:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=10259

Sorry to be blunt, but you got burned there, unless by some truly amazing miracle they have learned their lesson and seriously improved the quality of their stills.

[olddog]

I have got to know how you manage to run a thumper with a slant plate reflux still.
The amount of alcohol you get from a wash depends on how much was there in the first place, high ABV washes made with turbo will reap more alcohol due to the fact that they ferment to a higher ABV by doing that they produce a lot of off flavours.
Yeats that are commonly used like bakers yeast produce lower alcohol levels but do not have the bad taste you get with turbo.
Without knowing the wash that either you or your mate had its hard to give you a definate answer, BTW one gallon out of a twelve gallon wash is not unreasonable. It depends on you whether you want quality or quantity.

[Dnderhead]

done some calculations,, looks like you you used about 16lb of sugar,, made a 9% wash, at 85% = a total of 1.25 gallons
so if you collected 1 gallon at 85% you did ok . not bad at all, then when deluted you have twice that.

[rad14701]

olddog, I don't think it is a slant plate reflux column still... I think it's one of those bastardized slant/tilted column pot stills with a glass jar thumper like what has been for sale on eBay...

I have to agree with HookLine on the potential poor quality of the still... However, as long as it's producing spirits that WhiskeyPete is willing to drink then it's producing within normal parameters...

With safety in mind, I'd probably be inclined to get rid of the glass thumper... Electric heat or not, I don't think I'd want hot high ABV ethanol spilling out of the jar decides to break... It's just not worth the risk...

And if I haven't already done so previously, welcome to the forums, WhiskeyPete...