First run success... Or was it?

[Duckand2]

Gerber wash settled from 15%

3gal milehi still with mesh lightly crammed

signs of life at 175 degrees. kept constant (174.8-175.. Slow drip for 3-4 hrs yeild less than 1ltr

Cooling chamber was kept cool to touch, forth coming alcohol was room temp(70) or below. No signs of steam.

shut down.

Questions...

Was I supposed to get more than a drop every second or so?

What can I differently to up alcohol production?

Can this be the correct alcohol flow rate?

Will get proof tester tomorrow to let you know exact resulting alcohol%.

[Maynard]

Well I just ran my first Gerber and was holding 178*F for the entire time and at the middle I was running at almost 4-5 drops per sec. Yeilded 94% through the run. But that most likely has to do with my column. Hard to say what you can change without knowing the ABV......

[rad14701]

Well I just ran my first Gerber and was holding 178*F for the entire time and at the middle I was running at almost 4-5 drops per sec. Yeilded 94% through the run. But that most likely has to do with my column. Hard to say what you can change without knowing the ABV......

A vapor temperature of 178F would produce closer to 82% ABV... To get 94% you'd need to keep the vapor temperature down under 173F... Gerber will run fairly steady for temperature right up until you start hitting the tails, then it'll shoot up fast... At least that's how my column reacts...

[Maynard]

Yeah just checked my notes, recorded the temp at 173-174F through all most the whole run. (except during the temp spikes from the cooling issues I was having, as noted in my thread)

[Duckand2]

Got about 79% @ 175 temp. so a drip per sec is average for this?

Though about switching to glass marbles instead of copper mesh, any thoughts on that?

Also read something about insulating the column, so I got some rubatex to ziptie around it.

[rad14701]

Copper mesh should provide more reflux than marbles and maintain a more stable equilibrium throughout the run... You can increase the take off rate as much as you can while still producing enough reflux to keep the vapor temperature stable...

[MuleKicker]

first hand exprience, copper mesh is way more efficient than marbles. I have ran both. The pro for marbles is cleaning, but they are heavy. I also have run a mixed collumn. I ran about 5 " of marbles followed by copper. the reason was: have you ever seen what the first copper inline above your boiler looks like after a run? It kills the shit kwik. I have since abandoned the marbles completely and run a few stainless scrubbers in the bottom of the collumn. works great. best advice, get the good mesh from milehi, or some reputable brew shop, dont buy the scrubbers from the grocery store, they are usually plated, and dont last. I dont know of any real solid scrubbers that are even sold at the store any more. MK

[rainman]

turn up the heat to 190-198 brewing temp. are you using ele. or gas? you should be getting about 8-15 ml/ minute.