Did I do something wrong?

[Greasy]

Hi,

New member and I just distilled my first wash.

Background;
I have a Brewhaus 6 gallon reflux column (Pro Series II). Wash started with 8kg of sugar and 24 litres of water. SG at start 1.030/finished at .990. Fermentation was great, hydrometer reading indicated 17% ABV.

When I started up the still (propane burner) i got to temperature at top of column and it stayed very steady, near 78-80C.

I really got a strong flow of distillate. First sample showed 92% abv. After that it really dropped. I did take into account that the distillate was 'hot' and that the alcoholmeter is calibrated to 20C.

I collected nearly 7 litres. Last sample read 39%. I re-checked later in the day when collected distillate cooled, most of the readings held up. The bulk of the hearts I collected ended up with a reading of 66%abv...which I think is low.

So, here are my questions; how could I have collected so much? Did I do something wrong to collect so much? How should I re-distill this to get better purity? Mix with water?

Thanks in advance for your patience and help...