Consistently high runs

[knottysailor65]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible but I'm rather baffled over a couple of issues. I've been distilling for about a year and a half now and my runs have come out consistently at 85%. I cut it down to 40% when it goes into the cask for aging and people have given my rum rave reviews for body and flavor. I've attached a pic here to hopefully help with advice.

Still.jpg

You can see the temperature probe at the top and the cooling lines for the condenser are almost hidden hidden coming out the back. I have a copper scrubbing pad in the column and when I'm doing my runs I use an electric hot plate, keeping the temperature at around 79-85 C. until the drip stops or the temp rises above 91C at which point I stop. I see everyone here talking about first runs at 45-50% and I'm baffled as to why I'm getting such high runs on a steady basis. There's no problem with quality. As I've said, folks rave over my stuff. I'm just wondering if I am actually doing something wrong or if I could get a higher yield (I currently only get about 1l out of a 20l batch of mash) if I change what I'm doing. Oh, and yes, I ALWAYS toss out about the first 50ml of each 10l run. It goes without saying that any advice would be appreciated.

Brian Bills
"The Knotty Sailor"