Still wouldn't run like it has?

[DistillIT]

So I started off with 10gal of sugar & Corn wash. Final SG before distilling was at .99.

Put wash in pressure cooker still and cranked it up 172-174 degrees and nothing came out. So cranked it up to 180-188 and just a few drops came out. So I then cranked it up to 199 degrees and I was able to get a fast drops almost a stream.

When checking the proof I was at 130%. I wouldn't light..

I guess the main question is, why would it take me to get to 199 before it would produce and only a small amount at a time?

I am getting the temp from the top of the column.

The last time I ran the same still I was able to get a lot more quicker.

Any ideas folks?

[Dnderhead]

i take this to be a pot still? if so you had a low percent wash maybe around 5%

[DistillIT]

Yes this is a pot still.

What do you mean by 5% wash?

[Dnderhead]

the lower the amount of alcohol in the wash the higher the temperature.
needed to boil/vaporize.

[skow69]

Distillit-- you gave us the final SG of the wash, but to determine the alcohol content [eg. 5%] you need to divulge either the starting SG or the amount of sugar used. More sugar = higher starting SG = more alcohol [higher %] = more product and a lower boiling point.

[DistillIT]

So the SG right after the yeast was pitched was 70 and the Brix was at 17.

I used 10ls of sugar and 10gal of water with 10lbs of cracked corn.

Distillit-- you gave us the final SG of the wash, but to determine the alcohol content [eg. 5%] you need to divulge either the starting SG or the amount of sugar used. More sugar = higher starting SG = more alcohol [higher %] = more product and a lower boiling point.

[Prairiepiss]

SG was 70 do you mean 1.070 SG? If so that would make your wash 10.32%. There is some nifty calculators on the parent site for stuff like this.

[Prairiepiss]

Take the thermometer out of the still. Now throw it on the ground and stomp in it. Plug the hole in the still. And run it like a pot still should be.

[Rafe Hollister]

What our friend Prairiepiss is suggesting is there is no need to control the temp of a pot still. The mixture of alcohol to water ratio of the fluid in your still dictates the temp at which you will be able to vaporize the liquid. Though alcohol itself boils at a much lower temp than water, alcohol and water mixed together has it's own boil temp (depending on the concentration). The only thing you will need to do is bring it slowly to a temp where you get some condensing vapors (very slight trickle) and you will be taking the spirits.

[DistillIT]

Sorry yes the 70 is actuall 1.070.

So by saying my wash is 10.32% what exactly does that mean?

SG was 70 do you mean 1.070 SG? If so that would make your wash 10.32%. There is some nifty calculators on the parent site for stuff like this.

[DistillIT]

So with a pot still you don't really need to worry about temp? Just worry about flow and the actual proof of the output?

Last time I ran this still I didn't use a thermometer just watch the flow. I was reading some articles that said to not distill over 172-173 or you will produce rubbing alcohol or worse.

What our friend Prairiepiss is suggesting is there is no need to control the temp of a pot still. The mixture of alcohol to water ratio of the fluid in your still dictates the temp at which you will be able to vaporize the liquid. Though alcohol itself boils at a much lower temp than water, alcohol and water mixed together has it's own boil temp (depending on the concentration). The only thing you will need to do is bring it slowly to a temp where you get some condensing vapors (very slight trickle) and you will be taking the spirits.

[Prairiepiss]

So by saying my wash is 10.32% what exactly does that mean?

It is 10.32% ABV alcohol by volume. So there is 10.32% alcohol and 89.68% water.

[Rafe Hollister]

Rubbing alcohol is "wood alcohol" or methyl alcohol. You are creating "grain alcohol", or ethynol. The very slight amount of methyl alcohol (bad stuff) you will produce is produced in the first few ounces when you distill your wash. (That's the first few ounces you dump.)

[Prairiepiss]

I was reading some articles that said to not distill over 172-173 or you will produce rubbing alcohol or worse.

You don't produce anything neither does the still. The yeast produce the alcohol during fermentation. That includes ethanol and other alcohols and maybe a little methanol. Depending on what you are fermenting. Then you are separating them out of the fermented liquid by distilling it. These alcohols will come off the still in order of their boiling points. Lowest boiling point alcohols first. Which include methanol and acetones. This is why we make foreshots cuts. Because most of the really bad stuff comes off in the very beginning. Then you take off the heads. This contains alcohols that have a closer boiling point to ethanol. So they are mixed a little. And then we take off hearts. This is where the good ethanol is. And what you want to drink. Then comes the tails. This is the alcohols that have the highest boiling points. So they come off last.

So you need to learn more about making cuts. Good thread in the new distiller reading lounge novice guide to making cuts.

Now you are basically fermenting a wine or beer. So if drink all of a ferment you will get all of the alcohols in it. By distilling you can cut out all or most of the bad ones. But if you were to collect all of it and drink it you wouldn't ne no worse off then if you drank the same amount of fermented liquid it took to make that run. It would taste like crap. And you would have a nice hangover. But that's about it.

Now you came control what comes off a pot still as far as temps. You run a pot still by adjusting heat input to reach the desired takeoff rate. Broken stream to a pencil lead sized stream is good. Take off the foreshots and toss them. Collect in smaller jars. Then make your cuts.

[rad14701]

Sorry yes the 70 is actuall 1.070.

So by saying my wash is 10.32% what exactly does that mean?

SG was 70 do you mean 1.070 SG? If so that would make your wash 10.32%. There is some nifty calculators on the parent site for stuff like this.

What that means is that you need to put your rig into Park and start doing some serious research here in the forums and on the parent site... You don't know enough to be firing up a still at this point... That's what you need to hear, whether it's what you want to hear or not...

[skow69]

I was reading some articles that said to not distill over 172-173 or you will produce rubbing alcohol or worse.

WOW! There is some real bad information out there.
I try to be skeptical of anything I read on the internet until it is coroborated by a trusted source. It is definitely worthwhile to spend some time reading the theory on the parent site here.

Back to your original question, it sounds like you might have had a leak and lost a lot of vapor to the atmosphere. It can be sneaky and happen fast. It would also decrease your yield severely.