Raw Dogging

[Kilo8]

What started as following the Mile Hi recipe and instructions, to watching youtube instructionals, to now scouring the forums here I now know how little I know so I apologize if I give anyone a brain bleed reading what's to follow:

Equipment:
8 gallon Desennie stainless pot, thumper, and condenser (prob not great but need a start)
Was going to run on a propane burner but switching to a 1500W band heater for safety. Want to make sure it fits before ordering a controller.

Wash recipe: (yup this is before I saw SSB)
6.5 gallons of water
1 gallon unsulfured blackstrap
8 pounds raw cane sugar
Rum turbo yeast (I know I've read but it's a little late now)

Combined per instructions and filled 7.8 gallon fermenting bucket pretty much to the top not leaving any head space. Unfortunately room temp is hitting a low of 65 degrees and high of 75-80 but for the most part I'm averaging 70 degrees which I know is lower than desirable. With no head space and lower temps the airlock is regularly producing bubbles so for now (day 4) it seems active.

Brain bleeds start now:

Fermenting

Per the recipe the fermentation was supposed to be 12-14 days. Will this 10 degree lower than ideal temp extend the fermentation process?

Read that the wash is ready after a stable 990 hydrometer reading for 3 days but I thought hydrometer reading was ineffective due to the sugars in the molasses.

Once it is ready do you adjust the PH to 4.5-5 then rack the wash/siphon into the still and discard anything left in the fermenting bucket that wasnt picked up or is there a use for this residual (maybe the thumper or just trash as waste?)?

Stripping run


Planned to put some of the wash in the thumper between 1/2-2/3 capacity

Bring temp up on pot with the head off till frothing/ spray down frothing to reduce puking / close and clamp off head / turn on condenser pump at 130 degrees / start collecting at 168 degrees

No separation on stripping run

Spirit run

Dilute stripping run distillate with water by 20% / add distillate back to the pot with first run stillage (how does the first run help if you're basically recombining all the ingredients minus water cook off?)

Distill again (with original wash in thumper?) and start collect cuts / discarding first 100-250ml foreshots

Once finished collecting disconnect lyne feed to thumper to remove pressure and risk of pot collapsing

Cuts and Aging

Pull samples from cuts/dilute to 40%/test/record findings/mix based on desired results

Proof down distillate and barrel

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So look I get this is a first attempt and will likely result in a poor product but I learn through mistakes (as long as they are safe mistakes). So beat this up however you'd like because I appreciate the differing opinions and approaches. Again, started with an instructional and kind of adapting as I'm learning.

Should unused tails be saved for the thumper in a future run?

When using a thumper I read that its basically double distillation so a stripping run and a spirit run with the thumper is 4x distillation?

Lastly, obviously starting from scratch so no dunder. If anything is salvageable maybe I could atleast get a start on that for a future batch but not sure how to pull that off given external temps here freeze and not sure having it living in breathing in my house will keep me living and breathing in the house the first time my wife catches wind of it. Any suggestions on how you manage maintaining a small amount for infrequent runs?

Thanks all and no offense taken on any feedback. Learning and adapting.