Please explain discrepancy in ABV for my still

[BamaDave]

Last week I made a sacrificial run, which wasn't much of a sacrifice except for a few dollars, with 1/2 gallon 190 everclear and about 4 gallons water. I ran a little fast, started out a good stream but trimmed the heat back to around 5 drops/second. I caught separate glasses at 150ml which most of them came in between 65 -75 % ABV for most of the run. This is a pot still, you can see pictures and details of the run under my post in the "Firsts" forum. So anyways, tonight I decided to make my run with my all grain wash that I had fermented a few weeks ago. The only physical change I made to my still was, I broke the column down, which is about 3' tall and packed the entire thing with copper mesh. Not took tight, just the way I have read here. I thought that would bump up the ABV just a slight amount and add a little reflux to the run. I also brought the temp up a little slower this time in hopes I wouldn't get the initial pouring stream when it started. That worked fine and when I saw a trickle I started the condenser water and backed the temp way down to about 3 drips/second. I thought this would make for a cleaner run and make it easier for me to make the cuts.

To my question, my first 150ml came in at 64% and most all of them ranged between 50 - 60% no matter how much tweaking I did. What happened between the last run and this run to cause the ABV to drop so much? I assumed with the packing and running a little slower I would have been pushing 80% or at least stayed in the same range. I never thought I would have dropped the ABV.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I will post all the details of my run under the firsts forum as well for my first all grain run but it will be tomorrow. I am flat busted tonight.

On the good side, I took a few swigs of jars 6-9, which I thought were right in my hearts and that was some amazing tasting corn whiskey! Much much better than I expected.

[Prairiepiss]

.5 gal of 95% added to 4 gal of water would be 10% ABV. And a AG would be closer to 5% ABV. Not real sure what yours was? Because you left that part out? The higher ABV you pit in the higher ABV you get out. It's how a pot still works.

I'm not real sure where you found around here to pack a pot still? It's said many times around here. This will do little to nothing for you in a pot still.

Your problem (not really a problem) was the lower ABV still charge.

Oh forgot to add. Drips are for packed column reflux stills. Your running a pot still. A broken stream to a twisted stream is what your looking for. Not drips.

[BamaDave]

Well that explains a lot, thanks for the quick reply Prairie! Hell fire, I won't waste my time dripping from now on out, I can promise you that. Thanks again!

Oh, and the ABV was probably around 7-8%. the SG was 1.050 @ 70F and finished at .980 @ 60F. I calculated at about 7.3

[rad14701]

The short answer is, it's a pot still so run it like one... A packed 3' tall pot column isn't doing shit for your product... I'd say it's time to go back and do a refresher on the theories - especially those regarding pot still operation... Slow down and know what you're doing before you do it... Gee, I'm sounding like a broken record this morning...