pot temperature for a VM machine

[Ben the Stiller]

I was reading an article that says "you should never boil the mash" when making alcohol. I never heard of that before. I have 3 elements in my keg pot and I run all three until the column temp reads 192. Then, I cut back to two heaters, but the gauge in the pot (submerged in the wash) reads way high - like 225 deg. Is that too hot? Should I cut back to one element when the column is up to temp?

thanks

[myles]

You can't control the temperature at which the pot will boil. That is determined by the composition of the liquid. It starts off boiling at relatively low temperature and increases towards 100 deg C as the alcohol is depleted from the wash.

If you have it boiling on 1 element for example and switch on a second, all that happens is that it boils more vigorously and creates vapour faster. The liquid temperature does not change over a short period of time.

There is truth in not heating too fast when the wash is cold. It is not circulating and might tend to burn. Once it is moving though you can put in more heat. You mentioned column, as in reflux column? Or empty pot still column? technically a riser.

For both systems many folks will heat up faster than they actually run. However for stabilisation it is not uncommon to run the packed column at quite a low power.