Alright Guys I'm looking for some answers and thought there's no better place than to post them on the ADI forum!
-I have been distilling for awhile and have made some good apple brandy using our 4 plate vendome column. I typically utilize 1-2 plates since I like a richer flavor and four plates is way to much, it seems to strip much of the flavors out of the finished product but thats just my opinion. I started to pay more attention to our cooling head water outlet temperature and I noticed it tends to be anywhere between 140 degrees f to 160 degrees f and I get good runs out of those temperatures. Also this is for brandy runs not for vodka distillations so I want maximum flavor using the column.
My questions are:
-What temperature do others run the dephlegmator water at (the out water not the in water)
-should I be paying this much attention to it at all and why or why not?
-What is the purposes of the dephlegmator? (i.e. to fill the plates, to knock as much water/oils back)
-what is the most important temperature reading when using a column (i.e. after the cooling head, the cooling head water temp, or anything else)
I'm sure I will get some great answers so thank you very much for posting below!
-J