You can. Depends what you are distilling from. If you are distilling from fermented mash, rather than clear beer, you might have to worry about fouling the first plate. But since you mentioned you are using a wash, that might not be a problem, especially if you use antifoam. More of a challenge might be getting below the 160 proof for a whiskey, but getting the desired flavors. Our still, with 10% wash, will produce over 175 proof with 4 plates. I can drop down to 2 plates and get down to 160, but I won't get a clean enough product or good enough separation on cuts. By doing a double or triple